“It is easier to scale back a wild idea than it is to scale up a mild one.”

Meet Sarah Gallimore, our Product Innovation Strategist as part of “Meet Our Mentors” Series hosted by Impact By Women.

I’m Mahtab Namakian, designer at Impact By Women. This role has given me the opportunity to work closely with women entrepreneurs. As an Iranian American woman, this means a lot to me because I have seen many inspiring and talented women in Iran who want to follow their passion but are held back from achieving their goals due to the lack of resources and support. Since joining Impact By Women, I’ve met some of the most impressive and successful women — both mentors and entrepreneurs. My desire to capture their stories inspired this series called “Meet Our Mentors”. I interviewed these women to learn about their backgrounds, experiences, hopes, and dreams which I’ll share in a series of articles. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Sarah Gallimore, Product Innovation Strategist

Mother, Senior Strategist, Designer, and Hopeful Futurist. Sarah thrives at the intersection of community, design, and business strategy -helping people figure out what to make or do next, why it’s important to people, how to communicate that and how to sustain change. Sarah has collected over a decade’s worth of experiences helping people frame problems, envision brighter futures, and uncover solutions that inspire action.

MN: Tell us a little about yourself and your background?

SG: My name is Sarah Gallimore and I’m a practicing strategist, researcher, and experience designer. I am a seasoned military spouse, mother of a fierce and bubbly 2-year-old little girl, and our dog (Blue). I’m a lover of climbing big rocks, walking meetings, exploring Detroit’s diverse food scene, and the 3 P’s (people, planet, and profit).

While I started out as a designer in commercial architectural design, I have worked across numerous industries and held roles such as product manager, UX/UI designer, business consultant, communications manager, and brand/visual designer for local, national, and multinational companies. Over the past year, I’ve also been moving my work further into Futures Thinking and Strategic Foresight and I’m currently pursuing certification as a Futurist. I’ve spent the past two years working on Innovation teams as a design strategist in local government — first in Durham and most recently in Mayor Duggan’s office here in Detroit where I live. I also currently teach at Wayne State University (adjunct faculty).

I work for people, not for the sake of design/tech/brands/etc — for the person on the other side of what we create. I thrive at the intersection of community, design, and business strategy — helping people figure out what to make/do next, why it’s important, and how to communicate that.

MN: What part of your work inspires you and why?

SG: As a devoted, perpetual learner — I seek simplicity on the other side of complexity in all that I do through the understanding of perception, reason, emotion, resonance, and ideology. I have a knack for digesting complex challenges with fresh eyes and I’m unafraid of getting my hands dirty and knees scraped in the name of exploration. I love digging between the lines for elusive-yet-meaningful patterns. I’m most excited by the opportunity to help people transform an idea to something bigger, to push on developing not just their offering but their vision of the future.

MN: Why do you want to work with women entrepreneurs?

SG: In my eyes, true leadership isn’t about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge — pulling together the right resources to ensure their continued success — whether it’s your employees, client, user/customer, neighbor, family, or planet. I became a mother in 2018 and my life was forever changed, this ethos further cemented. I have always had a passion for working with female-led teams and ventures but it wasn’t until I became a mother and had the opportunity to work on systems-level research and interventions in support of early childhood educators and parents last year with the City of Detroit that my eyes were opened to the true depth of inequality and inequity that exists.

MN: Your role is Product Innovation Strategist, what are you looking forward to as a mentor at Impact by Women?

SG: With Impact by Women, I’m responsible for supporting women in ensuring they have a strong, sustainable, and innovative product/service strategy that is clearly communicated. Within Impact by Women’s business model — I think it’s going to be an incredibly powerful intervention at a critical point in their entrepreneurship journey. I’m most looking forward to fully stepping into what vision and value-aligned business looks like with each founder and helping them to challenge some of their tightly held assumptions and beliefs about what the future might hold for their company.

MN: What are the challenges you’ve faced as an entrepreneur?

SG: As an entrepreneur and independent consultant, I’ve struggled to stick up for myself when it comes to pay equity. I’ve been “burned” a few times by dishonest, opaque, and opportunistic leadership and learned lessons the hard way so I’m very sensitive with my time and energy now — which I realize is a privilege. I try to approach the topic of money — pay, funding, etc — with radical honesty and to be the best advocate I can be for my own situation.

I’ve had clients ask me to do work for free for the “publicity” or promise of future work, experienced the unfairness of ageism without regard to the quality of my work, both blatant and subtle sexism (particularly as I moved from traditional design work to strategy), and more.

I’ve also struggled a lot with Imposter’s Syndrome, as many women do. I try to counter that with my innate curiosity and mindfully practicing transparency. No one knows it all but you can still stand tall in your knowledge and share your strengths with the world!

MN: How has COVID impacted your life?

SG: Childcare disappeared and the way in which I conduct research and facilitate learning had to change. It also accelerated many important conversations my spouse and I had been exploring around the balance or integration of our careers with homelife and shared goals now that we have a child. It’s been trying but I also think it’s helped me clarify certain needs and set harder boundaries within my personal and professional life as well around my availability and time needed for my well-being and my creative/strategic endeavors.

MN: What would you advise your younger self?

SG: Get outside more. Too many bad decisions happen while sitting behind a computer so I now try to put myself “outside” — amidst the issues I’m tackling — whenever possible.

Also — think big. A mentor of mine shared a phrase several years ago that has really stuck with me. “It’s easier to scale back a wild idea than it is to scale up a mild one.” Small-yet-mighty to monumental, local to global, start-up or established, it is always my goal to discover the ultimate potential to serve people, places, and our planet within each project — resolving each task with clarity, creativity, and authenticity to the culture in which it resides.

MN: What’s your hope for the future?

SG: I’m hopeful that this leads us to a place of better integration of the many types of work women are typically responsible for and ultimately leads to a place of greater personal satisfaction across all of them — but it still feels hard most days. Some of the biggest innovations and advancements of our lifetimes were built on the backs of women, particularly women of color, without giving them the credit they deserve. It’s my hope that my work with Impact by Women leads to greater representation in our history books for women and their contributions to society.

Meet the Designer :

Mahtab is a UX and Product Designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, who recently graduated from California College of the Arts with a Master’s in Interaction Design. She is motivated and driven by identifying innovative approaches and improved solutions to connect and empower people. She is inspired by people’s stories and constantly tries to find opportunities to dive deep into understanding their motivations, intentions, attitudes, and needs. She believes in thinking empathetically, sharing humbly, and working collaboratively.