Lauren Shapiro
Design Partner, Work & Co

For Work & Co, success is not merely about launching products but delivering experiences that resonate and inspire. This requires a collaborative effort across design, engineering, and product teams to ensure thoughtfulness, polish, and consideration are embedded in every project.

The core principle of Work & Co’s approach to idea generation is focus. Lauren detailed how they structure their processes to eliminate noise, dedicating multidisciplinary teams to one client at a time. This deep immersion allows teams to fully explore the problem space and leverage internal and client domain expertise. While the company has been building products on the foundations of AI for many years, the rise of generative AI over the last 12-16 months has led to Work & Co integrating AI to enhance research, ideation, and iteration, pushing boundaries further.

A standout project Lauren helped lead is their collaboration with Planned Parenthood. The open-ended brief allowed Work & Co to innovate with technology, resulting in “Roo,” a gender-neutral, AI-powered chatbot that provides teens with medically vetted, non-judgemental sexual health information. “To date, Roo has had millions of conversations and helped transform how Planned Parenthood uses new technologies,” Lauren shared. “At our core, our work has always been and will continue to be focused on creating impactful, memorable, inclusive, and joyful experiences for our clients’ businesses and users.”