Google+Meta Ads Expert | Top 1% Growth Marketer | DTC+Amazon growth advisor

I have experience growing multiple companies with Google and Meta Ads. I have a pretty diverse portfolio that includes: -Making brands millions of dollars with paid ads. Worked with niches including education, health &amp; wellness, startups, law, ecommerce, home services and more.-I have experience building paid media &amp; content based funnels that have grown multiple companies.-Scaling ad budgets profitably. Working on a wide range of projects ranging from funnel building to managing ad budgets up to $1M/month.-Helping multiple emerging brands/startups with over $200M in funding to build their growth engines. I’m always open to connect with people and explore opportunities. Most recently I've partnered with service brands, ecom brands and ad agencies as a white label paid media strategist.Feel free to set up a call here if you'd like to connect.https://calendly.com/feras-3/meeting2

Feras Khalbuss

Ad agencies looking for paid media support 👇

I’m exploring joining the right mission-driven team in a fractional capacity. 

Most recently I’ve been working on engagements with ad agencies as a fractional paid media director, account manager and creative strategist. 

I am available for projects including:
-Google and Meta Ads management for lead gen and ecommerce.
-Profitably scaling ad budgets.
-Troubleshooting lead quality or flatlining results.
-Getting a fresh pair of eyes on your accounts.
-Account management (front end), consulting or media buying

I’ve spent the last 12+ years managing, optimizing and scaling Google and Meta Ads accounts - from brand-new builds to 7, 8, and 9-figure programs across niches including home services, law, ecom, B2B, SaaS and high-ticket consumer. 

I’ve managed ad budgets ranging from $2K per month to $1M/month - working both on funnel-building projects and also managing ad accounts for big name brands. I’ve also managed and built high performing teams. 

I bring a lot of enthusiasm, passion, expertise and grit to any project I take on. 

The reason I like ad agency projects is the high sophistication and I always liked the community aspect working with bright people.

I have one slot open.

P.S. This is a song I wrote on guitar a couple years ago.

Google+ Meta Ads Expert | Available for hire to brands & agencies | Ask me about our quiz+growth funnels

You pushed more budget into your Google Ads account.

And somehow... leads got more expensive and worse quality.

And it feels like you took 3 steps backwards.

You're not imagining it. This happens to almost every lead gen account when they try to scale ad spend.

Here's why:

-Google's algorithm finds a sweet spot - a tight pool of high-intent users who convert well. 
-The moment you open up, it has to reach beyond that pool. 
-Into people who look similar, but aren't ready to buy.
-Google Ads strategy can change pretty quickly when the directive becomes scaling while keeping the same efficiency.

And what ends up happening is a lot of structural and infrastructure issues come up:
-Lack of transparency of what keywords actually lead to closed sales.
-Not understanding which campaigns have the most potential to actually scale.
-Understanding what is and is not a rabbit hole in the age of AI.

A lot of times ad agencies will have a lot of experience with managing ad accounts with a consistent ad budget.

But when it comes time to do a heavier lift like come up with a scaling strategy to 3x ad spend profitably.

They show the same patterns. Great at pitch decks and showmanship but bad at execution.

This exposes flaws in THEIR thinking and ability to pivot.

Many ad agencies have an incentive to have a volume type of model.

Sign as many clients as possible with their fancy logos.

And upsell - without having to go that extra mile.

While delegating your account to junior employees without that strategic acumen.

If you’re not impressed with your current ad agency.

And they seem to be a bit well checked out.

I have capacity for auditing 2 extra Google Ads accounts for service+ecom brands.

Up to 85% of ad agencies are struggling to hire the right paid media strategists.

For smaller teams, one wrong hire doesn't just sting - it can create a ripple effect.
Salary, recruiter fees, lost performance, client churn. 

And because one strategist touches multiple accounts, the ripple moves fast and quietly until it doesn't.

Here are the most common speedbumps smaller agencies hit - and why they don't have to be yours.

1. Senior full-time talent at a junior price point - it doesn't exist:
-You need someone who can own strategy and manage real spend. 
-But that budget doesn't fit a 10-person shop. So agencies settle, performance flatlines, and often the founder has to still manage the media buyer and accounts.
-With fractional, you get the senior thinking without the senior salary. It's handled.

2. The best people aren't waiting for your job posting:
-A-players have options, including going out on their own. 
-They're freelancing, building their own thing, unbothered. 
-If your opportunity doesn't genuinely excite them, they'll stay independent — and honestly, good for them.
-Fractional is the compelling option. Senior talent, your terms, no convincing required. It's handled.

