Hi everyone. I’m a Product Innovation Strategist in Tech with a background in eCommerce and software engineering. I’m looking to pivot into AI and AR products, focusing on UX design and taking them to Product-Market Fit. For example, I am considering AR virtual try-ons for FashionTech to boost conversion rates or conversational AI interfaces that display helpful metadata over products. I am looking for advice. I’ve noticed that people in this space often come from Big Tech, like Meta, or startups. I think I should consider cold DMing my FashionTech and innovation network for coffee chats. Additionally, I am thinking about blogging case studies or building a portfolio, but I am unsure what to include—perhaps UX case studies. I also want to explore hands-on experience by contributing to projects like an Apple Vision Pro app. For context, I’ve written a market analysis of AR glasses, similar to the Ray-Ban Metas with AR displays coming next year, and a blog about AI/AR tools for scalable motion graphics in the Metaverse. Where I excel is in Product Management. I have been in this field for a while, but my experience has often been tactical, operational, or project management-heavy. My strength lies in deep innovation strategy, where I can apply insights as a mindful introvert at the intersection of business, engineering, and design. For instance, I have compared two generative AI 3D visualization models for fashion product recommendations, assessing their scalability across devices and their impact on conversion rates. I also enjoy giving talks, especially sharing UX learnings on innovation products, and I have a knack for explaining high-tech topics clearly. But I am wondering how to brand or position myself to focus on this kind of “deep work.” I am seeking insights. If you work in this space, I’d love to hear about your journey or experience, how to carve out a niche in innovation strategy for AI/AR, and leaders or innovators to follow—especially women in FashionTech. I currently follow the innovation teams of several luxury fashion houses that are pioneering AR apps. Any advice or resources would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hi, we’re building XR in healthcare. If you’re interested, DM me. We have openings for projects going into 2025.
Hey, I am working on two AR businesses based in London. One is service-based, and the other is a custom protocol to enable augmented reality and touch communication with smart devices. I would be really interested in getting to know what you’ve worked on in the past and areas we could potentially collaborate. My suggestion would be to use a few AR platforms like Onirix, Ordinary Objects, or 8th Wall and build a solid portfolio. Since you don’t have a programming background, the best thing would be to make the projects as vibrant and innovative as possible while sticking to UX as the focus. I would suggest using Ordinary Objects/Spaces as it’s really easy to use and it’s free in beta mode. If you’d like to discuss further, shoot me a DM. Hope that helped.
My biased real-world corporate experience with this is that I am more in the tech deployment side, and generally working with innovation strategists has not been a value add. The problem is that developers have direct hands-on experience with AR tech and generally don’t need much guidance on what’s incoming or what the tech trends are. We also go to CES and AWE and do networking. Moreover, we can ask the right tech questions to compare products because we’ve been through end-to-end deployment. Yes, we try to be visionary too because this tech advances so fast, you don’t want to fall behind. For instance, I’ve worked on AI and machine learning years before strategists suddenly kept telling me AI was the hot new thing. I’ve found that my colleagues in marketing don’t like working with strategists either for similar reasons. They really don’t like to be told what to do by what they feel are non-subject matter experts in customer experiences. So when we all get together on projects, it’s way too many cooks in the kitchen and the innovation strategists are awkwardly stuck in the middle, not being experts in coding or marketing. To add to this, we’ve had some corporate-wide layoffs due to post-US election results where the C-suite is spooked about impending economic headwinds. All our innovation strategists got let go because it’s really hard for them to prove ROI when they’re stuck in the middle and none of the developers or marketers will vouch for them. Sorry to sound negative, but just trying to give you my real-world experience. I am a big proponent of being really good at development or marketing and adding a specialization in AR instead of the other way around. If you’re really set on being an Innovation Strategist, I have three bits of advice: Stick with a very specific niche that is difficult for just anyone to get into, whether it’s something that requires networking, advanced skills, etc., so that the field isn’t so crowded. If you’re looking for corporate-level jobs, I think searching for ‘creative technologist’ roles is what you’re looking for. When applying, ask a lot of questions about the organizational structure, like if the department is embedded into a key production function or if it is off on its own (and in danger of being the first cut during layoffs). Alternatively, join or create a startup where you have more control over the influence and fate of projects.
Hi guys, I have experience in fashion tech including AR. Take a look at my linktree for more details: https://linktr.ee/valentins.io.