Stitch Fix

Before that, I was at Instagram working on creator monetization products.

Before that, I was at Stitch Fix, where I built the first text-based recommendation system.

Before that, I was at a research lab where I published some research and built our first production products for our sister companies, Glassdoor and Indeed.

Before that, I was at academia.edu where I built some of our first AI products for our 200 million user base.

And so I was thinking about what you just said in that, you know, understanding and having someone curate for you.

And I thought about like Stitch Fix did this right where they would ship you a box of clothes and the whole the kind of surprise and delight, which was, oh, do I like this thing? Do I not like this thing? How's it going to work in my closet? You know, I could consider that similarly from like any gentic checkout or shopper perspective.

Only if the return experience was extremely seamless.

But for me, you know, being very fortunate and being able to purchase something at an, you know, who knows what the cost would be.

But if you didn't-

It was like Stitch f- it was like Stitch Fix for music

...

Yes.

It wasn't your Instagram product.

It was a very useful product that people found got in the way of them doing business, right? After that, I went to Stitch Fix, right? And Stitch Fix, you know, outside was this personalized fashion, highly sexy company out there, right? But what was intriguing to me is when I ran technology there was the supply chain side of it, right? It's like how does this all come together, right? We've been living in this SaaS world, but then there's physical constraints, right? Stuff has to be ordered.

People have to manufacture stuff.

Things have to be delivered.

They're not looking for that.

You need to give space to actually indulge yourself in the problem, and then something will strike, and then you'll find the passion to go solve it, right? For me, like, I didn't grow up in supply chain.

I didn't grow up imagining supply chain is gonna... and much less mid-market manufacturing, right? We were at Stitch Fix.

We had purchased millions of dollars of ERP software, right? Yet businesses were still running outside those systems, right? Businesses were running in human intellect.

If you don't know the word inseam, you're not going to Google inseam guide.

Stitch Fix has a men's pant sizing guide that's surprisingly good.

It explains that inseam is measured from the crotch seam to the hem, not from the waistband, which is a distinction that seems obvious once stated, but most people never think about.

It walks through waist, inseam, rise, and fit in plain language with diagrams.

It's written for someone who's never bought pants before.

It exists because Stitch Fix wants you to use their service, but the guide itself is free and doesn't require an account.

Primer Magazine's guide is more comprehensive.

It covers rise, taper, break, and it defines every term.

Because meaning isn't destroyed by technology, it just changes shape.

To understand how work redesign actually preserves meaning on the ground, I think we should consider the Stitch Fix stylist model.

Stitch

Fix? The clothing subscription service? Yes.

Exactly.

They manage the relationship.

By keeping the human in the loop for the subjective, relational part of the transaction, Stitch Fix perfectly preserves meaningful human authority.

The stylists actually report very high job satisfaction because the technology is positioned as an assistant, not a replacement.