Doreen Lorenzo

Upbringing and education

Lorenzo has mentioned the importance of receiving strong support from her parents. In her own words, "Their view was, whatever you want to do, we're fine with it... My father told me, 'Don't ever say no to anything.' That is always in the back of my mind, and it's something that I use in leadership, too. You're presented with an opportunity. Maybe you've never taken on a challenge like that before. But don't say no. You take that leap and you take that risk."

While at high school, Lorenzo was involved in theater, public speaking and the school's newspaper. She has described herself as "always a very outgoing personality" while at school, and she tended to gravitate towards positions of leadership. She studied at the State University of New York's Stony Brook University as an undergraduate, and earned a master's degree in communication and media studies from Boston University's College of Communication.

Career

Lorenzo enjoyed working in film and video, and originally wanted to be a filmmaker. As a freelance industrial-video producer, she produced a variety of films, ranging from commercials to corporate videos, independent films, and documentaries. In the 1990s, she viewed the Internet as a "powerful new way to deliver content" and a "primary communication channel for our society". As a result, she started working at a computer company and began selling computers online in 1995. The user interface firm she hired to launch the company's online store was acquired by Frog Design Inc. In 1997, Frog's founder, Hartmut Esslinger, asked Lorenzo to lead the company's digital media section. She eventually became the president of the company's digital media group, which created commercial websites and graphical user interfaces. As president of the media group, she was responsible for setting the direction of the group and overseeing marketing. Lorenzo is credited with helping the company to develop "from a boutique design firm to a global design consultancy". She worked at Frog for sixteen years: she was promoted from her digital media role to chief operations officer, then served as president for seven years. As president, Lorenzo was involved in "driving strategy, overseeing worldwide operations and delivery, and leading the design firm to record growth".

In October 2013, Lorenzo joined the crowd-sourced product company Quirky, which has also been described as a "community invention platform". This took place during a transitional period in the New York-based company's history. According to Fast Company, this company expanded from developing products with input from the Quirky community to creating "Powered by Quirky" product partnerships. As a result of these partnerships, Quirky and its community became a crowd-sourced development firm for other companies. In her role as president, Lorenzo oversaw operations and product development. She stepped down on December 31, 2014. Ben Kaufman, the chief executive officer of Quirky, said of Lorenzo's contributions: "Over the last year and a half, you've seen [Quirky go] from making small plastic stuff to big complex products. She played a big role in that." The company did not plan to replace Lorenzo, because, according to Kaufman, she created a "self-organized machine" for developing products.

In 2015, Lorenzo returned to her hometown of Austin, Texas. She began working with companies who sought her expertise in building "successful, design-led" companies. Lorenzo currently serves on several companies' boards as either an advisor or board member. She has been a board member of the special-effects software company The Foundry, the knowledge management company humanLearning, the Edmonton-based charitable facilitator The Network of Giving, the disaster housing business Reaction Housing (which was established by a former employee of Frog) and the clothing company Shop Vida, which invests some of its revenue into educating factory workers. Lorenzo is also an investor and mentor at the Austin accelerator SKU. Lorenzo co-founded Vidlet, a mobile video insights company, alongside former Frog employees Patricia Roller and Nate Page, as well as Kieran Farr, the founder of Vidcaster. In 2016 Lorenzo became the Director for the Center of Integrated Design at the University of Texas. Under Lorenzo's direction, this group is responsible for integrating design studies in a variety of disciplines, including fine arts, business, engineering, architecture, and computer science. Lorenzo will also be responsible for creating corporate and industry partnerships to connect members of the university community to local and regional professionals.

Lorenzo acts as a resource for business publications and often speaks at conferences, including Techonomy (2011, 2012), TwilioCon (2012), the Dell Women's Entrepreneurs Network (2013), the Austin Center for Design's "Social Innovation and Design Education Speaker Series" (2014), the Duncan Anderson Design Department Gallery's lecture series at California State University, Long Beach (2014), BRITE (2015) and the Ottawa Festivals Pitchfest and Expo (2015). She has contributed to ABC News, Bloomberg Radio and Fortune, and has been quoted by Fast Company and The New York Times, amongst other publications. She writes a column called "Designing Women" for Fast Company. She has served on the World Economic Forum's Network of Global Agenda Councils on Emerging Technologies (2011–2012) and Emerging Multinationals (2013 – present), and is currently on the advisory council for the Cockrell School of Engineering's Innovation Center at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2014, she was a speaker at PopTech, where she spoke about empathy, compassion and the management of a creative team. She was also invited to speak at a panel discussion on the sharing economy, hosted by Spencer Ante, the co-founder of WhoWeUse, in New York City. In 2015, Lorenzo served on the jury for Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's annual list of National Design Award recipients. In November 2016, Fast Company published Lorenzo's interview with Cher, and Lorenzo interviewed the singer and actress during the Fast Company Innovation Festival at New York University's Skirball Center ("Cher + Doreen Lorenzo on Being Human in the Age of the Algorithm"). As one of the first female leaders in the modern business of product design and innovation, she has been described as a "strategic thinker" with a passion for "helping creative people succeed".

Leadership and design philosophy

Lorenzo is known throughout the design world for her signature approach to leadership and interdisciplinary approach to design. Her diverse academic background prepared her for the multidisciplinary world of design and business. "Great design is inseparable from other disciplines like business and technology," Lorenzo said upon receiving her position at the University of Texas.

As a business leader, Lorenzo values empathy and communication in the workplace. While president at Frog, she emphasized communication with her employees, both in the form of company-wide phone calls and town hall meetings, and on-on-one meetings. As a result of the generally young age of Frog employees and the familial culture within the company, she became known as "Frog Mom" at work, a role that initially she rejected.

Personal life

Lorenzo has a husband and two children. Until 1995, her husband was the primary financial provider for the family, while Lorenzo cared for their child and freelanced as a video producer. Lorenzo then began working full-time and serving as the primary financial provider while her husband went back to school after working as a litigator.

At her job at a computer start up, finding the work-family balance was difficult. After she began working at Frog, however, the balance became much more manageable. The atmosphere at Frog was relaxed and familial, allowing Lorenzo to maintain her role as mother while also committing to work.

Publications