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Beth Altringer Eagle
Design + Technology | UX | Professor | Director
Professional Background
Beth Eagle is a distinguished figure in the realm of design, engineering, and creative technology. With a passionate commitment to enhancing learning experiences, she has made significant strides in creating accessible, interactive, and delightful educational environments. Her early career was predominantly rooted in sustainable design, allowing her to build a strong foundation that fuses ecological considerations with innovative design principles. However, it was her groundbreaking doctoral research at the University of Cambridge focusing on the behavioral sciences of high-performing innovation teams that prompted a pivotal shift in her career towards data-driven design. Today, her work centers around UX design and collaboration in the field of creative technology, leading initiatives that investigate how to make the invisible visible.
Throughout her illustrious career, Beth has successfully collaborated with an impressive roster of reputable organizations, including Kering, Uber, Piaggio, MIT, Harvard, and Brown University. She is also known for her contributions to educational institutions and businesses around the globe, where she has developed programs emphasizing design research and innovation in multiple contexts. Her extensive portfolio includes noteworthy projects with the City of Boston, FIFA, Microsoft, Disney, and many others, showcasing her versatility and expertise in both research and application of design strategies.
Beth is not just a leader in academic circles; she has been recognized repeatedly for her creative contributions, receiving multiple teaching awards, along with two technology patents. Additionally, her artistic creations are sought after by prominent collectors, further affirming her multifaceted talents in design.
Education and Achievements
Beth’s educational journey is nothing short of impressive. She holds a Ph.D. in Behavioral Sciences and Design from the prestigious University of Cambridge, which laid the groundwork for her expertise in understanding how design impacts human behavior and innovation. She further augmented her credentials through a postdoctoral fellowship in Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she engaged in advanced research initiatives that merge technology with design. As a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University focusing on Human-Computer Interaction, she developed insights that directly fed into her innovative projects.
Before her Ph.D., she obtained a Master’s degree in Architecture with an emphasis on sustainability from the University of Cape Town. This experience not only deepened her understanding of design principles but also instilled a commitment to sustainability that continues to inform her work. Her undergraduate studies at Arizona State University in Psychology and Economics provided her with a unique perspective on human behavior and market dynamics, further enriching her approach to design.
Beth has also completed a one-year MBA in Cultural Business Administration at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, focusing on strategy, management, marketing, and law, tailored specifically to creative businesses. This additional layer of education allows her to effectively navigate the complexities of the creative industry while promoting innovative collaborations.
Notable Achievements
Among Beth's achievements, her leadership in the joint Master of Arts in Design Engineering (MADE) Program at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design stands out. Since 2021, she has successfully helmed this unique program that combines various disciplines, preparing the next generation of designers and engineers to tackle real-world problems through a multifaceted lens.
Beth's inclination for innovation is evident in her recent projects, such as the Chef League app, launched in 2019, which utilizes natural language processing and machine learning techniques to facilitate flavor combination learning. This project is designed to enhance culinary skills while making the learning process enjoyable, showcasing how technology can be intertwined with creativity to foster skill development. Moreover, her co-design work on Granted, an AI-powered grant-writing assistant that launched in 2022, demonstrates her commitment to reducing the burden of tedious tasks through innovative solutions.
In her earlier days, as the Founding Executive Director at the MADE program, she cultivated a robust interdisciplinary environment that enriched both teaching and research. As a former professor of design engineering at Brown University, she played a critical role in shaping the curriculum, fostering innovative thinking, and nurturing future leaders in design.
Through her various roles, from founding design labs to leading research studies at Harvard University and MIT, Beth has consistently been at the forefront of integrating design and technology. Each of her endeavors showcases a passion for uncovering the potential of design as instrumental in driving forward progress and creativity.
Conclusion
Beth Eagle stands out as a forward-thinking leader in the design and technology sectors, whose work aims to enhance learning while harnessing the power of innovative technology and creative thought. Her dedication to making complex ideas accessible and enjoyable continues to inspire those around her, and she welcomes fellow enthusiasts in the realms of design and technology to connect. With a profile that merges academic excellence, practical experience, and a commitment to meaningful innovation, Beth is a true asset in the field of design and a beacon for those looking to push the boundaries of creative technology. Whether through her teaching or her engaging projects, her impact on the landscape of learning and innovation is profound and lasting.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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