28 Oct The Faces Behind Fluent: Aeliya Ahmed
As part of Fluent Research’s 20th anniversary, The Faces Behind Fluent highlights the people whose experience, ideas, and perspectives have helped shape our company. This week, we’re featuring Project Manager Aeliya Ahmed, who enjoys the variety of working across research in technology, education, and AI.
Her projects explore big questions about connection, productivity, and learning, but it’s the people she works alongside who make the experience especially rewarding. Aeliya brings an appreciation for her colleagues’ talents and a belief that curiosity about people should remain at the heart of Fluent, no matter how its tools and topics evolve.
Get to know Aeliya in our latest Q&A, including her adventures diving with bull sharks, the alternative career that would put her love of hosting to work, and the creative matcha combinations that brighten her mornings.
Aeliya, what’s your role at Fluent, and what does a typical day look like for you?
I’m a project manager, and I can be juggling anywhere from two to more than eight projects at a time! I enjoy the variety because I get to bounce between all sorts of projects ranging from tech to education to AI, that are tackling big ideas like connection, productivity, and learning.
What’s your favorite part of working at Fluent?
I love all of the people! The work that Fluent does is so fascinating, so sharp, and so cool because all of the people here are so fascinating, so sharp, and so cool.
What’s a fun fact that people don’t know about you?
I recently got my scuba diving certification in the Great Barrier Reef! I love hobby collecting, and this has been my latest venture. My most recent dive was in Fiji, where I got to dive alongside massive bull sharks! It was an exhilarating, life-changing experience.
What’s your go-to productivity hack?
I’m a master to-do-list-er, so if it’s not on my to-do list, it’s not happening. I love to prepare what I need to do the night before, and time-block my whole day out so I don’t multitask and can give my deep focus to each task at hand.
If you weren’t in research, what career would you have pursued instead?
I really enjoy hosting my friends and family and cultivating a silly theme or aesthetic, so I think I would’ve loved to go into event planning. Throwing big parties as a job sounds like my dream.
How do you see Fluent evolving in the next 20 years?
In the next 20 years, I hope that Fluent is still asking the same big question: what we can learn from people that we don’t know. I know that the tools and topics might change (as they have a bunch in the past few years already!), but I think this curiosity will always be at the heart of Fluent.
What’s one word you would use to describe Fluent? Why?
Can-do! Nothing is impossible for the team here at Fluent.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Patagonia is high on my list! I’d love to take a campervan around and see the whole region. I’ve heard there’s some insane hiking to be done.
What’s your favorite snack or drink to have while working?
The typical lineup on my desk in the mornings might change, but it always includes a fun flavor of matcha. Most recently my two favorites to make have been salted date matcha with homemade date caramel, and huckleberry matcha with fresh huckleberry jam from a recent trip to Montana.