Rob Levin
Portland
As seen in:
Forbes,
Medium,
Inc.,
McKinsey & Company,
The McKinsey Podcast,
DEV Community,
The Portland Press Herald,
UX Collective,
Forbes Japan,
Kennebec Journal
and
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Rob Levin
Forbes JAPAN 公式サイト（フォーブス ジャパン）
採用活動は骨が折れる。プロセスは長期に及び、候補者が期待通りに活躍してくれないかもしれないという不安が常に頭をよぎる。一部の経営者が、採用を何としても避けようとするのも無理はない。しかし、そうした「回避」の姿勢は、採用を躊躇することだけに現れるのではない。反対の局面、つまり「解雇することを恐れている従業員」への対応にも現れるのだ。 もしチームから1年以上も退職者が出ていなければ、幸運だと思うだろう。ほとんどの経営者は、疑問の余地なくそれを「成功」と呼ぶはずだ。 だが、私はその見方に異を唱えたい。離職率の低さは、強固で生産性の高いチームが存在することの証明にはならない。それは単なる「偽陽性」、つまり管理画面上は素晴らしい数値に見えるものの、実際にとどまっている従業員の中に、引き留めるべきではない人材が含まれている状態にすぎない可能性があるからだ。 従業員定着率に関するデータは、意外に感じられるかもしれない。米国の自発的離職率はおよそ2%で落ち着いている（これは過去10年近くで最低水準に近い）。Employ...
Is High Employee Retention Hiding Your Biggest Problem?
Rob Levin, WorkBetterNow Co-Founder and entrepreneur, brings 30+ years of expertise to help SMBs scale with top Latin American talent. Hiring is hard. The process is long. And in the back of your mind, you know the candidate might not perform as expected. It's no wonder some business owners try to avoid it at all costs. But that avoidance doesn't only show up in the hires you're hesitant to make.
3 Low-Cost Moves That Help Build Culture
If you’re lowering your ambitions to fit a weak team, you don’t need a new strategy; you need to develop your company culture. Most owners don’t consciously decide to settle. It happens gradually. One “good enough” hire. One underperformer you’ve learned to work around. Then one day you realize you’ve stopped chasing the bigger contract, the new market, the aggressive growth plan—not because the opportunity isn’t there, but because deep down you know your team can’t execute it.
Web Components: The "Missing Link" for Native Form Integration
I recently realized that my Web Components in AgnosticUI were missing native form integration. Without Form-Associated Custom Elements (FACE), components often break standard browser behaviors like validation, resetting, and submission. I just published a deep dive on Frontend Masters detailing how to use the ElementInternals interface to fix this. It’s the difference between a component that "looks" like a form field and one that actually is one in the eyes of the browser.
Why I’m still using @lit/react despite React 19’s Web Component support
React 19 finally brought native Web Component support to the finish line, achieving a perfect score on Custom Elements Everywhere. However, after rewriting AgnosticUI with a unified Lit core, I discovered that "support" and "Developer Experience" are two very different things.
Building a Scroll-Aware Blog Reader with AgnosticUI (React, Vue, Lit)
Reading on the web has a UX problem. Most article layouts are just unstyled content with a nav stuck on top. The features that make reading feel good — a progress indicator, a back-to-top button that appears when you need it, inline search highlighting — are treated as nice-to-haves. We built the Blog / Article Reader playbook to show what these features look like when they're implemented properly across all three major frameworks.
AgnosticUI Onboarding Playbook
Multi-step onboarding wizard across React, Vue, and Lit.
New in AgnosticUI: SelectionButtonGroup & SelectionCardGroup
SelectionButtonGroup Button-styled radio/checkbox controls for compact selection UIs. Perfect for: Tag/filter selection Multi-select pill buttons Compact preference toggles Form inputs where cards feel too heavy Features: 3 sizes: sm, md, lg 3 shapes: rectangular, rounded, capsule 6 themes: primary, success, info, warning, error, monochrome Full keyboard navigation (arrow keys!) Accessible with proper ARIA semantics <ag-selection-button-group type="radio" name="payment" shape="rounded">...
