We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Adam Parker Goldberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Adam Parker below.

Alright, Adam Parker thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?

With “thank you” and “good job,” I grew our startup’s community to acquisition by Microsoft in less than a year.

Today nearly every product, app, and service has some kind of “you asked, we listened” directive. In 2017, this user-lead development strategy was both novel, especially in edtech, and at the core of everything we did. We, in this instance, were the nimble Flipgrid Engagement Team under the direction of Joey Taralson.

“Engagement,” I know, sounds like notorious Silicon Valley lingo; vague enough to mean anything or nothing at all. I share the struggle among creatives to answer precisely, “what is your job, what do you do?” And I gained some perspective after we were acquired, shimmied into corporate positions, and expanded by adding focused teams: brand, marketing, lifecycle, social, product management, partnerships. In the startup realm, these titles didn’t dictate our responsibilities. “Engagement” meant being a catalyst between product and community and, more specifically, bridging traditional roles and experimenting, developing, and implementing strategy around everything needed to grow.

Joey’s brilliant approach to structuring and leading our team ensured our community was the heart of everything across the company. We didn’t just humanize our brand, we introduced our teammates and fostered personal relationships with the people who used our product. We made a point to “speak with, not at” the individuals who taught us where and how and why our product was valuable. We grounded every interaction with our community in appreciation, expressing “thank you” and “good job” when seeing the innovative ways they used our product. We worked with our community to inform product evolution and recognized their pivotal role when announcing updates. We researched where our community congregated and we met them there, literally: both digitally and physically. We created nontraditional, guerrilla campaigns inspired by community insights. We were boldly human, conducting work we knew could not scale yet would be pivotal in turning users into fans, and fans into evangelists. And, in doing so, we fostered exponential growth that caught the attention of and, within my first year, led to our acquisition by Microsoft.

Adam Parker, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am Adam Parker Goldberg, a creative strategist based in New York City. With in-house, agency, and consultant experience, I help brands identify, scale, and build cult-like fandom among their community.

At university, I studied Industrial Design while heavily involved in extracurricular life. During my third year, I became connected with a new social platform, Vidku (which became, “Flipgrid”), during their cross-country product launch tour. The lively and uniquely receptive team captured my attention. Through the lens of my major, I eagerly rallied my friends to join and provided the Vidku team feedback on our experience. Consequently, I was invited to visit the headquarters to discuss my ideas with the designers, engineers, and leadership. This exchange led to an offer to join the team as their first intern the following summer. I loved the team, challenges, and culture. As the summer came to an end, the team and I wished one another success. My intention was to incorporate this community-centric business experience as a complement to my education in pursuing a more traditional designer role. I was fond of kitchen appliances and shoes; I also was excited about the idea of revisiting one of the inventions I dreamed up as a child. Alas, when I graduated, I didn’t feel particularly called to anything. During my hunt, the Flipgrid team reached out asking if I could help manage their Twitter account. This ended up really being a test. They were affirming my ability to understand and express the brand. The next month, I joined the team full time as a Engagement Creative Strategist.

After driving the brand and growing the community of Flipgrid to acquisition by Microsoft, I continued leading these efforts for six years. Building upon my education and this experience, I embarked on a consulting venture, working with clients across education, gaming, social, and AI.

Today I’m leading community growth at a UK-based company focused on expanding in the US.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Especially in this age of AI obsession and screen addiction, I love creating experiences, products, and services that are quintessentially human. Yes, there’s exciting potential with the advancement of AI across industries. In the creative realm, now is a pivotal moment to accentuate what only we as people can create and do together.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I would’ve discovered Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way (https://juliacameronlive.com) earlier. I was fortunate to have the encouragement of my parents to embrace my curiosity and creativity as a child. At the same time, I enjoyed school, especially the maths and sciences and planned on pursuing a degree in medical research. Not until I met with a career counselor did I seriously consider studying design with the appreciation I could create a positive impact through a creative pursuit. Working for corporate America introduced novel challenges as a creative and, after a few years, I found myself feeling lost. I embarked on the journey of The Artist’s Way this past summer. The readings felt like exactly what I needed to hear at the time, the activities invited thoughtful introspection, the artist dates fostered novel exploration, and the journaling revealed insightful revelations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://adamparkergoldberg.com
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/adamparkergoldberg/

Image Credits

Max Balderas, Justin Evidon, Charlie Miller