Sommaire pour October 2017 de Fast Company

Essential isn’t the only company trying to disrupt the mobile ecosystem. Here are others that signal what’s possible. Modular phone design An attempt at delivering upgradable phones, the devices in Motorola’s Moto Z series come with a variety of back covers, called Mods, that extend the phones’ functionality and life span. This allows parent company Lenovo to support advanced features that would be unwieldy to put in the phone itself, such as a new 360-degree camera that shoots 4K video. Direct-to-consumer retail Shenzhen-based OnePlus has brought higher-end, low-cost devices around the world without the assistance of big carriers, or even much of a retail footprint. Its trick: wordof- mouth marketing, fueled by an invite-only system that gave the small brand a feeling of exclusivity. Today, its OnePlus 5 flagship is…

Once you know what you’re listening for, it’s easy to identify Rostam Batmanglij’s fingerprints on a song. The former keyboardist for the altrock band Vampire Weekend is now a producer who has worked with artists including Solange, Frank Ocean, and Kid Cudi. Batmanglij infuses his penchant for uncommon chord progressions and classical music into every album he touches. The result is fully realized, often startling pop, from Carly Rae Jepsen’s heady single “Warm Blood” to the eerie instrumental theme song for Netflix’s sci-fi show The OA. This fall, Batmanglij is releasing his first solo album, Half-Light. Here’s how he uses collaboration as a tool to unleash creativity, in himself and in others. Make downtime productive When he’s producing an album, Batmanglij often invites the artist to meet at his Los…

iPhones. Android tablets. MacBooks. The desktop PC. Traditionally, each device at your work space requires its very own keyboard, and switching among them during the day often requires you to literally juggle. The Logitech K780 keyboard, which went on sale last year, solves this problem by letting you do all your typing in one place. It features an uncannily steady counterweighted cradle that can accommodate a range of touch-screen devices and can Bluetooth-pair with almost any gadget running almost any operating system, allowing you to switch between them instantly with a single button press. The K780 was inspired by consumer research: Americans were toggling between many devices and desired one keyboard to rule them all. As it happened, two years ago, in an effort to transform from a stuffy PC-peripherals…

Just before Planned Parenthood began celebrating its 100th birthday in October last year, the organization created its first digital product. Spot On is a free period- and birth-control-tracking app that’s been downloaded more than 1 million times since its debut in March 2016. Digital product lab senior director Jenny Friedler explains how the organization’s work at its clinics, visited by 2.4 million people in the U.S. annually, helped differentiate the app from its competitors. We’re the most trusted sexual and reproductive healthcare provider in the country, and we’ve heard every question in the book. Most [tracking apps] focus on fertility and people trying to get pregnant. In the meantime, the average woman will spend about 30 years of her life trying not to get pregnant. We wanted to reflect to…

What’s new with members of our MCP community Bozoma Saint John Chief brand officer, Uber During her three years as head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music, Bozoma Saint John used her branding prowess to tap into powerful partnerships (see: an ad that featured Taylor Swift falling off a treadmill while listening to Drake and Future’s “Jumpman”) that helped Apple launch its streaming platform and grow it to 20 million subscribers by the end of 2016. After joining Uber in June, she’s now helping another highprofile company navigate an inflection point: It’s her job to overhaul the company’s image. “I see myself as chief storyteller,” Saint John says. “There are certainly things that have happened [at Uber] that [we] want to change. . . . I want people to…

What the Fast Company community is loving this month Brooks England Rivington backpack $325 brooksengland.com “I bike everywhere, and when I’m on the go, I need something sturdy to hold my computer, chef’s coat, and cooking tools. This is my favorite bag for that—it’s waterproof and made in Italy from organic cotton.” Brian Bistrong Corporate executive chef for market operations, Dean & DeLuca Fatboy inflatable Lamzac lounger $60 fatboyusa.com “This is great for relaxing wherever, and portable enough to bring on hikes. You just swing it around to inflate it, and pack it up when you’re done.” Jonathan Schwartz Cofounder and CPO, Voodoo Manufacturing The Jaunt artwork From $75 per print thejaunt.net “The Jaunt sends artists around the globe for inspiration. You purchase a print before the trip and get…

Last year, two people met cute the modern way. Ashley and Connor matched on Bumble, the dating app where people swipe through potential partners but only women are allowed to initiate a conversation. They started texting. But when Ashley asked an innocent question about work, Connor launched into a misogynistic rant in which he called her a “gold-digging whore.” Bumble’s response, a fiery blog post now known as the “Dear Connor” letter, quickly went viral. The company called for a future in which Connor would “engage in everyday conversations with women without being afraid of their power”—and then, in an unusual move, banned him from using the service. Whitney Wolfe, Bumble’s 28-year-old founder and CEO, understands how it feels to be on the receiving end of such messages. Flanked by…

