Adwoa Boakye
Entrepreneurship,
User Research,
Data Analysis,
& Software Engineering
After completing my bachelors at MIT, I joined my first start-up. I've worked as a multifaceted Product team-member ever since:
· Conducting foundational qual and quant research
· Collaborating and managing projects across roles
· Designing high-fidelity interfaces
· Writing javascript, python, HTML, and CSS
· Mentoring junior researchers, designers, and engineers
My strength lies in my ability to collaborate, plan, and distill learnings into clear and actionable insights. I’ve done that in a rigorous manner during all of my most recent roles including my role as founder of RecRoom, a company whose work inspired teams at New York Public Radio and BuzzFeed.
FEATURED PROJECTS
I founded a company that inspired the Head of Social Audio at New York Public Radio and enabled BuzzFeed’s Audio team to beta test a new Audience Engagement methodology.
Forming this company and developing its flagship product was my first foray into the world of entrepreneurship. It solidified my ability to build products and teams and was one of my favorite work experiences.
I traveled to Rwanda to work with Irembo’s Product Team as they were in-housing their product development. Among many projects, I lead a qualitative requirements gathering process for the redesign of their product, Rwanda’s Government Services Portal.
Working with the Head of Product, a new Designer, and Junior PM, we level-set and established a customer driven thesis for the product's future.
I led multiple research efforts including the Usability Test of a redesign. Through that we assessed one of this businesses core pages.
BEYOND THE 9-to-5
2015 - 2021
Semina
Supporting the expansion of a beauty brand
A fantastic formulator, my mother pursued her dream of starting a beauty brand. I supported her through designing the branded website and marketing materials that she uses to run her business.
If you're a self-care lover or would like to try some high quality hair or body products you'll really enjoy trying her handmade selection.
2015
Space Launch
Assisting choreographer Aleta Hayes
A couple years after moving out to California I reconnected with Professor Aleta Hayes, one of the collaborators I engaged during my Dance as Discovery exploration. I joined as a dancing member of Aleta's Chocolate Heads Movement Band and down the line, worked as her assistant choreographer, helping the dancers clean their movements and rehearse Building Scene: Space Launch, the piece Aleta choreographed, in her unique collaborative style, for the launch of Stanford's McMurtry Art History Building.
2012 / 2013
Dance as Discovery
Exploring the bounds of art and science
As an avid dancer and passionate technologist my imagination was peaked when I met some professors from Stanford's CCRMA Group. Professors Chris Chafe and Jonathan Berger used a process known as Data Sonification to show how medicine and data analysis could benefit from music. That inspired me to inspect whether dance could be harnessed in a similar way.
Collaborating with Professor Aleta Hayes from Stanford's Dance Department and dancer and SDD Alum Katherine Hawthorne, I explored the ways in which Dance could be used in the process of making discoveries. To check out the results of that exploration check out my Music and Theater Arts Thesis presentation.