Alumni Stories – Bree Glaeser
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Bree Glaeser and I am a Parsons SDM alumni class of 2015. I am a senior manager of strategy and insights at a super small marketing strategy consulting agency in Oakland, CA. I feel extremely lucky to have this job, not only because I was employee #1, but because it’s my first full time position in the industry. What I love most about the job is traveling around the country talking to people of all backgrounds about their perspectives and behaviours. Then I get to tell big companies what people think of them and what they should do about it.
What project/job/event/research are you currently working on? Please tell us a little about the impetus, content, expected impact of this work.
I just finished a strategic project for a huge global company, where I looked at a whole bunch of research they already had and presented back to them the most important learnings. The idea is that these insights will go straight to the CMO and hopefully inspire where they go next in terms of their customer experience.
In what ways did the work/research you did at parsons prepare you for that transition and the work you’re doing now (please be specific)?
Before Parsons I worked in medical research, which definitely helps me in my work today. But what I learned at Parsons is bigger. I learned how to trust collaboration, trust iterative processes, and let go of perfection. This helps me every day because at work as we are constantly re-working strategies from our consumer insights. You can’t do this work alone in your head, you have to be listening and always evolving.
How has the MS-SDM program challenged you to grow as a strategic designer?
The MS-SDM program introduced me to all the value strategic design has to offer. Immediately before the program I was running a house cleaning business, which got me super jazzed about operating my own business and very connected to the “management” part of the program, but the “strategic design” part was pretty new. I think generally the most valuable thing I learned was to trust in “messy” processes, with lots of other people and lots of inputing forces. I am so glad I got to see design thinking WORK while at Parsons, because it gives me a confidence that I think most people don’t have the privilege of having.
If you were to give one piece of advice to current students, what would it be?
Trust and learn from your classmates!
What book are you reading right now?
I’m reading 3 different things interchangeably – Gloria Steinem’s “My Life on The Road”; the science writer Mary Roach’s “Gulp,”; and the fantastical but non-fictional “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” Who knows if I’ll finish any of them. 🙂