Hi, I’m Anja!

I was born in Poland, raised in the USA, and now live in Canada (in beautiful, livable, and often-snowy Montréal).

I have a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Northwestern University, a B.Sc. in psychology from McGill University, and was a postdoctoral research fellow in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

Over time, my work moved from the lab to the real world.

I am a maker at heart and love to put research into practice, get creative, and solve hard problems to help turn ideas into reality.

There’s no fun like work.

Currently, I’m head of product at Composer. With Composer, you can build trading algorithms with AI, backtest them, then execute—all in one platform.

Previously, I was a consultant doing exploratory research, product development, UX and product strategy. I was also the Director of Research at Breather, where I led UX, marketing, and behavioral insights research. You can check out a list of past positions on LinkedIn.

I write the Minding Design newsletter, where I share research to help you design great products, spaces, and experiences. My current obsession, ahem, focus is automation. You can check out a list of research papers, as well as other writing for a general audience here.

Minding Design — Research to help you design great products, spaces, and experiences. Current focus: Automation.