What was once a tiny and mighty beauty blog called Into The Gloss has become a bona fide NYC startup: Glossier, with a ragtag team of 35+ jogging up and down the stairwell of our Soho office building, spread out across three floors. Why are we here? We're creating a new kind of beauty company from the ground up—one that acknowledges the hopes, dreams, and desires of women today, and gives them the tools (both digitally and physically) to take ownership over their beauty routines. Who are we? Well, a lot of us began like you: as readers. And we'd like for you to get to know us a little better—what we each do, where we come from, and what we're excited about. Meet two members of our Digital Product team, Jan and Jessica:
So, what is Digital Product?
Jan : It's a lot of things. Very generally, we're building new features for Glossier.com while focusing on how people use our digital platforms.
Jessica : That means we're always working with the Creative, Editorial, and Marketing teams on seeing site-wide projects through from beginning to end. Together with Creative, we might envision something—the Perfecting Skin Tint Shade Finder, for instance—and then we'll work with our development team to actually create that.
Jan : What's great about it is that you take the perspective of the user—what works for them and gives them the best experience.
Jessica : Knowing what our audience is looking for becomes very helpful. We work with a bunch of people, like the editors of Into The Gloss, to find out, what do consumers really want? What is the customer looking for when they come to Glossier? What’s the reader looking for when they come to Glossier? I think that all plays into how you decide what products you want to build for a site like Glossier. Into The Gloss is such a good foundation for that.
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Jessica Sheft-Ason
Where are you from?
Westfield, NJ
What do you do at Glossier?
I oversee new feature development and site maintenance, which can be anything from fixing a promo code bug to launching subscription services to installing new analytics tools. No two days are the same, but it always involves a lot of Slack with the Dev team, screenshots (I live in CloudApp) and GitHub. I'm definitely a product (tech AND beauty) junkie.
Current favorite song:
Into The Sun by The Static Jacks. My friends are in the band and it brings back feel-good memories from high school and college.
What was your best idea ever?
Adopting my dog Tony when my Mom was away on a business trip. I was 14.
What could you eat every day and not get tired of?
Ramen (specifically from Mitsuwa, but any will do!)
Do you have a daily ritual?
After I shower in the morning, I surf the internet/read news for an hour before getting ready. I'm a morning person and love my computer time (bonus: my hair dries).
What’s your Glossier HQ uniform?
Reformation dress, sneakers, and a well-loved, very beat-up Glossier tote.
Favorite Glossier product?
Perfecting Skin Tint. I have dewy skin goals.
Favorite Glossier project?
Launching the masks—my first Glossier product launch. We got in at 6AM to deploy, Seamless'd breakfast from our war room (aka the Rihanna conference room) and placed bets on the number of orders.
Jan Kokott
Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Berlin and moved to New York about three years ago. Berlin is a really fun place, I highly recommend visiting it. NYC feels like my home by now though.
What do you do at Glossier?
What I do is work on unifying user experience with brand and marketing goals, the engineering effort, and the long-term vision for the company. There's never a lack of ideas, so it's very important to prioritize and only build what actually matters.
Current favorite song:
Hotline Bling, obviously
What was your best idea ever?
There's an email lottery called The Listserve. One person a day wins a chance to write to the full list of 25k subscribers. You get to write about anything you want, most emails are very inspiring. I got picked, so I had to come up with a topic for mine. I have a long list of startup ideas and I keep adding new ones, so I decided to share some of them with the world. The subject of my email was “4 Great Startup Ideas That I Won’t Pursue' and I got hundreds of responses from readers telling me they'll go after them. I can't wait to see some of them, like the iPhone adapter that allows you to donate some of your power to directly charge a friend's phone, come to life.
What could you eat every day and not get tired of?
Thai
Do you have a daily ritual?
I (try to) meditate every day—it makes the biggest difference when I do.
What’s your Glossier HQ uniform?
Black pants, leather boots, comfy Drake sweaters...Winter is coming to NYC :(
Favorite Glossier product?
Mega Greens Galaxy Pack
Favorite Glossier project?
The Shade Finder we built to help you pick the right shade of the Perfecting Skin Tint. Glossier is only available online, so I'm excited about creating technology that makes the shopping experience easier and even better than in a store.
Jessica Sheft-Ason and Jan Kokott photographed by Tom Newton.
Say hello to New Media Editor Tom Newton and Product & Operations Manager Linda Bui—and get acquainted with the rest of the Glossier team over here.
