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Katie Herskovitz
Research & Insights Manager, Ads Marketing at Google
Professional Background
Katie Herskovitz, MBA, is a seasoned marketing researcher and strategic consultant with over a decade of experience in guiding companies to connect consumer needs with business outcomes. Her expertise lies in her ability to uncover insights that drive innovative solutions, with a strong focus on the end user’s experience. Having worked across various roles, including product/service strategist, capability developer, and customer experience manager, Katie has honed her skills in identifying key consumer challenges and translating them into actionable strategies that resonate with both users and businesses.
Katie holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in Design Strategy from the California College of the Arts, where she cultivated a unique blend of human-centered design, entrepreneurship, innovation, finance, and leadership. This educational background empowers her to assert that strategy and design are interchangeable; each informs and enhances the other. Building on her solid theoretical foundation, she has applied her knowledge in practical settings, notably as a Research & Insights Manager in Ads Marketing at Google, where she analyzes consumer behavior to help shape marketing strategies that lead to business growth.
In her previous role as the Market Insights & Operations Manager for Google Home + Nest, Katie leveraged her consulting expertise to develop insights that informed product development and marketing initiatives. Her journey at Google showcases her ability to pivot and adapt strategies based on market demands and consumer insights, ensuring that every project she undertakes is rooted in understanding and addressing user needs.
In addition to her tenure at Google, Katie founded Herskovitz Consulting, where she applied her design strategy skillset to help a variety of businesses, and gained recognition for her innovative approach to problem-solving. As a Design Strategy Consultant, she collaborated with the California College of the Arts to mentor the next generation of strategic thinkers, further illustrating her commitment to education and the growth of others in her field.
Her experience also includes engaging with strategic innovation at Booz Allen Digital Interactive and management consulting roles at Science Applications International Corporation and Beck Disaster Recovery, Inc. These experiences provided her with a rich understanding of diverse industries, including the technology sector, disaster recovery, and biotechnology, thus equipping her with a multifaceted perspective on market dynamics and consumer behavior.
Education and Achievements
Katie's educational journey laid a robust foundation for her professional accomplishments. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government from Davidson College, which enriched her understanding of societal structures and the impetus behind consumer decisions. This insight has been critical throughout her career in marketing research.
Her MBA in Design Strategy has been particularly influential as she explores the intersection of design, strategy, and user experience. At California College of the Arts, Katie not only absorbed valuable theoretical knowledge but also engaged in hands-on projects that allowed her to apply design principles in strategic contexts.
Katie transforms complex challenges into design solutions that meet business goals while maintaining a focus on human outcomes. One of her notable achievements includes mastering the art of balancing
macro and micro perspectives,
speed and process,
as well as sci-fi and non-fiction narratives in strategy development. This eclectic approach aids her in crafting innovative solutions tailored to consumers' needs.
Significant Projects and Contributions
Throughout her career, Katie has consistently had a significant impact on the companies she has worked with. She has developed key consumer insights that have driven product innovations and have been pivotal in shaping marketing strategies at large tech firms like Google. In her role at Google Ads Marketing, she directly contributed to strategies that improved user engagement and satisfaction through data-driven decision-making.
Furthermore, in her previous consultancy roles, Katie has worked with various organizations that required comprehensive market insights and strategic development. Her ability to analyze consumer behavior, identify patterns, and connect those findings to business objectives has enabled companies to not only survive but thrive in competitive landscapes. This expertise in blending analytics with creative problem-solving remains a cornerstone of her professional ethos.
Katie's passion for understanding the nuances of what drives consumer decisions and her deftness in strategic marketing make her a valuable partner for any organization aiming to innovate and succeed. Her deep-seated belief that exceptional strategies must be infused with a human-centered approach resonates through all her work.
Personal Philosophy
Katie Herskovitz embodies a philosophy of continuous learning and curiosity. She thrives in environments where she can explore the complexities of human behavior and connect those insights to concrete business solutions. Her commitment to understanding people and their decision-making processes fuels her desire to create marketing strategies that not only resonate but also drive meaningful outcomes.
With a penchant for balancing contrasting ideas and a genuine enjoyment of collaboration, Katie's work reflects a dedication to fostering innovation that is both strategic and user-centric. Beyond her professional endeavors, she actively engages in discussions that bridge the gap between imaginative concepts and practical applications in design and marketing.
To sum up, Katie Herskovitz stands out as a dynamic marketing researcher and strategic consultant whose work bridges the worlds of consumer insight and business strategy. With her extensive experience working for leading organizations, combined with her solid educational background, she is well-positioned to continue making significant contributions to the fields of marketing, consumer research, and design strategy.
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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.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
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.