AI UI Without the Hallucinations
I care about design system adherence, technical flexibility, and clean code — so I wanted to see if I could get the LLM to cooperate and use AgnosticUI to build a bespoke login form. It took a few attempts, but I got there. The AI generates the login without hallucination, follows real breakpoints, and sticks to design-system constraints. Same spec, multiple frameworks. Different fonts and branding to show it's customizable.
Prompt-Driven UI: Building Production-Ready Login Pages with AgnosticUI & AI
Imagine generating a complete, production-ready UI across React, Vue, and Lit with a single AI prompt—eliminating framework lock-in and design drift for good. Read on… Over the past week, I’ve been heads-down building AgnosticUI’s first Login Playbook. It’s an AI-optimized template designed to leverage our framework-agnostic architecture to spit out fully responsive login layouts in seconds.
Upskilling Isn’t Just Training—It’s a Growth Strategy
From greater retention to higher productivity, think beyond your employees’ current skills. One of the most overlooked competitive advantages right now isn’t a new form of technology, a slick hiring tactic, or a sophisticated marketing strategy. It’s actively expanding the capabilities of your people. Today, the fastest-growing companies upskill their employees, helping them develop new skills that make them more effective in their roles.
The Ultimate Guide for Building Your Dream Team By Rob Levin
Welcome to "Executive Library," a series presenting books written by Forbes Councils experts on business topics. by Rob Levin, Forbes Business Council Million Dollar Author™ October 29, 2025 Find This Book Our Take: In The New Talent Playbook: The Ultimate Guide for Building Your Dream Team., Forbes Business Council member, Rob Levin offers readers implementable strategies to solve their most pressing business challenge: talent acquisition and retention.
Fixing Focus Management in Nested Web Components
The Problem While building a drawer component system, I encountered a peculiar focus management bug. When opening a drawer, the initial focus was supposed to land on the Close button. Instead, the ag-drawer element itself was receiving focus, and our focus detection utility was returning an empty arrayeven though the Close button was clearly visible and focusable.
COA launches energy upgrade program
Students trained in energy work will meet with willing residents to suggest energy improvements to their homes and will connect residents with rebate programs and resources to make these improvements at an affordable cost. The students will live on Great Cranberry Island over the summer to do the energy assessments, and immediately following, will bring contractors out to the islands to do the work that homeowners have opted for.
It’s 24-Hour Challenge time!
“The 24-Hour Challenge has really taken on the feel of a community-wide celebration with alums, students, staff, faculty, and members of our community all coming together to support the college. It’s also a great way to remind everyone that community support is at the heart of COA and that every contribution truly makes a difference,” says COA Dean of Advancement Shawn Keeley ’00.
Production Volumes Released for 2023
Today, we announced our 2023 production volume of over $52 billion in support of the multifamily housing market, including Multifamily Affordable Housing volumes at $6.6 billion. The press release highlights the top Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS®) Lenders that produced the highest 2023 business volumes overall and in individual business categories. Read the Press Release Thank you to our DUS Lenders and congratulations to our top producers.
إعادة الهيكلة والتفوق: الرواد في مجال التكنولوجيا الرقمية والذكاء الاصطناعي يسبقون غيرهم
حسب دراسة حديثة أجرتها ماكنزي، اكتشفت الشركات التي تتمتع بقدرات رقمية وذكاء اصطناعي متقدمة طرقاً لخلق قيمة مضاعفة. هناك فجوة متزايدة وواضحة بين الشركات الرائدة في مجال الرقمنة والذكاء الاصطناعي وبقية الشركات في الصناعة. فخلال السنوات الثلاث المنصرمة، شهدنا نموًا بنسبة 60% في استيعاب وتطبيق الذكاء الاصطناعي والتحول الرقمي بين الشركات الرائدة مقارنة بالشركات الأخرى.
