Erin Casali, Sr. Director of Product & Design, brings over 10 years of experience in design, product, psychology, business, and technology. She is dedicated to improving the quality of life through the products she designs and leads. Erin’s hybrid background and strong people-centered approach have allowed her to help businesses transform by trusting people and giving them agency. Her objective is to create change that truly impacts individuals and organizations.
Could you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m a VP/Senior Director of Product and Design, with 10+ years of experience in each. I’ve a hybrid background in design, product, psychology, business, and technology. I have a strong people-centered approach, both on the product side as well as on the organization side. Over the years I helped people grow and businesses transform by trusting people and giving them agency. My objective is to create change to improve the quality of life of the people through the products I design and lead.
Tell us about your life before the venture/leading up to your venture?
I had a varied background: I started as a developer trying to build good products, then understanding that something was missing thus moving to graphic design, followed closely by interaction design. At this point I realized how important was the mix of all the disciplines, not just the one I was focused on, leading to my current interdisciplinary approach. In the past I had my own startups (Baker, Tallyfy) as well as I was early partner or co-founder in others (WideTag, Photoshakr).
Tell us something about your organization. What is it about and how is it helpful for people?
While I still work in product organizations, I also reserve some time to dedicate to support other people and ventures. I have an active website where I write about leadership, psychology, and business, this provides self-serve content that helps people reading on their own. I provide coaching services with few selected people at any given time, this to stay connected with ideas and challenges across other companies. I consult with companies of any side to provide support for teams that might be at burnout, might need support to scale, or find a better way to transform.
What has been the response of the consumers towards your venture?
I’ve been invited to speak all across the globe with audiences up to 1,000 people, and I’ve been invited to interviews in many publications. The response I still prefer though is when a year later or so after my coaching session someone reaches out telling me how impactful it’s been and how much it helped them.
How has your life changed because of your venture?
At least to a certain degree I feel my effort in helping people is a way I express myself, as such it’s the other way around: how my passions and preferences led me doing what I’m currently doing. I’m also sure it will change again in the future.
What are you working on right now?
I always have the inception of many ideas at any given time, some remain just ideas, some become learning experiences even if they don’t see the light of day, and some become another next initiative for everyone to use and see. But it’s too early for that right now!
Give a motivational message for the audience/women who are reading this.
Listen to all the advice you can but never take any as complete truth. From each, take a shard of what resonates with you, and move on. Most of advice is too generic, or not for us. But there’s often some truth in it.