3. Building campaigns and strategizing them are not the same skill:
-Most agencies hire strong builders and quietly call them strategists. 
-They're not the same thing. Knowing how to set up a campaign is not the same as knowing why it should exist, how it should grow, or what it actually means for the business.
Fractional brings real strategic ownership — not just tidy execution. It's handled.

4. The role has quietly become five roles in one:
-Paid media in 2026 is analytics, creative strategy, attribution, testing frameworks, and client communication — all in one seat, all at once. 
-Finding that full-time A-player, at a price a small agency can actually afford, is a lot to ask.

Fractional is built for exactly this. One engagement, full capability. It's handled.

Stop gambling on full-time hires.

Instead invest in senior thinking, real ownership, cross-discipline experience - without the permanent headcount. 

It's handled.

I've managed over $20M in ad spend and multiple successful agency teams.

Somewhere in all of that I discovered a hidden X factor - it has nothing to do with SOPs, strategy, or platforms.

It's the difference between chaos and ease.

This surprised me as an analytical nerd. I live in ad interfaces, love solving problems, built complex SOPs, and spent north of $15K on Upwork hiring bright people.

But I was cocky. Short-sighted. Unshakable self-belief is a double-edged sword - it's enough to get in your own way.

I've been humbled a lot. Ego, know-it-all energy, preventable mistakes.

It almost always came down to ignoring my gut.
Every time I ignored that feeling, it showed up in my team.

Alignment and trusting your gut are the most overlooked skills in the age of AI.

If someone checks every box but something feels off - that feeling is a computer system built on thousands of years of evolution. Claude and ChatGPT can't see it no matter what you feed them.

Always trust your gut. At least enough to dig in.

In 2026 people crave more than a paycheck - they want mission and purpose. A team of mercenaries is a fundamental value mismatch.

Ask yourself: how do you feel when someone brings up your team or a specific team member? Stress is a signal. Alignment is usually the hidden cause.

Teams in alignment communicate cleanly, own their lanes, and move together. It's not something you can optimize for analytically - it requires intuition built over years.

It's the feel of the room. Every time.

Made a few hiring gaffes? Forgive yourself. Own it. Pivot.
These 3 words can set you free:
"I was wrong."

P.S. Credit to Bobby Bazini for the song "Turn Blue."

He hasn't taken a proper vacation in years.

One of my clients - an ad agency founder works 80 hour weeks.

The truth is that in many ad agencies in growth mode the founder has to be heavily embedded in day to day operations to keep things afloat.

But there are 2 layers to growth mode. Sales and fulfillment+operations. 

Which means there is no shortage of speed bumps:
	-Checking the work of team members.
	-Responding to weekend client slack pings.
	-Firefighting to keep things afloat.
	-Hiring new team members due to bad fit hires.

They have a world-class service and are getting a ton of new business+leads but they don’t have the margins for another full time hire.

Larger ad agencies budget a 6-month net loss on every inexperienced hire. They can absorb it. 

You can't.

You’re running an execution based business not a coaching program for media buyers.

Small/medium agencies don’t have that luxury.

And playing “Indeed or Upwork roulette” is simply not tentable in 2026:
	-There is no time to “test “people and partnerships where 50%+ of tests fail.
	-One bad egg hire can stain the entire team dynamic and cause duplicate work.
	-Many A-players would rather work for a larger headcount agency with benefits.
	-Many people are great at being charming in interviews but subpar at execution.

There’s another way.

Instead of trying to work more - just give up control.

Picture yourself at the beach drinking your favorite beverage and unwinding.

Because you gave up control and hired operators who will “handle it”.

And hired a fractional account manager+ paid media strategist.

You get the value of a full-time hire but without the hand holding.

Most of my engagements start out as 1-2 simple test projects and evolve from there.

We were working harder than ever.
And it felt like nothing was working...

If you've launched or relaunched paid ads and the growth isn't matching the effort you're putting in.

this can be one of the most stressful experiences - especially in lead gen, where a single metric shift can be the difference between bleeding money and turning a profit.

My advice: trust the process and your gut.

I've worked on more GTM and ad funnel rebuild projects than I can count. 
And too many people gloss over the ugly duckling phase.

It can take a crazy amount of patience, and it can feel like nothing is happening.

