anniehardy.

builder of smart ideas, teams, & things.

i'm annie hardy,

a company leader,

strategic innovator,

design thinker,

& founder.

my story.

Annie Hardy is an innovator, strategist, futurist, and entrepreneur. Ms. Hardy's passion and curiosity drive her to connect with her clients and colleagues, advocate for the best of ideas, push the envelope of the status quo, and strategically build meaningful things. Her adventurous bent is inherited from her ancestors, who settled some of the roughest, toughest land in South Texas. Ms. Hardy has two decades of experience evangelizing human-centered design and advocating for underrepresented voices - within and alongside financial services, healthcare, and technology companies.

Ask her about her three kids and she'll tell you many, many stories. Ask Alexa to play "Life Bites Back by Joey Hardy” and you'll hear her album. And ask her about her favorite food and she'll wax poetic about funnel cake.

skills

my skills.

where i excel.

leadership

i'm able to cultivate teams and employ sustainable, repeatable frameworks that allow employees to more efficiently collaborate, execute, and grow. but the most important tool in my leadership toolkit is listening. the multi-departmental relationships I build empower me to have transparent, productive front-line conversations that inform strategic decisions.

strategic insights

information is useless without interpretation. i take customer and market information and blend it with foundational company knowledge, creating a consideration set that's rooted in wisdom, not just in data.

technical aptitude

cloud and enterprise applications, mobile payments and NFC, EMR integration and artificial intelligence, blockchain and autonomous vehicles; i've spent my career understanding and disseminating information about a multitude of technologies. so albeit not a technical professional...i'm a professional who deeply understands tech.

intra/entrepreneurship

as both an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur, i'm experienced in creating and shipping good ideas from scratch within zeet and previous employers.

building relationships

my #1 strength on StrengthsFinder is WOO - winning others over. whether it is an internal stakeholder, channel partner, analyst, or media, i'm skilled at building credibility, engendering trust, and fostering genuine relationships.

human-centered design

i'm a practitioner of the art and science of human-centered design, from solutions architecture, to process design and product design. i take a practical approach to design in the context of bigger corporate goals, economic trends, and resource constraints.

primary & secondary research

whether primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative, i'm experienced in building and adapting research strategies that generate solid, actionable insights.

empathy

my advocacy spans from the human-centered discussions in the boardroom, to poverty conversations in my city, all the way through my leadership in organizations dedicated to gender equality. i care about people and what happens to them, and i evangelize that in my community.

creativity

whether crafting a song, creating a new idea, facilitating a design workshop, or founding a company - at the end of the day, creativity is at the heart of who i am and what i do.

my work.

companies that trust me.

notable outcomes.

$1,000,000

in retained annual revenue attributed to the program. (Centene Corporation, Children's Health Insurance Member Retention Program)

3,200%

ROI from a $5,000 direct marketing campaign that led to $160,000 in closed business. (Fiserv, Marketing Manager, membership card DM campaign)

200%

growth in YOY Revenue. (zeet insights, founder)

65%

percent of clients alienated by the original UX/content strategy...a finding which led them to urgent UX changes. (Charles Schwab, design & experience research)

$150,000

saved from being invested in a product that wouldn't sell. (Macmillan Learning, market landscape evaluation, competitive analysis, & requirements gathering)

$250,000

saved from being invested in a company that couldn't compete. (Mosaicos Venecianos de México, market landscape evaluation, competitive analysis, & requirements gathering)

$5,000,000

client revenue at risk due to a specific feature the team was planning to sunset - a fact we discovered in our research.

(Allscripts, brand research & positioning)

work

my portfolio.

because the work i do creates competitive advantages for my clients, i do not share my artifacts online.

my expertise includes but is not limited to:

to learn about my project outcomes and artifacts, please reach out to me directly below.

request portfolio

portfolio

ideas

my ideas.

the metaverse

the future of work

the future of trust

artificial intelligence

web3

the future of expertise

recent ideas.

Controlling the Chaos of Generative AI
- Cisco Live, 2023
The Future of Work: Navigating Hidden Risks and Emerging Trends
- Cisco Live, 2023
Grow Employee Engagement in the Hybrid Workplace
- Cisco Live, 2023
It is Metaverse? Or MEH-taverse?
- Cisco Live, 2023
Beyond the Hype: How AI is Reshaping Your Business
- Cisco Live Executive Symposium US, 2023
The Democratization of AI and its Impact on Businesses
- Cisco Executive Insiders Peer Circle, May 2023
Pixels to Poetry: Exploring Generative AI’s Potential
- YouTube Live, April 2023
Generative AI
- Cisco TECHTalks, April 2023
Discover the Future of the Metaverse with Cisco Senior Visioneer
- Cisco Snack Minute, March 2023
Be Well to Lead Well: Building a healthy, inclusive hybrid work environment
- Cisco Live Executive Symposium EMEA, with Jessie Pavelka, February 2023
The Chickonomics Experiment: How financial empowerment exploded inside Cisco
- Cisco Live EMEA, February 2023
Seven Key Trends in the Future of Work
- Cisco Live EMEA, February 2023
7 Tech Trends to Enlighten your next Happy Hour
- Cisco, January 2023
What's so Exciting about Data Science?
- Women Rock-IT, November 2022
The Risk of Exclusion in the Metaverse
- Cisco, November 2022
- Austin Startup Week, October 2022
Crypto 101 and Crypto 102
- A Panel with Women of Cisco and Finance Women's Network, June 2022
Hit or Hype? NFTs, the Metaverse, and Investing
- A presentation with Cisco Women in Science and Engineering, February 2022
The Future of Paying + Playing: Exploring the Jobs of Tomorrow, Today
- Career Fair for the Future, March 2019
Oh, the Vanity! How Personal Biases can Ruin the Best of Intentions
- Speaker, Austin Startup Week, September 2018
- Speaker, Drupal GovCon, August 2018
See it, Hear it, Stop It: Fighting Sexism at Work
- Interviewee, Featured on Copeland Coaching podcast, May 2018
- SXSW, March 2018
- National Women in Digital Conference, November 2017

recent writing.

The Risk of Exclusion in the Metaverse - Cisco Executive Perspectives
Human-Machine Interactions of the Future: Unpopular Opinions [Part 3]. - Cisco Learning Blog
Human-Machine Interactions of the Future: Unpopular Opinions [Part 2]. - Cisco Learning Blog
Human-Machine Interactions of the Future: Unpopular Opinions [Part 1]. - Cisco Learning Blog
Selling Human-Centered Design to the C-Suite: A Poem. - LinkedIn
30 days at Cisco: A review - LinkedIn
Recycling Gone Wrong: Condom Re-Use as a Design for Equity Problem - LinkedIn
From Sears to Starbucks: Pivoting to Thrive in the Face of Change - Medium
How that Hyperactive Kid in Class Blew me Away - Medium
The only thing constant. (hint: it’s not the kilo) - Medium

bonus: my music.

"Life Bites Back" (Joey Hardy Music) - writer, musician, producer

on Amazon, Spotify, and iTunes.

"The Wounded Dog's Choir" (Steven Hansen Music) - co-writer

on Amazon and iTunes.

"Almost Lost Tomorrow" (Killer Crocs of Uganda) - co-writer

on Bandcamp.

connect

are you seeking:
a catalyst?
a speaker?
the best BBQ in austin?

let's connect.

annie hardy

austin, texas

annie@zeetconsulting.com