Rewired and running ahead: Digital and AI leaders are leaving the rest behind
Companies with strong digital and AI capabilities have figured out how to generate compounding value, according to new McKinsey research. The distance between digital and AI leaders and other industry players is big, and it’s getting bigger. Over the past three years, the spread in digital and AI maturity between leaders and laggards has increased by 60 percent.
Reprogramadas e disparadas: as empresas líderes no uso de tecnologias digitais e de IA estão deixando as demais para trás
De acordo com uma nova pesquisa da McKinsey, as empresas com robustas capacidades digitais e de IA descobriram como gerar valor que se multiplica. A distância entre as empresas líderes no uso de tecnologias digitais e de IA e os outros players do respectivo setor é grande e está aumentando. Nos últimos três anos, a margem de diferença entre as líderes e as retardatárias com relação à maturidade digital e em IA aumentou 60%.
Reconectados y avanzando: Los líderes digitales y de IA están dejando atrás al resto
Las empresas con sólidas capacidades digitales y de inteligencia artificial han descubierto cómo generar valor compuesto, según una nueva investigación de McKinsey. La distancia entre los líderes digitales y de inteligencia artificial (IA) y otros actores de la industria es grande y cada vez mayor. En los últimos tres años, la diferencia de madurez digital y de IA entre los líderes y los rezagados ha aumentado un 60 por ciento.
Opinion: In the wake of Lewiston, time to activate our thoughts and prayers
This past weekend, we took a stand and prayed. Fifty of us – clergy and lay leaders from 20 different Maine faith communities, including two of us from Lewiston – stood and we offered our “thoughts and prayers” for victims of gun violence. But in a departure from what some have come to consider the empty and trite version of this activity, we sought to activate our prayer. We stood at the front entrance to Cabela’s in Scarborough, owned by parent company Bass Pro Shops.
Susie and the Advent Garden
“Advent what? Garden? What’s that?” Susie piped up over the phone. “It’s not really for you, Mom,” I replied guardedly. “I can do it. I’m a Mainer now.” “We’ll see . . .” I offered. The Advent Garden is a magical tradition held every December at Portland (Maine) Meeting. All the chairs in the meetingroom are pushed back and a large spiral is laid out on the floor made from a garland of evergreen boughs.
Introducing a New Option for Converting SARMs to a 5-Year Fixed
Looking for a quick and easy way to convert your existing Structured Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (SARM) Loan to a fixed-rate product? Learn more about SARM The Fannie Mae Structured Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (SARM) product is designed to provide long-term financing with a competitive variable interest rate while providing flexibility in fluctuating interest rate environments.
Dialog Components: Go Native HTML or Roll Your Own? | CSS-Tricks
As the author of a library called AgnosticUI, I’m always on the lookout for new components. And recently, I decided to dig in and start work on a new dialog (aka modal) component. That’s something many devs like to have in their toolset and my goal was to make the best one possible, with an extra special focus on making it inclusive and accessible. My first thought was that I would avoid any dependencies and bite the bullet to build my own dialog component.
What About those EV Batteries?
By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton Marketing & Communications Director We've gone from no one paying attention to the electric vehicle battery supply chain to everyone freaking out about it. So, is the hysteria warranted? Concern, yes. Hysteria, no. It's true, the current supply chain is heavily dependent on foreign sources for battery materials, and EV batteries are predominantly manufactured outside the US.
Support Multiple Frameworks in a Monorepo
Your mission — should you decide to accept it — is to build a Button component in four frameworks, but, only use one button.css file! This idea is very important to me. I’ve been working on a component library called AgnosticUI where the purpose is building UI components that aren’t tied to any one particular JavaScript framework. AgnosticUI works in React, Vue 3, Angular, and Svelte.
Breaking the code: Unlocking digital and analytics at scale for consumer goods
CPG leaders around the world have been awakened to the potential of digital and analytics to transform the traditional interactions and processes in their businesses. However, despite the energy and engagement of top teams, often these efforts are not scaling up impact as quickly as necessary to keep pace. Frequently, this is because CPGs are not investing in building the supporting foundation to enable the value at stake.