It can happen to anyone - even mature brands with strong product-market fit.

Here are 5 tips to get to the other side:

1. Approach problem-solving with neutrality:
-Positive thinking helps sometimes - but it can also become a blind spot if you're putting your head in the sand.
-If you're only focusing on the upside, you might miss what's actually in front of you.
-Detach from the outcome and look at the data like a stranger would.

2. Be open to pivoting:
-Sometimes one copy change or adjustment separates the ugly duckling phase from profitability.
-If you've been swimming upstream for months, ask whether the issue is execution or something more basic like your offer’s clarity.

3. Growth can be a mental and internal game too:
-You have to embrace the journey.
-Sometimes you'll be tested and filled with self-doubt: “What if the product isn’t good enough?”
-Usually you begin to embody a new version of yourself who can face any challenge.

4. Raise your standards:
-In life we get what we accept, and that ties directly to our standards.
-Benchmark your performance against your industry, not just yourself.
-Sometimes zooming out reveals the real problem isn't the ads - it's something higher up the chain.
-Sometimes this involves hard decisions like pivoting teams.

5. Own your bottlenecks:
-There is almost always a quantifiable constraint that, if solved, will make your ads print money.
-Conversion rate, CPMs, or CPCs at the top of funnel?
-Lead quality downstream?
-Messaging that's creating confusion instead of clarity?


Stepping back - even briefly can help you return with fresh eyes and spot something you missed.

The closer you are to the problem, the harder it is to see it clearly.

At the end of the day, if you can build the problem you can build the solution.

You got this.

P.S. This is a song I recorded with a friend on guitar years ago.

P.P.S. If you’re a service brand spending $10K/month or more on Meta or Google Ads but the ads aren't quite working - feel free to shoot me a DM.

I looked at the Google Ads change history and almost had a panic attack.. 👇

What happens when your Google Ads account hasn't been touched in weeks?

This happened back in my in office agency days in NYC. I was working with a big name brand.

And a junior employee was managing the UK campaigns. 

Evidently he was checked out.

I checked the change logs since he was a newer hire and my stomach dropped to the ground.

Zero changes in weeks. No tests no basic budget changes.

He ended up overspending for the month and the agency had to cover those costs.

I've seen this happen many times:
-A lack of strategy, proactive testing and TLC for Google Ads accounts.
-Someone is a good presenter but actually has a shoddy growth strategy.
-Google Ads accounts that are just run largely on autopilot.

AI is here not as a replacement to strategy but as 1 of hundreds of tools in a toolkit.

If you're a service brand spending $50K to $300K/month on Google Ads and not impressed with your agency - or worse yet being burned by an ad agency or flaky freelancer.

You want to ask yourself these questions.
-Is there a clear written plan of what is being tested in our accounts?
-Are there clear action items to address common bottlenecks like lead quality?
-Is the current strategy in line with your 2026 business goals?

I'm offering a free audit to brands that are looking to identify low hanging fruit and are keen to grow in 2026.

Feel free to shoot me a DM.

Paid Media+Funnels Expert | Available for hire to brands & agencies | Ask me about our quiz+growth funnels

Being ghosted, rejected, or watching a deal fall through is painful. 

Especially when you're stepping out of your comfort zone. But in sales and job hunting, there's a second side to the equation.

Most of prospecting is about impulse control. Detaching from expectations. 

Recognizing that sometimes when something doesn't work out it's for the best.

When you zoom out, rejection can actually be a GOOD thing. Here's why:

1. The right people respond when they're ready. A DM that gets left on read today is a pipeline opportunity tomorrow. Many services are only relevant when someone is in-market. Timing isn't rejection.

2. Your best clients or ideal job don't need to be chased. Your real ICP is someone where conversation happens naturally. There are dozens of ideal clients or jobs looking for YOU. 

3. Success is on the other side of fear. All it takes is one yes. If you believe in your product or service, you don't need external validation - you know you will ultimately succeed.

4. Not everyone is going to like you. You're not for everyone. The sooner you accept that, the faster you find the people you actually are for. You can't get rejected if you don't reject yourself.

5. Your "dream" client or job may not be the right fit. What looks perfect from the outside often isn't. The door that just closed might be saving you from something that would've cost you far more than it was worth.

If you're putting yourself out there and hearing silence. Keep going. 

You might even want to throw in the towel.

Don't. There are an infinite number of ways to win.

You got this.

