In this week’s Six Questions, we would like to introduce you to Senior Project Manager Matthew Bryan, who holds the esteemed distinction of being Labs’ resident barbecue aficionado and most dedicated CSA-er.
Which Labs projects do you work on?
I’m a Senior Product Manager here at Labs and I focus on Trove and Personal Post. Trove is a complete news aggregator that really shows off the technology that drives most of our other products. Personal Post, one of those Trove-powered products, is a single stream of top stories from your favorite parts of The Washington Post.
How would you describe WaPo Labs to someone unacquainted with the team?
In D.C., people always ask you where you work, so I’ve gotten pretty good at describing the team. I like to start by reminding folks that the Washington Post Company does more than just the newspaper – that it also includes the education company Kaplan, several television stations, and other web properties like Slate, in addition to others. Then I point out that we’re a small group of folks in that mix who are trying to experiment with different ways of presenting the news that works well in the online world.
What’s one thing that few people know about you?
I’m a Certified Barbecue Judge, which basically means I get to eat incredibly delicious barbecue on as many summer weekends as I can handle.
What animal are you most like?
Is it cheating to go with a higher primate? If not, I’ll pick a chimpanzee, because I’m very curious and always pushing buttons to see what they do or picking things up and taking them apart to see how they work. 
You’re stranded on a desert island with one book, one album, and one object of your choosing. What items do you have?
Assuming that all the survival business is taken care of and that the object, book and album are entirely for entertainment and cultural value: I think the strategy here is to pick something that I can enjoy over and over, rather than just going with my favorites. So how about Infinite Jest as the book, the Harry Smith Collection as the album, and a Frisbee as the object.
What superpower would you most like to have?
I think an iPhone counts as a superpower – can I get one of those?