Lauren Dycus, Director of Product Management at Upwork, details her role and the company's mission. She focuses on work management, which streamlines processes from user onboarding to contract finalization. Upwork, the world's largest work marketplace, supports freelancers with specialized skills, enabling personal and company growth. Dycus emphasizes Upwork's commitment to equity between clients and freelancers, supported by a culture valuing empowerment and fair opportunities. She highlights a new bonus prompt feature designed to enhance freelancer-client relationships and foster long-term partnerships. Additionally, Dycus discusses Upwork's ethical AI approach, stressing human-in-the-loop protocols and data protection to ensure fair treatment for all users.

Lauren Dycus Notable Quotes:
🌐 "Upwork is the world's largest work marketplace, where freelancers can scale companies while growing their own."
💼 "Work management is the heart of Upwork, streamlining everything from onboarding to finalizing contracts."
🤝 "We're dedicated to making the freelancer-client relationship more equitable, ensuring both sides have agency in their work together."
🚀 "Our new bonus feature is designed to strengthen long-term partnerships between freelancers and clients, moving beyond transactional interactions."
📊 "Adopting AI responsibly, we're focused on maintaining human oversight and ensuring data privacy to protect our users' interests."

Resources Mentioned:
Upwork’s AI Principles
Upwork Bonuses
Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap

About Lauren:
Lauren Dycus has spent the last 15 years shipping features in software and AI product development at Amazon, AWS, DISCO, LTK, Microsoft, Upwork, and more. Focused on building with agile methodologies and user research, she develops teams and products that solve problems while growing global businesses. Dedicated to mentorship and diversity, Lauren's leadership expertise spans games, ecommerce, robotics, legal tech, and cloud computing, to prioritize safe, collaborative environments for product innovation.

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Ranked the #4⁠⁠ in Voice AI Influencer, ⁠⁠Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek⁠⁠ is the CEO of ⁠⁠Clarity AI⁠⁠, Founder of ⁠⁠Women in Voice⁠⁠, & Host of ⁠⁠Your AI Roadmap⁠⁠. With a decade in software & AI, she has worked at Nuance, VERSA Agency, & OneReach.ai in data & analysis, product, & digital transformation. She's an investor & technical advisor to startup & enterprise. A CES & VentureBeat speaker & Harvard Business Review published author, she has a PhD & is based in Seattle.

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