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I'm Barry. The "E" in my last name, Eom, is silent, so my friends call me Barium.

And three things really define who I am: sincerity, empathy, and optimism.

The Problem

I love technology and software. But it—the tech industry—has fundamental problems. Many B2C (consumer tech products) today are, among other things, taking advantage of user's data, built to be addictive, and proven to be harmful to our mental health.

One of the main issues with the tech industry is that "make the world a better place" mission statements that many companies tout do not align with their business models. At its core, companies are for-profit by their nature and therefore will always prioritize growth and the top- and the bottom-line, as they—the leadership and C-suite at the company—have the fiduciary duty to their shareholders and their financial interests.

And this has downstream effects. This incentives everyone, even down to the individual engineers, to myopically focus on improving measurable metrics like Monthly Active Users, losing sight of what the company set out to do, just like what Frances Haugen experienced herself.

My Mission

This is where I strongly believe sincerity comes in.

My life's mission is to create sincere and humane technology products, products that enable people and businesses to do more and make all of us genuinely better.

My Experiences

I've had the privilege to drive amazing B2C products at Spotify, Microsoft, and Vistaprint, but have since pivoted to the B2B space for a unique opportunity: I launched Observability Pipelines from zero to one and am now scaling the product at Datadog. If you're curious, watch my keynote at the Datadog 2023 DASH Conference.

Projects

Spotify logo

Spotify Live Product Proposal

Spotify's acquisition of Locker Room in early 2021 signaled its attempt to tap into the Live Audio space. Coincidentally enough, two days after I published a Medium article on this topic, Spotify launched Spotify Greenroom, its first live audio platform. The proposal walks through Spotify's strategy and what the experience could look like. The proposal deck in pdf format is available here and in Medium article format here

tufts tech and data night pamphlet

Tufts Tech and Data Industry Night

In spring of 2019, there was a university wide event called Tufts Tech & Data Industry Night, with its purpose being an opportunity for the audience to reflect on the ethics of the technology industry's future. I directed this event.
With a team of five people, I was able to galvanize my team members to raise funds, even partnering with the Tufts Office of the Vice Provost. We used these funds to invite high profile speakers to our school, even flying in James Williams, a renowned author of Stand Out of Our Light and an advisor to the Center for Humane Technology, as our keynote speaker. Subsequently, we were able to resource high level executives from BitSight Technologies and Intralinks, additionally inviting the director of the Internet and Trust Consortium of MIT. Additionally, we were able to set up more than 20 companies to sponsor the event and send representatives for a networking event.
In the end, we had a massively successful event—starting with a keynote speaker, a speaker panel, and a networking event—achieving our goal of sparking vital conversations about the ethics of the tech industry and ensuring that the students at Tufts are aware and conscious about the importance of this issue beyond their college career and into their professional lives.

Microsoft logo

Microsoft Gig Marketplace

In the summer of 2019, I interned at Microsoft on its gig economy team, where we created a platform that connected small businesses and enterprises to freelance presentation designers. After viewing Microsoft CEO Satya's remarks on Microsoft Ignite event, I created a proposal for a team at Microsoft, outlining how Microsoft could fit into and empower the future of freelance / gig economy. The proposal is available here

tamid keyrus data science group logo

TAMID Keyrus Data Science Group

I founded this organization on the spring of 2018. By formalizing a partnership with Keyrus, an international data intelligence firm, I created the blueprint of this organization (education, projects, operations, etc) with the help of our advisor, Razvan Nistor, who is a Director of Data Science at Keyrus. So far, we have 25 members, and are working on collaborative projects with our clients Wayfair and Vistaprint. Read more about my story here.

Datadog proposal cover

Outside-in Datadog Product Proposal

Before my interview for a Product Manager role at Datadog, I made this outside-in product proposal on my perspective on where Datadog can improve. Looking back, I lacked so much of the context about Datadog's product, but it's still a very solid deck, in my opinion. Check it out here.

Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center logo

Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center for Domestic Violence

I'm currently leading a year long software consulting project with my client, Jeanne Geiger, an organization that works to empower survivors of domestic violence and end domestic violenc. I'm working with a designer and ten engineers to launch a website and implement a database that will allow Jeanne Geiger to conslidate and organize all the information they handle on a day-to-day to monthly basis. Read more about Jeanne Geiger's mission here.

textbook exchange network logo

Textbook Exchange Network

I created a platform to exchange textbooks for affordable textbooks for students with a team of ten engineers. I led the implementation of a backend database and systems to store 500,000+ books. The textbook exchange has saved more than $500,000 for college students so far, with plans to expand to 4 universities. I used React, Django, PostgreSQL, Node for this project. Although I'm no longer part of the team, you can read more about them here here.

visdash logo

visDash: Vision, Visibility, Visualize

VisDash is an OKR focused organization and visualization dashboard tool for any organization or company. visDash visualized OKRs, such that everyone can visualize how a big picture goal can be broken down into smaller priorities or key results. This system was built to facilitate smooth communication between the executives and other employees; I created this platform after witnessing the abundance of companies and nonprofits that struggle to meet their annual goals and failing to communicate well internally.

punto urban art museum logo

Punto Urban Art Museum App

I developed a mobile application with a team of 6 developers at Tufts for Punto Urban Art Museum, an outdoor mural museum based in Salem, MA. I implemented the backend of this application by setting up the Flask and integrating Google Firebase for all data related aspect of the app. The app is available on iOS

coffeehouse

Coffeehouse for a Cause

I founded this fundraiser my sophomore year of high school. The intention was to cultivate a culture of giving in Belmont, MA, a rather affluent town isolated from homelessness. Initially planned as a minor event, Coffeehouse for a Cause gained a lot of attention from many residents of the town and is now an yearly tradition, having raised more than $15,000 to combat homelessness in the Greater Boston Area. Read more about it here.

Game of Thrones Game

Westerosi Storm

As a big Game of Thrones fan, I had to make a game based on the best TV series of all time. Written in Java, main objective is to prevent the White Walkers from taking over Westeros.

Mind Wandering Research

Mind Wandering Research and Processing Script

Cognitive sciences research on standardizing the measurement of mind-wandering, a crudely subjective state of mind. I executed this by writing more than a dozen of data processing scripts in MATLAB and Python to elucidate any correlation between mind wandering and reaction time, an objective form of measuring mind wandering. Method of analysis is VTC (Variance Time Course.

Paper on technology's effect on the brain

My Final Paper at Tufts on Tech's Effect on the Brain from an Academia Perspective

For my Cognitive and Brain Sciences major, I wrote my final paper on how the effects of constant use of technology can be harmful to our brain and behavior in countless of ways. I also address the complexities and difficulties of conducting academia research on this topic. This paper received an A+ in the Cognitive and Brain Sciences Senior Seminar class. Read it here.

Contact

Email: bari.eom[at]gmail.com