"He just needs more time to ramp up." 
-Ad agency owner w/ a new inexperienced hire

You wouldn't hire a head chef and then stand over their shoulder telling them how to season every dish…..

But what if the output of the food was consistently subpar and customers were complaining?

I used to binge hours of Gordon Ramsay watching him give valid criticisms to restaurants that were looking to level up.

And watch chefs get defensive on feedback they got directly from customers.
“I just call it as I see it” is what he’d say.

And it reminded me a bit of the ad agency model. You promise clients the moon but reality kicks in.
	-Lackluster results from unmotivated media buyers.
	-Lack of strategic acumen and a proactive plan.
	-Having to pay back clients for preventable ad spend mistakes.
	-Ad accounts that haven’t been touched in weeks or worse.

That's exactly what agency owners do with the wrong media buyer.
-You hired them to get GREAT results, run campaigns. Instead you're reviewing every audience. 
-Rewriting their ad copy. Double-checking their bid strategy. Explaining why ROAS matters.
-You didn't hire a strategist. You hired a VA who needs a strategy.

In the agency space how you show up the first 60 days determines everything in a client relationship. 

That's it. 60 days is all it takes for them to decide to go to a bigger agency with a more robust team.

The client is watching everything. Are results trending? Is communication sharp? Does this feel like the right agency?

And if your media buyer is still "ramping up" during that window - you're not developing talent. 

You're burning trust with a client who's already shopping for your replacement.

I've been there. I made excuses for a hire who couldn't perform without me holding his hand on every decision.
-"He just needs more time to ramp up." 
-"He's got potential." 
-"Every new hire has a learning curve."

Meanwhile my clients didn't care about his learning curve. They cared about getting world class results - more leads and revenue.

By the time I admitted it wasn't working, the damage was done and I was burned out.

That experience changed how I think about fulfillment entirely.

Instead of hiring someone who needs to be spoonfed strategy and trained on your playbook - partner with someone who's already written their own.

Fractional media strategists with 10+ years in the agency model. No ramp-up. No hand-holding. No praying they figure it out before your client walks.

Your clients gave you 60 days. Don't spend them babysitting.

Why fractional paid media hires sometimes just makes sense. 👇

Agencies with lean teams have to be ruthlessly selective about who they bring on. Especially if they're making their first few full-time hires.

When I made my first full-time hire it was one of the most stressful times in my life.

And even though I did everything right on paper - called references, asked detailed questions, trusted my intuition - I got burned.
A few months in, the feedback and data started coming in.

The employee made a ton of mistakes on accounts. My team and I spent hours fixing errors. The chemistry just wasn't there. And it was Q4 with things ramping up so replacing them wasn't an option.

I was horrified.
What saved me was that I already had a white label ad agency as a second operator on my team. That's why I believe in this model.

One wrong hire can derail an entire year's growth plan - especially if you have to part ways on month 5 or 6.

Hiring is no walk in the park even AFTER the offer is made:
-You can afford a junior salary but you need someone who can hit the ground running. 
-The ones who can do the job want $80K+. 
-The ones in your budget need to be trained from scratch.
 -The best candidates are fielding offers from bigger agencies with higher salaries.

With media buyers you either have a great fit and operator or you don't. And you won't know which one you got until they're on payroll managing real client money.

Wrong fit? It's not just their salary. It's months of training, hours reviewing their work, and client results suffering while they ramp up. And having to start the process over again with the same risks.

That takes 3+ months. If they ever get there. 

A fractional partner fixes that overnight.
-Senior-level execution without the full-time overhead.
-New capabilities - like Google Ads when you've only run Meta.
-Better results so you can increase your client retention rates and hit your growth goals.

If you’re an ad agency founder and sales is outpacing your capacity for fulfillment. 

Or you’re not impressed with your current paid media team - I have 3 slots for:
	-White label ad account management for Google Ads+Meta Ads. 
	-Account management roles (front end)
	-Consulting/auditing ad accounts that are struggling or helping build systems.

One wrong decision can cost agency owners their freedom, joy and peace of mind.

All of your peers’ agencys are thriving and growing. 

While you are sitting there cancelling dates with your wife so you can fix coordinator errors caused by a new hire that was supposed to be thriving.

Actually it can cost a lot more than that:
	-Hours spent doing duplicate work for multipel team members.
	-Team morale and dynamic.
	-Your entire 2026 growth goals.
	-Client retention rate.

All because you hired an inexperienced strategist that spends 3 hours a day on TikTok instead of making optimizations to client accounts while you work 60 hour weeks.