What is this “shape design” thing?
Shape play This article discusses shape design as used in certain styles of contemporary illustration. Shape design is really a graphic design technique but it can be applied to any sort of image-making practice whether that’s graphical illustration, landscape oils, hand drawn pencil and paper, etc. The TL;DR takeaway here is that shape design based on geometric shapes interspersed against more organic shapes is a design weapon that can be used to create eye-pleasing and modern images. Warning.
Council Post: How Life Settlements Can Offer Returns And Diversification
Rob Levin is the Managing Member of the Oasis Strategy Group, an asset management firm specializing in life settlements. getty Life settlements have been viable alternative investments within the U.S. for more than a century, and they can provide diversification and solid returns. Yet awareness of them has only recently started to increase.
The next wave of healthcare innovation: The evolution of ecosystems
How healthcare stakeholders can win within evolving healthcare ecosystems. Author’s Note: This paper was originally completed for publishing in early 2020 prior to the major outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We believe that the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic downturn, has only accelerated the evolution of healthcare ecosystems. As we move forward, organizations can consider ways to use healthcare ecosystems to improve patient experience and health, while reducing total costs.
The next wave of healthcare innovation: The evolution of ecosystems
Author’s Note: This paper was originally completed for publishing in early 2020 prior to the major outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We believe that the COVID-19 pandemic, and economic downturn, has only accelerated the evolution of healthcare ecosystems. As we move forward, organizations can consider ways to use healthcare ecosystems to improve patient experience and health, while reducing total costs. Ecosystems create powerful forces that can reshape and disrupt industries.
Thumbtack’s Illustration Refresh
A Q&A interview with Illustrator Krystal Lauk on Thumbtack’s fresh new illustration style… Wedding Planning—featured hero illustration by Krystal Lauk for Thumbtack Krystal Lauk is a San Francisco Bay Area based Illustrator who’s done illustration branding for several high profile companies: Facebook, Uber, Google, Intercom, and The New York Times. She’s been recognized by American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators, and 3×3 magazine.
The Importance Of Time For Entrepreneurs
File this under one of those really important things that they don't teach you in business school: As an entrepreneur, how you look at time can make the difference of whether your company is worth $1 million, $10 million or $100 million. I first met legendary entrepreneur Norm Brodsky when I started The New York Enterprise Report and called him to get some feedback and advice on my new business.
Learn To Speak SMB, The Language Of Small And Midsize Businesses
In a previous post, I wrote about how important it is to understand that small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are different from other segments. Companies wishing to reach this important audience must create product and service offerings expressly for them. The same is true of messaging. You can’t expect to get the attention of busy business owners with the same marketing messages you use for enterprise buyers or consumers.
Four Rules For Marketing To Small And Midsize Businesses
In our business, we focus on helping enterprise-level companies sell and market to small and midsize businesses. SMBs are a large, varied and attractive segment for agencies as well as most other sectors that sell products or services to business customers. With this in mind, I thought I’d share what I know about how to engage with this highly sought-after but hard-to-reach audience. Effective marketing to SMBs requires dedicated strategies and tactics.
Three Steps To Reinvent Your Marketing To Compete In A Content-Driven World
Marketing sage Philip Kotler once said, “Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. Marketing is the art of creating genuine customer value. It is the art of helping your customer become better off.” While Kotler wrote this in 1967, it’s still a pretty revolutionary idea. Most marketers don’t see it this way. They’re all about the product or service they’re trying to sell. Who can blame them, with the neverending push to ring the cash register today?
Maine Compass: Why I was arrested at Central Maine Power headquarters - CentralMaine.com
It has come to this: Central Maine Power has made a criminal of me. On Monday, I was arrested for the first time in my life, for seeking to shine sunlight on CMP’s lobbying against solar power (“Four pro-solar power protesters arrested at CMP Augusta headquarters,” Jan. 29.) I did not take action lightly. As an attorney and as an engaged citizen, I consider respect for the rule of law among the highest of our shared values as an American people.