In the five years since Ellen Pao filed her high-profile sex discrimination lawsuit against VC powerhouse Kleiner Perkins—and was later pressured to resign as CEO of Reddit after backlash from users—the conversation about gender inequality in tech has only gotten louder. In her new memoir, Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, out September 19, Pao (now a partner at social impact–focused investment firm Kapor Capital) reveals what it was like to endure years of workplace sexism and have her professional and personal life scrutinized in a public trial—and why she’s still working to make Silicon Valley a more inclusive place. It’s been a difficult but somewhat validating year for women in Silicon Valley, with revelations of sexual harassment and bias contributing to the departure of Uber CEO Travis…

In the spring of 2013, musician Jack Conte was frustrated with the challenge of supporting himself as a creative person in the internet age. Conte, who performs both solo and—with his wife, Nataly Dawn—as part of an indie-rock duo called Pomplamoose, had sunk $10,000 of his own money into a wildly inventive sci-fi–themed music video, complete with a singing robotic head. It soon racked up a million YouTube views. But Conte’s share of revenue from the ads the site stuck on his work amounted to a pittance: about $150. “It was so weird to see such a discrepancy between the value that I feel like I’m giving to the world and the value that the world returns to me in dollars,” he says. The predicament was hardly Conte’s alone. Thanks…

When it comes to high-tech home innovation, televisions and sound systems get the lion’s share of attention. But the latest smart-home technology focuses on reimagining everyday objects, such as showers and faucets. The key to rethinking how we experience water at home isn’t only about incorporating digital bells and whistles. As GROHE, the 100-year-old cutting-edge German water-fixture provider, illustrates, the most successful solutions are rooted in intuitive, user-friendly design. Here, MICHAEL SEUM, GROHE’s vice president of design, shares the thinking behind its award-winning designs, such as the new SmartControl Shower System, and how to create products that change behavior in positive ways. What’s especially challenging about rethinking an everyday experience like the shower? Water is analog. It’s one of the last frontiers of the smart home that hasn’t been injected…

If you heard an app described as “Tinder, but for humanitarian relief,” you’d probably think you were watching an episode of HBO’s satirical TV series Silicon Valley. But MapSwipe—a collaborative effort by Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), the American Red Cross, and other nonprofits—was pitched in just that way to Sadok Cervantes, the app’s lead product designer, by developers at MSF in March 2016. “My initial reaction was, ‘Not another app aboard the hype train, please!’ ” recalls Cervantes, whose freelance design practice caters to humanitarian causes. “But I knew their intentions were in the right place—they wanted the app to be easy, accessible, and usable by everyone. The swipeable-card interface definitely checks all three of those.” MSF’s developer team had thought that the Tinder model would be the…

The A+E Networks’ constellation of channels— including Lifetime, Biography, History, and A&E itself—have always been among cable’s top destinations for bio pics and docuseries. But as the video landscape proliferates and competitors emerge (see: HBO’s Robert Durst series, The Jinx, and ESPN’s documentary O.J.: Made in America), the network is responding with a major new visual branding push alongside Sunshine, a creative agency. In keeping with its overall message, “Life, Magnified,” A+E showcases its content—online, on its app, and on billboards— with rich, intimate photography and sharply written copy in handlettered type that skews more editorial than traditional TV marketing. This gives the network a distinct visual style while still leaving room for each channel to differentiate itself. As A+E Networks CMO Amanda Hill says, the updated, cohesive design shifts…

As millennials view it, exercise doesn’t just happen at the gym—a day running errands or a night on the dance floor also count. So when Samsung approached R/GA to create a monthlong launch campaign for a collection of fitness accessories called Move, the digital agency came up with a distinctly DJ-inspired idea. Can’t Stop, released last June, was a web-based app that harnessed the GPS and accelerometer on a user’s phone to play an exclusive mix by DJproducer Diplo—but the only way to hear it all was to keep moving for 30 minutes, the amount of activity recommended by the American Heart Association. “Run, jump, do push-ups,” says R/GA executive creative director Tristan Kincaid. “We didn’t care what you were doing, as long as you were moving.” After Diplo promoted…

THE PRODUCT Wireless technology allows us to talk on the phone, listen to music, and print spreadsheets without using a cord. But women who pump breast milk find themselves isolated in a room and tethered by tubes to a machine, with sets of bottles dangling from their chests. Willow, a pair of lightweight, battery-powered pumps, offers a solution. Each bra-cup-shaped device slips into a nursing bra—no undressing required—and holds a 4-ounce, BPA-free storage bag. With one two-hour charge, the pump can last up to five sessions, and through an app, mothers can track milk expression, compare data across pumping sessions, order additional bags, and set timers and alerts. Willow CEO Naomi Kelman plans to release the pump this fall. THE PROCESS Working with Ideo, Willow conducted dozens of interviews with…

THE PRODUCT The Nebia Shower System was designed to conserve water— up to 70% per use—while delivering an entirely new cleansing experience. Nebia’s showerhead atomizes water into millions of droplets, dramatically increasing surface area for a steam-room-like effect. Since launching on Kickstarter in August 2015 and raising $3.1 million, Nebia, whose subsequent investors include Apple CEO Tim Cook, has tested its product in the gym showers of Equinox, Google, Apple, and Stanford University. Nebia began shipping to consumers in January 2017; to date, more than 16,000 have been sold. “There’s no meaningful way to create more water [in the world],” says Nebia CEO Philip Winter. “We have to use what we have more efficiently.” THE PROCESS Winter and his design team used an array of nozzles borrowed from internal combustion…