If you’re in a small to medium headcount agency the wrong hire can be the difference between success and failure.

Between you having 2026 in the palm of your hands - and things being utter chaos.

I know because I was in that same position. And I had my head in the sand when I realized I made the wrong paid media hire.
	-”He just needs time and training to ramp up.”
	-”He’s got a great attitude it will work out.”
	-”It’s standard that it takes 4-5 months for people to hit their stride.”

Only thing is that he was making coordinator mistakes in an ad agency that wasn’t built for that model.

It was built on everyone being a self-sufficient operator that checked their own work.

And his performance got worse not better.

I felt run down, disappointed and like a failure at the time.

Knowing I would have to run that exhausting hiring process all over again.

And the risk was the same: You find someone who is great at talking but bad at executing.

If you’re an ad agency owner sometimes humble pie will set you free.

If you’re sick and tired of working with full-time hires who need to be spoon-fed strategy.

While your clients complain about results and leave to work with BIGGER ad agencies with a larger headcount.

There’s another way.
-You hire fractional paid media strategists that know strategy like the back of their hand.
-They know the ad agency model based on over a decade of experience.
-All parties are incentivized to go above and beyond to get stellar results.
-Instead of having to be a dignified babysitter you can finally take a step back and focus on sales.
-Your clients LOVE their results and actually talk to their friends and send you referrals. 

If you’re sick and tired of babysitting media buyers - we have 3 spots open for fractional paid media strategists.

P.S. Credit to Definition and Natascha Polke for the song “After Rain Comes Sun.”

🔧 I help mission-driven orgs turn digital friction into forward motion.
You’re growing fast—but things feel fuzzy.

New funding, ambitious goals, changing teams, unclear roadmaps… That’s where projects stall. I help you cut through the noise—tools, process, people, positioning—so your team can make clear decisions, move faster, and build with purpose.

At SWARM, we offer two simple entry points:

✅ Tactical Support
Quick-turn help for overloaded teams—site audits, optimization, accessibility, and cleanup.

🔎 Strategic Alignment
Clarity sprints for teams navigating complex projects, vendor handoffs, or early-stage planning.

Results (Not Just Deliverables)
✔️ Increased revenue
✔️ Higher adoption and engagement
✔️ Accessible, inclusive UX
✔️ Internal clarity and team alignment

Client Work
Clinton Health Access Initiative
WCAG-compliant relaunch + internal training. Made their new site actually usable—and useful.

NYU Stern EMBA
Site redesign to clarify user journey and attract more qualified applicants.

PeopleTV (People Magazine)
Cut bounce rates and boosted engagement by optimizing video performance on WordPress.

Aurris Medical Tech
Custom AI solution to drive conversions and improve UX for patients and providers.

What Clients Say
🗣️ “We went from 100,000 to 400,000 downloads.” – App Startup CEO
🗣️ “They guided our mobile strategy in a way we actually understood.” – Founder, Admitted.ly
🗣️ “If you’re new to tech development, start with SWARM.” – Product Manager, Data Insights Co.
🗣️ “[SWARM] totally upped our game in terms of revamping the whole thing last year… Now we’re trying to be more thoughtful on our end because I do trust that you all—you have more experience… you know what you’re talking about… We're just us. We're the four of us… a small group who look at our website a lot.” – Operations Manager, Non-profit
🗣️ “FYI, Swarm uncovered that problem, and now it's been resolved... That was the best… [Our IT team said] 'We've been keeping an eye on this situation.' I'm like, well, if you're really keeping an eye on it, you would have noticed it two weeks ago." – Admissions Coordinator, University
🗣️ "[Nate] has a clear and engaging communication style that makes the material easy to understand. His manner of interacting with students is friendly and encouraging, creating a positive learning environment." – Faculty Peer


Let’s Chat
If your team is navigating a digital project and you're feeling the friction, send me a message. Happy to trade notes and see if we can help—whether you're shipping next quarter or cleaning up last year’s mess.

