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AMA: I'm Justin Edmund, the first product design hire at Pinterest.

over 9 years ago from Justin Edmund, Product Designer at Pinterest

  • Ari ZilnikAri Zilnik, over 9 years ago

    Shout-outs to a fellow CMU Grad! I I did the Masters of Human-Computer Interaction there.

    Thanks for taking the time to do this! My big question is—how did you get in contact with Pinterest? It seems like having you as their only product designer must have been a big deal. How did the conversation start, and how did you convince them you're the right guy for the job?

    2 points
    • Justin EdmundJustin Edmund, over 9 years ago

      I met Evan Sharp, one of our cofounders, the summer prior to graduating when I was interning at CMU. While we weren't ever on the same team, we bonded over our side projects—mine was a product called visually and his being, well, Pinterest.

      A year later, I was in Palo Alto interviewing at Facebook again and he had just left to join Pinterest full-time right down the block. He invited me to "come check out the office," took me in the back room with Ben, and told me they wanted to hire me. I was like, "Oh... uh, okay." I was skeptical because coming out of CMU with all them loans, I wasn't sure a startup that might disappear in months-to-years was the right option for me. Regardless, a few weeks later, the deal was sealed.

      8 points