Project Background

Schmidt Future's original objective was to create a job board catering to high-impact roles spanning both public and private sectors. However, through extensive interviews with industry leaders, it became evident that impactful roles were predominantly secured through professional networks rather than traditional job board applications. With this insight, supported by data science analysis led by Schmidt Futures, we built the Field Strategist Fellowship.

Utilizing a structured funnel approach, we systematically identified and cultivated prestigious fellows who were already established in their respective fields. These individuals were then empowered to spearhead industry events, facilitate key introductions, produce influential reports, and allocate resources toward their designated cause areas.

While the program has since been closed, during its tenure we took an investment of less than $1M and catalyzed $10m of funding in the program’s target cause areas.

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User Research Insights

In addition to leading the design of the fellowship with the Program Director and Product Manager, a key contribution I made was designing and executing ongoing user research. Below are some insights that helped with the success of the program.