Kieran Snyder, the co-founder and former CEO of Seattle-based Textio, has launched her next project, less than two months after stepping back from the augmented writing startup.
In an email announcement on Wednesday, Snyder shared her new website, Nerd Processor, and said she plans to explore “the impact that AI is having on workplace communication, leadership, and team dynamics.”
Snyder, who has a PhD in linguistics, founded Textio in 2014 with her husband, Jensen Harris, who took over as CEO in January.
The startup uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help remove bias from workplace language — in job postings or performance evaluations, for example. Customers include Bloomberg, Cisco, Hulu, Oracle, Spotify, and Warner Music Group.
Among her plans, Snyder said she will be updating research that she first published in 2014 on interruptions in the workplace, which found, among other things, that women are much more frequently interrupted in workplace meetings than men, men interrupt others more often than women do, and senior women were the biggest interrupters of all.
Snyder wants to revisit the research and expand her data set to consider race, ethnicity, and if possible, more than two genders.
“I’m also looking at something that wasn’t even on my radar in 2014: whether there is any difference in patterns when meetings happen in person vs. virtually vs. a hybrid, and whether teams that embrace AI tools show different dynamics,” she wrote.
Snyder, who was named the CEO of the Year at the 2021 GeekWire Awards, also said she’ll be advising several AI startups, and coaching individuals, teams, and organizations “whose working norms are shifting rapidly because of AI.”
With a weekly newsletter, Snyder will be sharing insights from her new work — via a unique data set or relevant true story — with a weekly case study on the impact that AI is having on workplace teams and communication.