According to Andy Rubin, the modern mobile ecosystem is broken. He should know: He helped break it. When Rubin, the inventor of the Android operating system and godfather of the smartphone market, surveys the industry today, he sees squandered opportunities everywhere. The open-source platform he brought to the masses while at Google, which commands roughly 85% of the market, is overwhelmed with “bad user experiences,” he says. Devices from makers such as LG and Huawei are uninspired. Samsung has been too often content with fast following: “Who at Samsung is responsible for your device’s look and UI? It’s a nameless, faceless machine.” And Apple? “The world’s biggest and most successful company doesn’t have a human side to it,” Rubin argues. “The incumbents have lost track of why they exist, why…

Here’s how Bumble Bizz plans to pair users with professional connections. ESTABLISH YOUR EXPERTISE Initially, Bizz will suggest anyone within a range of 5 to 15 miles. Once you start swiping, the algorithm will learn your preferences and show mostly people in your field. SEPARATE BUSINESS AND PLEASURE The app will surface short bios of potential contacts, along with profile photos, educational history, and job status. People who use Bumble Honey or Bumble BFF can maintain independent profiles. START A CONVERSATION The service will allow men who match with men and women who match with women to start chatting freely. But if a woman matches with a man, she must initiate contact.…

The future of world food aid arrived, in early May, unnoticed by its first recipients: the grocery shoppers inside a supermarket at the Azraq camp in Jordan, home to 36,000 Syrian refugees. To be fair, their buying process already looked pretty high-tech, especially for a store with a dirt parking lot in the middle of the desert. Before paying, each shopper peered into a black, rectangular iris scanner mounted at eye-level, which confirms users’ identities with the camp’s organizing group, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and allows them to access a food stipend from the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP). That’s a spiffy authentication process, but it had been there for months. What the shoppers didn’t see was the new back-end procedure. Instead of receiving WFP funds…

How five creators use Patreon to finance their art The Singer AMANDA PALMER 11,463 patrons* $40,715 per project palmer uses patreon funds for new albums, webcasts, performance art, and documentaries. Fans get exclusive content and a peek into her creation process. The Podcasters CHAPO TRAP HOUSE 15,978 patrons $71,154 per month The founders of this leftist podcast raised enough money to bring in additional cohosts by sharing every other episode exclusively with patreon supporters. The Animators KURZGESAGT 8,388 patrons $30,368 per month munich-based design studio kurzgesagt creates quirky cartoons that explain thorny topics. With patreon, kurzgesagt has grown from a oneman show to a team of 11. The Filmmaker DREW SCANLON 3,099 patrons $20,061 per month scanlon, a former videogame journalist, creates documentaries about gaming culture as he travels to…

The Great Transformation KARL POLANYI “My father recommended this book long ago,” says Nadella of the 1944 classic by a Hungarian- American writer who chronicles the development of England’s market economy and argues that society should drive economic change. Deep Learning IAN GOODFELLOW, YOSHUA BENGIO, AND AARON COURVILLE Elon Musk and Facebook AI chief Yann LeCun have praised this textbook on one of software’s most promising frontiers. After its publication, Microsoft signed up coauthor Bengio, a pioneer in machine learning, as an adviser. The Boys in the Boat DANIEL JAMES BROWN Nadella calls this tale with a local Seattle connection—it involves an underdog University of Washington crew team and the 1936 Berlin Olympics—“a wonderful illustration of the importance of teamwork, which was a core part of my focus out of…

Coke is a legacy brand. That’s a key part of its strength. But when it came to the 131-year-old company’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta, whose buildings were mostly 20-plus years old and still featured cloistered cubicles and drab lobbies, it was a liability. Coke committed seven years ago to im proving the space for its 5,000 employees there (and their more than 400 daily guests). Architecture firm Gensler linked the ground floors of the campus’s six buildings into a strollable “Main Street,” featuring art-filled communal lounges, cafés, and amenities such as a pharmacy and medical center. Julie C. Seitz, director of Coca-Cola’s global workplace team, likens the 350,000-square-foot space and central courtyard to “a vibrant student center at a great university.” Since the redesign was completed, in April 2016, she…

“He called me and said, ‘You’ve got to come stand in this space with me,’ ” says entrepreneur and artist Scott Cohen, recalling the day in 2011 when his friend and business partner, real estate developer David Belt, visited an abandoned, decaying structure while on a tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Following a renovation by Belt’s firm, Macro Sea, the cavernous steel turn-ofthe- century shipbuilding site known as Building 128 was reborn last year as New Lab, an interdisciplinary hub where roughly 500 spacesqueezed New York City founders, developers, and designers are creating emerging technology, from cube satellites to experimental smartphones. New Lab’s 95 member companies share access to fabrication labs (with $3.5 million in prototyping tools), studios, meeting spaces, and, most crucially, each other. Casual encounters within the…

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