Nate Cooper

Excited to be showcasing some of the content from last year's NASA International Space Apps Challenge at the CUNY PIT Lab during Open Data Week BetaNYC Come to meet students from The City University of New York and NYU School of Professional Studies and presenters Aidan Feldman and Micah Acinapura.

cc Steven Goss Kathleen Cumiskey Duncan Ballantine Aankit Patel Jonathan Internicola Kunal Batra

Head of Product @ SWARM || Human-Centered Design Faculty @ CUNY

In anticipation of our upcoming events celebrating Open Data Week at NYC PIT Pop Up, we spoke to UX/product design professor Nate Cooper about his exciting Space Apps Showcase, which highlights award-winning projects from a recent hackathon using data from NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration! Read more about this project on our blog, and be sure to check out the rest of our schedule for CUNY Open Data Takeover! 🚀  https://lnkd.in/esuVaEWr

Open article: Open Data Week Spotlight: Space Apps Showcase - NYC PIT Pop Up by nycpitpopup.org

Open Data Week Spotlight: Space Apps Showcase - NYC PIT Pop Up

This brilliant take from Peter Merholz  on recentering on skills over roles aligns perfectly with how I’ve been teaching UX Design at Kingsborough Community College. I’ve had three class sessions and in each I’ve brought up and discussed with the students the value of transferable skills via National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) competencies over partial career paths/job descriptions. 

Cc Niesha Taylor Brendan Collins Aankit Patel Kathleen Cumiskey

Open article: Roles Were Always Blurry. Use Skills to Bring Focus. by Peter Merholz • 5 min read

Roles Were Always Blurry. Use Skills to Bring Focus.

Kathleen Cumiskey Duncan Ballantine Ariel Kennan Justin Isaf Man Casandra Silva Sibilin Tanzeela Jahangir Lamar Green, RTE, PSM Jonathan Internicola

I just heard about this Civic Tech hackathon at Baruch!

Baruch College, Starr Career Development Center

View company: Baruch College, Starr Career Development Center

📢 Calling all #BaruchCollege and #CUNY undergraduate students interested in attending their very first hackathon! 

We’re hosting a competitive Civic Tech & Data Hackathon where students will work in cross-school teams to tackle real-world, industry-aligned problems using NYC Open Data and Kaggle datasets.

📅 Date: Friday, February 27th
⏰ Time: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
📍 Location: Baruch College

What you’ll do
🔍 Solve real public and private sector challenges
🔍 Apply data analytics, AI, automation, or low-code / no-code tools
🔍 Build practical, resume-ready projects
🔍 Collaborate with students from different CUNY schools and majors

All experience levels welcome! This is a beginner-to-intermediate, learning-focused hackathon. You do not need prior hackathon experience or advanced technical skills. You can use traditional coding, dashboards, notebooks, or even vibe coding platforms such as Lovable, Cursor, and Google AI Studio — as long as you can clearly explain your problem-solving approach and solution.

How to Register: 
1️⃣ Register through Handshake (required): https://lnkd.in/eePSsZgs
2️⃣ Complete the interest form: https://lnkd.in/eWQd3p7y

Selected students (the majority of registrants) will receive room details and logistics via email. 

#BaruchStarr The City University of New York Zicklin School of Business Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College

I’ll be running a fun event here on Sunday.

NYC School of Data + UnSchool of Data is almost here!

General admission tickets are now on sale for March 28–29 at CUNY School of Law. Come learn, share, and build alongside NYC’s public interest tech + open data community!

Details: https://schoolofdata.nyc

We're really excited to have Priyanka Shah, PMP®, CSM®, CSPO® from NYU School of Professional Studies joining us cc Eve MacKnight Gregory Stock, MBA Steven Goss

Welcome to SWARM, Priyanka Shah, PMP®, CSM®, CSPO® 🎉

Priyanka joins us bringing a rare combo of program + product leadership, with deep strength in the unglamorous work that makes teams faster: clear planning, strong ceremonies, crisp stakeholder alignment, and QA/UAT rigor.

She’s led complex, cross-functional delivery across Waterfall, Agile, and Scrum—and she’s worked at the intersection of AI/ML initiatives, UI/UX, and go-to-market in ways that map directly to how we operate at SWARM.

At SWARM, our 2026 focus is simple: make work more affordable by reducing the cost of attention—and help organizations move from “busy” to real outcomes with shorter time to value and time to answer. Priyanka’s background is exactly the kind of systems-minded execution that turns that focus into reality.

Drop a welcome below 👇

And if you’re building at the edge of complexity—where delivery + product clarity matter—Priyanka’s the kind of teammate you want in the room.

#WelcomeToTheTeam #ProjectManagement #ProductManagement #Agile #Scrum #AI #CivicTech #SystemsThinking

This is huge! Big congrats to the whole MLH team!!

