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About Paul Best

Currently a Product Design Director at The Washington Post.

Here are some ideas my teams have brought to life ↓

1/5 Updates that move at the speed of news

When big news breaks you don't always have time to read a full article. I led a team to design a product called "live updates" that delivers digestable updates, analysis, and visuals. This generates substantial anonymous web traffic via Google and provides a more engaging experience for our app.

Result

A healthier funnel. 'Live updates' are some of our most viewed stories for both anonymous and logged in users. This balance helps us aquire new subscribers.

2/5 Personalized stories that go beyond the headlines

Our editors curate each day's 'top stories', mostly politics and national news. However, we produce dozens of additional stories daily across many topics (That's enough words for a new 'Harry Potter' every day!). I directed the design of a companion product called "For You" to help you discover content based on your interests.

Result

Engagement. This was a part of a 'habit' iniatiave that saw sustained growth of users w/ 2+ weekly visits despite declines in news traffic post-pandemic.

3/5 A design system that works for everyone

There are many tech teams across product, news, marketing, and advertising. After seeing designers & engineers struggling with cohesion and re-creating the same solutions, I sponsored the launch of The Washington Post Design System. Still in its infancy, we've seen huge strides in reusability, relationships formed, and support for impactful features like dark mode.

Result

Adoption. Teams across platforms (CMS, web, app) rely on WPDS. Leadership buy-in has grown desite company restructuring, typically a time of risk for internal efforts.

4/5 Tools that enable Pulitzer-winning collaboration

The Post is one of the world’s most recognized newsrooms, but journalists worked with disconnected tools that limited collaboration. I built and guided a team to reimagine a suite of products for writing, editing photos, video, and audio, and planning publication. With A.I. "co-pilot" features, journalists spend less time on repetitive tasks and more on storytelling.

Result

Empowerment & trust. Our surveys and user testing showed consistent gains in time saved and satisfaction.

5/5 One tap turns any story into a listening experience

The Post creates excellent journalism, but it was only in long form written articles. Recognizing different needs, I partnered with product and led multiple rounds of design to integrate an A.I. feature that reads stories aloud. This let us introduce a "Listen" tab to combine A.I. & human read stories along with original podcasts, offering a more accessible, engaging experience for all.

Result

Habit & accessibility. Year-over-year growth makes this one of our most popular features, with regular feedback from those with vision issues expressing appreciation.

Previously, I was the UX Director at an independent WPP agency.

Settle In

We partnered with The State Department & IRC to develop a native app for refugees resettling to the U.S. The app allows you to access short videos, interactive lessons, and badges to track your learning progress. Settle In is your go-to companion during your resettlement journey.

New York Presbyterian

We led one of NYC's largest hospital networks through a full site redesign for their hundreds of hospitals and outpatient facilities. We partnered across departments to deliver a new IA, revamped UX systems, and an elegant visual style.

San Jose's Resident Assistant

In 2020 we launched an SMS & web based product for residents to answer questions about available city services. We met with communities across San Jose and analyzed city data to connect the tech to practical needs. Natural language processsing (NLP) allowed us to support multiple languages years before today's AI revolution.

My Brother's Keeper

We worked with the Bloomberg.org and The Obama Foundation to prototype a platform to visualize municipal data. The platform lets you compare how boys and young men of color compare to other groups along key metrics. Targeted at educators, academics, and policy makers the platform launched in 2022 in Pittsburgh.

Accion

We revamped the websites of a large non-profit that funds financial inclusion tech (billions across the globe lack access to banking and/or credit). With thousands of pages and multiple sites, we revamped their look & feel from a legacy non-profit to a mission focused tech org. The site was recognized as a 2019 Webby honoree for 'Best UX'.

About Paul Best(that's me!)

For 14 years, I've worked across industries to deliver web and mobile products. My approach is focused on craft and driven by strategy .

Some things I believe:

Empathy is key – Consider everyone’s perspective, from top to bottom. It makes all the difference.
Great teams thrive on balance – Give people the freedom to do their best work while keeping quality and speed in mind.
User needs first – When we focus on what people really need, it’s easier to get everyone on the same page.
Collaboration is everything – Engineers, PMs, and designers bring their best ideas when they work together from the start.
Design is more than aesthetics – Understanding the business side is just as important to creating effective solutions.
Data-informed is the way – Let data guide your vision, but trust your instincts to drive the impact based on what the data reveals.