Bringing Products to Life: Stories from Alumni
Join this virtual program and hear from three Dartmouth engineers who have spent their careers in the world of product design and development.
Jeff Hebert ’04 TH’06, Brian Mason ’03 TH’05, and Fran Wang ’12 TH’13 will share their personal experiences in the industry and offer different perspectives on the phases of the product development process. Hear lessons learned along the way, how to create products that resonate with people, and what it takes to manage a design all the way to market launch. Thursday, July 23, 2020 12:00 pm EST / 9:00 am PST Registration required to receive the Zoom webinar link. Submit questions in advance or during the program.
As the President of Synapse, Jeff is responsible for balancing and continuously improving the experience for Synapsters, technical output and satisfaction for clients, and the health of the business. Jeff began at Synapse in 2010 as a Program Manager and, after running end-to-end, multi-disciplinary development programs in the wearable electronics market, he then ran a strategic portfolio of project teams as a Business Unit Director. In 2019, after five and a half years as VP of Engineering, leading the client services organization of Program Management, Mechanical-, Electrical-, Software-, and Test Engineering, as well as New Product Introduction, Jeff was promoted to President.
Before Synapse, Jeff worked as a software developer, entrepreneur, venture capital analyst, and strategy consultant. Jeff holds Masters of Engineering Management (MEM) as well as BE and BA degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College. He’s an avid mountaineer, cyclist, runner, backcountry and nordic skier, and electric guitar player.
Brian Mason '03 TH'05 Product Creation Leader, Sonos
Brian Mason grew up in New England, graduated from Dartmouth with a BE and MS in mechanical engineering, and then moved west to work at IDEO for a decade. After leading IDEO’s consumer and medical product development division, he joined the wearable breast pump start-up Willow Pump in its early days to lead the R&D team. Over the following four years, the team designed, engineered, launched, and sustained the product in market.
Willow has since won over 20 design awards, including Time Magazine Best Inventions of 2017. Brian recently moved back east and leads product creation at Sonos in Boston. Outside of work, Brian and his wife (Jocelyn D'05) live in Lexington with their 3 children and try to play outside as much as possible.
Fran Wang '12 TH'13 Senior Mechanical Engineer, frog design
Based out of San Francisco, Fran is part of the Physical Design team at frog design. Her work includes traditional product development, physical experience design, and spans across automotive, consumer electronics, healthcare, museum, and retail industries. While every program is different, Fran has experienced the whole process - concepting and architecture, design and engineering, and manufacturing and assembly.
On the side, Fran is a co-founder of Yona, a redesign of the pelvic exam experience, including the speculum. Before frog, Fran worked at New Deal Design and Skycatch, a drone hardware startup, and she graduated from Dartmouth with a BE in 2013. Outside of work and pre-Covid times, she plays volleyball (indoor and beach), solo travels, explores the outdoors around the Bay Area, and tinkers with her motorcycles.