Taylore Flynn

There are a couple of people in my life that have taken a chance on me and have provided opportunities that I didn't necessarily think I was ready for, or sort of welcomed me into these communities that have totally changed my life. I certainly have to attribute my success to those people, and I hope I am paying it forward in some way. The relationships I've built and the people who have supported me because of those relationships have made a tremendous impact in my life.

One bit of career advice that is unique and maybe not one people hear all the time is don't be afraid to hire someone smarter than you. I think when you surround yourself with people who are really experts in their field, that doesn't need to be a scary thing. That should be really empowering. Another piece of advice that we live by in this household, which is maybe a little bit more of a cliche, is that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is today. You can't change what you did in the past, but you can start today and make a difference.

I think the biggest takeaway that I've had is building relationships with the people around you goes a really long way, and in particular, kindness goes a really long way. I think that's sort of an assumed thing, but saying it out loud is important. Having people in my network who have supported me because of the relationships that we've built has made a tremendous impact in my life, so I'm certainly trying to live by that with the work I do and the people I meet along the way, inside of work and outside of work.

I think the world is faced with the AI opportunity and also the challenge that AI brings, because I think it's a two-way sword. In particular in my work, we're still trying to figure out how to best access this incredible tool in the physical world. Everything I do is building physical products, so it does feel so separate from AI, yet you need to sort of jump in and find ways for it to have impact in your work. It's sort of a blessing and a curse, and those are some of the biggest challenges we're certainly facing right now - figuring out what's right, how to use it, what impact it can have, and also it comes with some learning curves.

A few things I feel really strongly about in the workspace in particular is empowering those around me. I'm passionate about mentorship in general and building confidence in those around you to be able to show up, particularly in a male-dominated workforce, which can be an intimidating place. I feel like I've spent a lot of my years at Apple in particular mentoring young women in their careers to sort of find their footing and build that confidence. On the technical side, data-driven decision-making is super important in the work that I do as well - not being so subjective, but really trying to quantify and make the best decisions with the data that you have in front of you.