Maine Voices: Now a criminal, CMP ratepayer chastises company on solar power stand - Portland Press Herald
It has come to this: Central Maine Power has made a criminal of me. On Monday, I was arrested for the first time in my life, for seeking to shine sunlight on CMP’s lobbying against solar power. (See “Four pro-solar power protesters arrested at CMP Augusta headquarters,” Jan. 29.) I did not take action lightly. As an attorney and as an engaged citizen, I consider respect for the rule of law among the highest of our shared values as an American people.
Levin: The voice of the Newton County GOP: Lean Right, Look to the Center, and Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll
It a busy Saturday at Bread & Butter Bakery, where an alarming slice of my disposable income comes to be disposed. Customers are nibbling on sandwiches and eyeing the dessert case, and nearby, Asian students from Oxford College are chattering over tea. My coffee companion is Scott Jay, the recently elected chairman of the Newton County Republican Party. It goes without saying, Scott is a conservative.
Levin: 20 Years as Police Chief-'Every Day is a Good Day'
Some evenings, after Stacey Cotton has gone home to his newly constructed house in Mansfield, he and his wife return to the Covington square. As a Newton County resident, Cotton appreciates the bustling scene—outdoor dining at Your Pie, painting parties at Wild Art, hand-holding teens at Scoops, music drifting from the rooftop of the Mystic Grill. But as the longtime chief of the Covington Police Department, Cotton can’t help but absorb the scene from a different perspective.
More Gotchas Getting Inline SVG Into Production—Part II | CSS-Tricks
The following is a guest post by Rob Levin and Chris Rumble. Rob and Chris both work on the product design team at Mavenlink. Rob is also creator and host of the SVG Immersion Podcast and wrote the original 5 Gotchas article back in '14. Chris, is a UI and Motion Designer/Developer based out of San Francisco. In this article, they go over some additional issues they encountered after incorporating inline SVGs in to Mavenlink's flagship application more then 2 years ago.
Ballet Girl Experiment (credit to Scott Eaton!)
You can apply CSS to your Pen from any stylesheet on the web. Just put a URL to it here and we'll apply it, in the order you have them, before the CSS in the Pen itself. If the stylesheet you link to has the file extension of a preprocessor, we'll attempt to process it before applying. You can also link to another Pen here, and we'll pull the CSS from that Pen and include it.
Face Morphing
You can apply CSS to your Pen from any stylesheet on the web. Just put a URL to it here and we'll apply it, in the order you have them, before the CSS in the Pen itself. If the stylesheet you link to has the file extension of a preprocessor, we'll attempt to process it before applying. You can also link to another Pen here, and we'll pull the CSS from that Pen and include it.
We’re Back… with More Skottie Young & Baby Marvel
After some technical issues and much too long a hiatus, CBR INK is back! To kick things off, bask in the glory of this Baby Marvel tattoo based on the work of artist Skottie Young. In most cases we try to give you a little more background on who a tattoo belongs to or who the artists was, but in this case… we came up dry. If you happen to have any info on this particular piece of work, please drop us a line.
5 Gotchas You're Gonna Face Getting Inline SVG Into Production | CSS-Tricks
The following is a guest post by Rob Levin. Rob is a Senior UI/UX Developer at Mavenlink, and coauthor of the Unicorn UI CSS Button Library. Their 2.0 release is using an SVG icon system, and here he shares some issues he's ran into along the way, and how you can watch out for them and fix them. Plus, Rob provides a full system you can use, including a working build process and demo. You've read up on how inline SVG's are better than font icons and are ready to take the plunge.
TV, Film, and Entertainment News Daily
The White House-destroying aliens from 1996′s box office hit Independence Day are coming back to theaters, according to a report from Deadline. 20th Century has officially greenlit the project and is looking to lock up original director Roland Emmerich to return. By locking up deals now, the sequel is on track for a June 24, 2016 release date, but Deadline also speculates that it could easily move to July 4, 2016 to capitalize on the holiday weekend.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Rob
Contact Rob, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack