At Duolingo, we delight ourselves on hiring people who’re captivated with our mission and wish to use their experience to vary the world for the higher. To assist in giving you a peek into what it’s like working for Duolingo, we’ve requested our staff members to share extra about their expertise on the firm! At the moment, meet Liz: a Group Product Supervisor at Duolingo based mostly in Pittsburgh.
What’s your background, and what did you do earlier than Duolingo?
I’m a profession PM!
I began out constructing streaming and cellular funds merchandise in Disney Labs, an innovation arm centered on creating new experiences from 0->1. I bought my MBA at MIT Sloan, the place I dabbled in startups, B2B merchandise, interned at Amazon, and taught Negotiations and Economics courses. Once I graduated, I landed at Duolingo, and was there for roughly two years earlier than shifting to the Bay Space to be with my accomplice and to work at Meta. Only one 12 months later, I boomeranged again to Duolingo (and to Pittsburgh!)
Why did you select Duolingo?
I selected Duolingo as a result of it allowed me to use my tech/PM skillset on mission-driven work that issues to me. To today, this feels very uncommon within the trade!
What staff do you’re employed on? Are you able to inform us about any thrilling present or previous tasks?
Once I first joined the corporate, I used to be tasked with buying new and dormant customers: I labored on tasks like onboarding, referral, web optimization, and login flows. I then created a brand new Social staff to enhance and create social interactions within the product. I redesigned the profile, created interactions for mates to congratulate every others’ studying accomplishments, and made it simpler for customers to seek out their mates. Seeing the influence of social to drive engagement, I began one other new staff to develop Time Spent Studying, the place we invested in deepening present mechanics, like Leaderboards, to encourage customers to do extra classes.
Since returning to Duolingo, I grew to become co-lead in our Progress Space, the place we deal with creating options that drive each DAUs and engagement. Along with the options talked about above, Progress oversees a bunch of different gamified mechanics, just like the Streak, Quests, and Achievements that get individuals to come back again to the app on a regular basis.
What are three phrases that describe Duolingo’s tradition?
Enjoyable, sensible, mission-driven
What do you want most about Pittsburgh?
I’ve discovered Pittsburgh to be actually charming! It is bought a pleasant, various combine of individuals due to faculties like Carnegie Mellon and UPitt, and there are many eating places, bike trails, and bars that I’m uncovering every week.
What is exclusive about working at Duolingo?
There are such a lot of issues that make Duolingo distinctive! Listed below are just a few:
- Entry to management, like our CEO Luis, in Product Opinions or our weekly Q&A. He’s an inspiring chief, and we’re ready leverage these boards to get direct suggestions or solutions to our burning questions.
- Our firm rules, like guaranteeing our free product is actually glorious and that every one learners can get to the identical stage of proficiency no matter subscribing.
- The product. The corporate’s mission (to make studying universally accessible and enjoyable) is baked into the product—and we now have the enjoyable job to use sport mechanics and different greatest practices to laborious ideas… like studying the previous participle.
What’s your favourite characteristic on Duolingo?
I’m a sucker for Duolingo’s world characters and love after they present up in our options. I like seeing their personalities in Tales, how they have a good time my progress in classes, their themes in Month-to-month Quests, and after they remind me to observe in our push notifications. They make the app really feel alive. My favorites are Junior and Zari!
Keep tuned for extra Q&As with our staff, and bear in mind to take a look at our careers web page for present alternatives!
