Rob has been interested in innovation and creativity as long as he can remember. His Design experience started in Silicon Valley at Yahoo!, Netscape, AOL and a number of start-ups. He led international teams as the Director of UX for the AOL International portals, and while running his own UX consulting company he worked on digital products across industries from Disney/ESPN, JP Morgan Chase, Pfizer, Genentech, Arm & Hammer, Newman’s Own, CNN and others.

He started Echo with his co-founder Jesse Schifano in order to bring Emotional Research and Design practices to AI / ML products as well as all types of digital experiences through workshops and project based engagements with companies such as MightyTV, which was acquired by Spotify last year.

Jesse Schifano is a designer with a keen interest in the intersection of technology, people and culture. He embraces the idea that well designed tools can not only delight and entertain, but can also enrich people’s lives. He started his career designing websites at an interactive agency and moved on to designing for mobile & tablet apps, interactive retail experiences, wearable tech and IOT technologies.

Chris Butler is Philosophie’s Director of AI. He leads the firm in human-centered AI engagements. Chris has over 18 years of product and business development experience at companies like Microsoft, KAYAK, and Waze. He first got introduced to AI through graph theory and genetic algorithms during his Computer Systems Engineering degree at Boston University. He has worked on AI-related projects at his startup Complete Seating (data science and constraint programming), Horizon Ventures (advising portfolio companies like Affectiva), and Philosophie (AI consulting and coaching). He has created techniques like Empathy Mapping for the Machine and Confusion Mapping to create cross-team alignment while building AI products.