Forbes Vetted: Who We Are

About Us

Welcome to Forbes Vetted, a section of Forbes.com for discovering top-performing products that are worth the investment. Our expert editors give you straightforward shopping advice on everything from home goods and tech
to fashion, gifts and more, plus the inside scoop on what today’s leaders and tomorrow’s visionaries are using to step up their game. Our guidance is the result of world-class research and real-life testing: Each product we feature is carefully and thoroughly evaluated to power our readers’ success.

How We Select And Test Products

The foundation for all the recommendations you’ll find on Forbes Vetted is deep topical expertise, rigorous reporting and extensive research. Our staff writers, staff editors and freelance contributors are seasoned professionals with years of experience in their areas of focus. They draw upon their wealth of knowledge in every piece of content published on Forbes Vetted.

To determine the best items in a specific category, we begin by interviewing our network of experts and influential people who have experience with the products at hand, along with insights on a number of brands in the space. Once we understand the gold-standard qualities of a product from our own research and interviews with sources, we curate contending items that meet our criteria. We then supplement and hone these researched recommendations with user data, poring over customer reviews and ratings on multiple retailers and taking those into consideration in our final list. We typically eliminate products with average star ratings lower than 4 out of 5, as well as products with substantial negative feedback.

Our reported product advice involves:

When we determine a certain product category requires firsthand testing to provide the best information for readers, we do so for weeks or months in real-world settings, including in our writers’ homes. To conduct these tests, our team spends hours researching each category of products we write about; this once again involves interviewing topic-specific experts on a specific class of product and developing a unique testing methodology for it. Armed with this guidance, we build a list of contenders that meet our minimum performance requirements, then request these items be sent to us as media samples directly from brands (or, when samples are not available, by purchasing them ourselves). Sending us products is not a requirement for being featured on Forbes Vetted, and we never accept samples in exchange for coverage. Our writers and editors also do not accept gifts from brands or agencies under any circumstances.

Once we have products in hand, we put them through a series of tests per our rubrics to observe factors like quality, value, ease of use, durability over time and more, and name our winners. We keep and continue to test the winning products on a long-term basis and, on occasion, re-test them against newcomers on the market. Once we’ve completed long-term testing, we return any products on loan from brands; for the rest, our editors are free to donate or keep the products.

As part of our testing program, the Forbes Vetted team has:

In addition to tested and reported purchasing guides, you’ll also see product news, information on how to care for and shop for specific products, as well as deals coverage on Forbes Vetted. While we’re focused on quality above all, we’re also conscious of value for money: We track prices throughout the year to share offers and discounts on products that meet our high standards—especially during key online sales events like Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday.

How We Assign And Edit Our Content

Every piece of content on Forbes Vetted is backed with years of skill in research and reporting. Our staff writers and editors are employed by Forbes, and directly oversee all of the content you’ll find on our site, in our newsletters and videos and on our social media platforms. We follow consistent quality standards and journalistic ethics criteria as our colleagues in the Forbes newsroom when working with contributors and preparing content for publication.

This process starts with our contributor selection and vetting process, which involves carefully reviewing writers’ credentials and published clips for demonstrated editorial quality and integrity. Once we’ve approved and onboarded contributors, we closely match them with topic assignments that fit their proven areas of expertise. On top of leveraging their own knowledge base, we require that our writers consult at least one professional and fully independent source to anchor their research and glean additional insights on the product category they’re covering.

Once a piece of content has been submitted by a contributor, the Forbes Vetted editor who assigned the story then edits it to ensure quality, accuracy and faithfulness to the Forbes style guide. This is often followed by another layer of review by a member of our editorial leadership team (our editorial director, executive editor, managing editor or one of our deputy editors). More technical topics with scientific or medical claims of any kind—particularly in our Mattress & Sleep, Kids & Baby Gear and Beauty & Grooming categories—are further reviewed by our fact-checking and copyediting team for additional verification and quality assurance. This extensive, multi-step process ultimately ensures that our readers are getting the best advice possible to make informed purchases.

Our Editorial Standards

We adhere to the rigorous editorial standards upheld by Forbes as a publication: Journalistic independence and integrity are of the utmost importance.

We strive to represent facts objectively and authoritatively in our work, verifying or debunking brand marketing claims through consultation with industry-specific experts, fact-checking performed by qualified professionals and, wherever applicable, hands-on testing of our own. If we inadvertently publish an error, we swiftly correct it and clearly disclose what we’ve changed. We require that all content on Forbes Vetted is free from hate speech and ideological bias, and expect our brand partners to hew to similar ethics and values.

Our editors and writers, both on staff and freelance, cannot accept compensation, gifts or favors in exchange for coverage of products or brands. We may request media samples in order to test and review products on Forbes Vetted, but product samples are never accepted in exchange for coverage and are not a requirement for review. Samples are returned or donated if they are not kept for long-term testing and photography. Any conflicts of interest between our writers or editors (freelance and staff) and outside parties are either avoided entirely, or raised with Forbes Vetted executive leadership and disclosed appropriately in the applicable content.

