Our Favorite Innovations of the Last (and Upcoming) Decade
The Pull team loves a good gadget, a disruptive policy, and a novel service. We have compiled a list of our favorite innovations of the last decade, and those that we’re most excited for in the new one. Take a look!
Chloe Winders- Singer
Design Strategist II
2010-2019
My favorite innovation of the last decade is the Affordable Care Act of 2010. This legislation was huge! We’ve saved $2.3 trillion, and nearly 20 million more Americans have health insurance. And the transition from volume-based care to value-based care has spurred a slew of new services that improve quality and efficiency within our healthcare systems. I love that we’re incentivizing providers, payers, and innovators to make our population healthier, at a healthier cost.
2020 and beyond
In the next decade, I’m most excited to see innovation in public transportation, especially LA Metro. As cities continue to grow, options for energy-efficient, low-cost transportation will be increasingly necessary. Plus, there are huge opportunities to engage artists and residents in the process.
Alaina Mickes
Design Strategist II
2010-2019
My favorite trend of the last decade is the adoption of self-care. As our schedules become more chaotic and stress-filled, people have increasingly become aware of the importance of self-care, specifically around how we fuel our bodies for optimal health and performance. New plant-based foods and herbal supplements are regularly being introduced to help calm the body and mind, relieve inflammation, reduce stress, and enhance performance. Recent studies have also linked our gut (or gastrointestinal tract) to our brain - what we eat can drastically affect our mood, memory, and sleeping habits. Making self-care a priority and having healthful food and drink products readily availability to support our needs is a plus for me.
2020 and beyond
In the coming decade I’m looking forward to more responsible consumption, particularly new alternatives to single use plastic. Several companies are designing new (and chic) alternatives to plastic shopping bags, produce bags, food packaging, utensils, and more. As better plastic alternatives become more readily available, convenient, and affordable, consumers will be more likely to adopt the use of these new products.
Savi Lopez Negrete
Design Strategist III
2010-2019
My favorite innovations of the last decade are TV streaming services like Netflix, Prime and Hulu, mostly because they have provided a space for more visibility of female-led roles in the entertainment industry. Through these democratizing platforms we see content that is both about women as well as created by women - starting new dialogues, breaking stereotypes, and expanding the definition of what it means to be a woman today. Shows like Orange is the New Black, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Big Little Lies depict women with greater depth, complexity, and unconventional values than we’ve seen in the past.
2020 and beyond
The innovation I am most looking forward to is the evolution of placemaking in the urban context. According to the Project for Public Spaces, placemaking is “a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value.” Since I deeply believe in participatory design, the built form is a critical space to activate community as an agent for re-imagining the spaces we occupy. New frameworks like Transformative Placemaking are gaining more traction, bringing up issues of racial and gender disparity into the conversation, questioning not only how a city is designed but also for whom.
John Sundermeyer
Director of UX & Design (Partner)
2010-2019
My favorite innovation of the last decade is the proliferation of affordable ridesharing. While I’m quick to point out that the services are fraught with unintended consequences and challenges, they have redefined my relationship with Los Angeles. Furthermore, we see decreasing rates of DUIs across major US cities; attributed to ridesharing.
2020 and beyond
In the next decade I’m most excited to see how venom derived therapies will be used to treat some of the most vexing diseases of our era like diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases, hopefully at enormous scale.