CEO & Co-Founder @ Major League Hacking (MLH), Investment Partner @ Next Wave AI Fund, Forbes 30 Under 30.

It’s official. Major League Hacking (MLH) has acquired DEV (dev.to) 🚀

Yesterday I said it was the greatest time in history to be a software creator. Today, we’re making sure that’s true for the long haul.

At MLH, we’ve spent the last decade building the ultimate in-person layer for the developer community. We’ve seen you build incredible projects at hackathons, find your tribe, and learn by doing.

But the developer journey doesn't stop when you leave a venue. You need a place to share your knowledge, find your voice, and stay connected every day.

That is why bringing DEV into the MLH family makes so much sense.

🔹 MLH is where you connect IRL, get your hands dirty, and build your skills.
🔹 DEV is the online layer where that momentum lives on, allowing you to share what you learn with the world.

BOTH are where you find your community. 👐

By combining these two forces, we are now reaching 10% (!!!) of the software engineers in the entire world annually.

That is a huge responsibility, and we don't take it lightly. We are creating an ecosystem that supports you from your first "Hello World" to the moment you're building your own team of developers.

To the DEV community: We love what you’ve created. The inclusive, constructive, and practical vibe of DEV is exactly what we stand for. We aren’t here to change the magic; we’re here to give it more fuel.

Huge shoutout to the teams at both MLH and DEV for making this happen.

Now, let’s get back to work. We have a lot to build together. 💻❤️

#DEV #MLH #SoftwareEngineering #Hackathons #Community

This is such a great model for experiential learning while solving real world problems.

Chair, Management and Technology, Division of Business Programs, NYU SPS

Calling all New York University students! The NYU SPS Management and Technology Department in the Division of Programs in Business is proud to partner with The Museum of Modern Art for a one-day, onsite hackathon on Friday, March 27. Student teams are invited to apply for this dynamic, hands-on experience inside MoMA, where they will tackle real challenges the museum is actively exploring and generate ideas that could help shape their future digital initiatives. Working across design, technology, data, strategy, and storytelling, teams will collaborate directly with MoMA mentors and leverage museum resources to develop practical concepts that expand digital access to its collection and programs. The day will culminate in presentations judged by MoMA leadership and staff, followed by a closing celebration. Applications are due by 9:00 AM on Monday, March 9.

Open article: NYU SPS x MoMA: Digital Futures Hackathon by forms.gle

NYU SPS x MoMA: Digital Futures Hackathon

“● BUT high-risk jobs *aren't* firing employees... they've  STOPPED HIRING. biggest victims: college graduates (4X more likely to be impacted)

● Entry-level hiring has dropped 14% since ChatGPT launched (for highest risk jobs)”

Founder, Newsletter operator, A.I. Writer, Emerging tech analyst.

wow Anthropic just published a crazy report on AI replacing your job and er...  you might want to look at this:

Anthropic just released the most IMPORTANT chart in the AI labor debate.

This comes from the company that builds Claude using data from 2 million real conversations.

● #1 most at-risk jobs are computer programmers,  financial analysts (rip excel bros) and customer service

● Most at-risk workers are female, white, older and higher paid.

● BUT high-risk jobs *aren't* firing employees... they've  STOPPED HIRING. biggest victims: college graduates (4X more likely to be impacted)

● Entry-level hiring has dropped 14% since ChatGPT launched (for highest risk jobs)

Now its important to understand that the study is based on real world data but also 'theoretical' intelligence. While Anthropic has momentum, its tools haven't gotten that good yet even after all these years. 

The U.S. labor market is vulnerable for many reasons, and not just AI. But it is highly interesting. 

Striking image from the new Anthropic labor market impact report that is striking up a lot of debate about the future of jobs and AI.

Huge. Couldn’t agree more. Safe communities of practice are going to iterate us to the next level and give students and recent grads real opportunities instead of hype, fear, or uncertainty. 

Thanks Mike Swift !

Feeling like all anyone wants to talk about is AI? You're not wrong. 👈

The explosion of the #AI topic on the DEV Community is absolutely unreal. Posts about AI today are more than 2x the popularity of JavaScript... at its all time high!

Hot take 🔥: I don't think we're talking about it enough. 

Whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, AI has changed the way we all work and we should be talking about it even MORE. The technology changes by the minute and impacts our entire global workforce. Nobody is an actual expert in the best way to use these tools yet, we should be navigating this uncertainty together. 