Commissions And Advertising Disclosures

All featured products and services on Forbes Vetted are independently selected by our editorial team. Our partners compensate us, which may influence the order in which products appear. If you click on or make a purchase via one of our links, we may earn an affiliate commission from the retailer. As noted, we do not choose products or retailers based on their commissions or any other financial gain. When a product is determined by Forbes Vetted to be “the best overall” or any other award name in a given category, it is because we truly think it’s the best option—a decision made independently of any affiliate partner or advertising relationships.

On occasion, Forbes Vetted may showcase a product as part of a paid placement from a brand partner. We research all of our potential partners and the items they hope to advertise before featuring them on the site, in order to ensure both meet our quality standards. Paid product placements are always clearly labeled, and Forbes Vetted editorial staffers are never involved in writing these partner inclusions (instead, they are written by our branded content team).

Our Team

Executive Leadership

Nina Gould, Chief Product Officer

Emily Jackson, Senior Vice President, eCommerce

Cory Baldwin, Executive Director, Commerce Content & Strategy

Alexis Caldwell, Executive Director, Business Development & Partnerships

Editorial

Brinda Ayer, Editorial Director

Dave Johnson, Executive Editor

Emmy Favilla, Managing Editor

Kimberly Peiffer, Director, Features & Special Projects

Jennifer Ferrise, Special Projects Editor

Rebekah Lowin, Deputy Editor

Kari Molvar, Deputy Editor

Rose Gordon Sala, Deputy Editor

Jane Sung, Deputy Editor

Amanda Arnold, Senior Home & Kitchen Editor

Sholeen Damarwala, Home & Kitchen Editor

Bridget Chapman, Senior Mattress & Sleep Editor

McKenzie Dillon, Mattress & Sleep Editor

Astrid Taran, Senior Travel Editor

Cameron Vigliotta, Gear Editor

Rebecca Isaacs, Consumer Tech & Electronics Editor

Margaret Badore, Kids & Baby Gear Editor

Katherine Louie, Commerce Editor

Anna Perling, Senior Reviews Editor

Whitney Bruno, Editorial Assistant

Lee Cutlip, Editorial Assistant

Commerce Content Strategy

Lindsay Boyers, Executive Strategy Editor

Katie Simpson, Senior Strategy Editor

Karen Tietjen, Senior Updates Editor

Michelle Regalado, Temporary Senior Updates Editor

Claire Epting, Updates Writer

Alexandra Garrett, Updates Writer

Francesca Sales, Updates Writer

Kara Cuzzone, Senior Deals Editor

Jordan Thomas, Assistant Deals Editor

Branded Content

Victoria Hess, Senior Branded Content Editor

Luke Fater, Associate Branded Content Editor

Audience Development

Spencer Dukoff, Audience Development Director

Kristina Bornholtz, Senior Distribution Strategist

Ashley Dean, Newsletter Editor

Natalie Steinman, Social Video Producer

Data, Revenue & SEO

Catie Jaffe, Senior Content Strategy Analyst

Luke Frangis, Data Analyst

Alex Noonan, Senior SEO Manager

Dawlat Chebly, SEO Content Strategist

Andy Wetula, Revenue & Reporting Lead

Shan Newton, Associate Architect, Insights

Art & Design

Richard Sancho, VP, Product Design

Jeehae Joy Hwang, Art Director

Sara Amato, Senior UX Designer

Ada Comonfort, Graphic Designer

Product & Engineering

Lauren Soni, Vice President Of Product

Dor Zaidenberg, Director Of Product: Monetization & Optimization

Matthew Flood, Group Product Manager

Julie Finken, Associate Product Manager

Caleb King, Director Of Engineering

Bharat Ramesh, Engineering Manager

Zachery Shuffield, Senior Engineer

Sri Sindhusha Boddapati, Senior Engineer

Marissa Orea, Engineer

Carmen Shannon, Junior Engineer

Brand Solutions

Madeline Kaufman, Director, eCommerce Partnerships

Kayla Sigaroudi, Associate Director Of Operations

Jessica Weisman, Senior Partnerships Manager

Katelyn Eschenburg, Partnerships Manager

Blaire Tiernan, Senior Operations Manager

Catherine Miller, Operations Manager

Richard Molinaro, Operations Manager

Get In Touch

If there’s a product category that you’d like to see featured on Forbes Vetted, please let us know at shopping@forbes.com. And if you’re a retail brand hoping to partner with us, please connect with our Brand Solutions team at commercepartnerships@forbes.com.

Licensing

We are officially partnered with Wright’s Media for licensing opportunities. Please contact them regarding available usages, fees and award seal artwork at forbesvetted@wrightsmedia.com. Note that Wright’s Media is the only authorized company that can provide Forbes Vetted brand materials.