Hi, I'm Nelson
Playing around with AI until I figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
I'm an engineer and designer who spends most days building with AI, helping leaders make sense of it, and following the questions it creates about work.
The long version
I've spent my career sitting between the people who build things and the people who have to live with them. Engineering taught me how systems work. Design taught me to notice where people struggle with them.
Most of my work now revolves around AI. I build with the tools, advise leaders and teams, and write Field Notes to work through what I'm learning about work, business, and how people adapt.
I am always testing something. Some experiments become useful. Others help me decide what to leave alone. I keep notes on the useful ones and what I learned from the rest.
Outside AI, I take photographs because the camera makes me pay attention. I also spend a lot of time trying software, reading, and learning how other people build.
Partnerships
I work with AI companies on implementation, hands-on team programs, enablement, and product feedback. The useful relationships connect what a product can do with how people actually work.
See partnerships →Currently
- Building
- Small AI tools that solve one annoying thing. Most die quietly. A few don't.
- Reading
- Three books at once, finishing roughly zero of them.
- Shooting
- 35mm, mostly of walls and light. Occasionally a person.
- Learning
- How to explain agents to someone who has never opened a terminal.
- Avoiding
- Any sentence that begins with 'in today's rapidly evolving landscape.'
Unofficial credentials
- ✳Has explained what an LLM is at three separate family dinners.
- ✳Can make a keynote deck at 1am. Will regret it at 9am.
- ✳Owns more cameras than I have hands.
- ✳Once rebuilt a landing page instead of going to sleep. Twice. This week.
- ✳Genuinely enjoys spreadsheets, which I understand is a red flag.
Speaking & media
I speak about AI transformation and the future of work through keynotes, workshops, panels, fireside chats, and leadership offsites. I build each talk for the people in the room and give them something practical to use.
- Formats
- Keynote, workshop, panel, fireside, internal all-hands
- Length
- 20 minutes to a half day
- Audience
- Leadership, HR and people teams, mixed org
- Travel
- US-based, will travel
- Also
- Podcasts, press commentary, and brand partnerships