We NEED communities of practice where it's safe to experiment, fail, and learn. Where are you learning? Are you one of the lucky few getting this education at school or work? Or somewhere else entirely? 

#AI #upskilling #education #developers #talent

“the design process has never been about doing things slower. It is a mindset. It is good to think before you build. It is good to understand the domain, the user needs, the constraints and the risks. The faster you do that, the better. AI simply speeds up the execution. The process itself is still valid. You still need it to build the right thing. The process gives you a repeatable structure that you can follow and IMPROVE.”

Yes 🙌

Founder at 2FRESH. Helping product and design leaders reach their goals through better design. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies.

The design process is NOT dead. Where and why is Jenny Wen, head of design at Claude, wrong?

On Lenny's Podcast, Jenny Wen said the classic design process is dead. She was referring to design thinking and the double diamond framework. Her hot take got a lot of traction, but I believe it is based on a misunderstanding of what a design process actually is.

Jenny argues that thanks to AI, designers work faster. They do not need to spend months on research or detailed prototypes. Because of this, she claims the old process is obsolete.

But the design process has never been about doing things slower. It is a mindset. It is good to think before you build. It is good to understand the domain, the user needs, the constraints and the risks. The faster you do that, the better. AI simply speeds up the execution. The process itself is still valid. You still need it to build the right thing. The process gives you a repeatable structure that you can follow and IMPROVE.

Jenny actually admits she still does the same things as before. She just has a wider range of tools to speed up her work and work closer to engineers. That is great, but it is not the death of the process.

Her view makes perfect sense when you look at her focus. She mentioned that a few years ago, she spent 70% of her time prototyping, 20% working with engineers, and 10% on coordination. That is pure delivery work. She is heavily focused on the SECOND part of the double diamond.

This is where listening to this kind of talk gets tricky. If we reduce the design process to pure delivery, we are focusing on the exact part that AI will mostly automate. Teams will shrink and people will lose jobs if they only focus on execution. If you are a designer who covers the whole process, including discovery, you will be much better off.

Even Jenny admits that the hardest part of building a product is not designing the UI, but deciding what to ship and what to cut. Making decisions. She also notes that AI agents will get better at taste and craft. I agree, so we shouldn't get too attached to it. Yet, when she describes her own work, it’s about taste and craft and feelings, there is almost zero focus on the strategic part of design.

Design needs smart, new influential voices. But I would love them to focus on the skills that will matter in the future, not the tasks AI is about to automate.

I am probably old fashioned… Formed by design leaders like Don Norman, Andy Budd or the people at Adaptive Path, who talked heavily about strategy. Yes, they dealt with craft and technical details. But they promoted design by explaining its value to the business, not just by finding ways to ship nice buttons faster.

(And I’m actually a little worried by how the word "craft" is used mostly for visual design, but design craft is actually more about understanding what your users need and how to talk to them, rather than setting the right border radius.)

What’s your take on this?

“James Darling … calls it progressive data enhancement… build the service so it works with no data first, then layer data access in as it genuinely improves the experience. Not as a precondition. As an earned next step.”

💡

Founder and CEO of Projects by IF. Advisor. Rebel.

I was on the tube last week, talking to a product manager. She was describing a problem I’ve heard a hundred times in different forms: users won’t consent to share performance data because the consent screen comes before they’ve used the app. Before they’ve felt any value. Before they have any reason to say yes.

The same week, I was listening to our team work through onboarding journeys for AI agents. And I kept hearing the same assumption baked in: that the agent would have access to the data it needed. That consent and access were things you sorted upfront, at the start of the relationship.

We already know this model doesn’t work. The web taught us that. Ask someone to hand over access before they’ve experienced value, and most of them won’t. Or they’ll tap through and immediately forget what they agreed to.

James Darling has written something I think is a really useful mental model for thinking about this differently. He calls it progressive data enhancement… build the service so it works with no data first, then layer data access in as it genuinely improves the experience. Not as a precondition. As an earned next step.

The honest complication with AI is that models are data hungry - you can’t always build a working version without something to train on. But the underlying principle still holds: what does this agent do for someone before it knows anything about them? If you can’t answer that, the onboarding problem won’t be solved by a better consent screen.

The bargain has to be felt before anyone says yes. 

Link in comments 🔗  

Thank you to Gala Camacho for provoking this thinking. 

Image: Humanity’s final keyboard, source unknown via Ben Mathes HT Matt Jones

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