Behind the Trends: Meet Edwin Villafane Hernandez, Sr. Product Analyst

Meet Edwin Villafane Hernandez, Sr. Product Analyst, and learn more about his role on the Brand Research Team. Edwin discusses being at the center of Pinterest’s tentpole campaigns like Pinterest Predicts and Pinterest Palette. 

Hi Edwin! We’re looking forward to catching up with you. What’s your role at Pinterest and how long have you been at the company? 

I'm a product analyst on the Brand Research team. My work centers on leading the analytics and data science behind Pinterest's trend forecasting and trend spotting efforts, including Pinterest Predicts, our annual report on the trends we believe will define the year ahead, as well as Pinterest Palette and other tentpole campaigns throughout the year. Basically, I spend my days hunting for the next big thing. The most fun challenge to me is turning billions of signals into stories people actually care about. I've been at Pinterest for almost four years, and this work has been my home base since day one.

What did your career look like before Pinterest and what led you to joining the team? 

Before Pinterest, I was a software engineer working on growth teams where I honed my experimentation and product data skills. I spent my days designing A/B tests, building features and shipping experiments at scale for millions of users around the world. (It's also where I picked up random tidbits of Swedish and learned the important difference between a barn jacket and a chore coat.)

That work of balancing statistical rigor with product intuition, and translating experiment results into actionable insights taught me that a single data point can tell multiple stories. The magic to me is in knowing which one matters: seeing data as narratives, not just numbers. That mindset is what drew me to Pinterest and, specifically, to Pinterest Predicts.

One of your main responsibilities is data and analysis for Pinterest Predicts, our annual not-yet-trending report. Can you describe your role in bringing the trends to life? 

On the day to day, it’s a blend of technical rigor and cultural intuition. You can catch me wrangling multimodal data, working with our machine learning engineering teams to test and adopt new signals and keeping the pulse on the cultural zeitgeist because understanding why something is emerging is just as important as knowing that it's emerging. 

Since joining Pinterest almost four years ago, I've built the data science operation behind Predicts by developing our core methodologies, expanding the data inputs we draw from and refining our frameworks year-over-year to improve both precision and coverage. The north star is simple: every single trend we feature in our report needs to be rooted in real, defensible data and an ever-growing amount of it. That foundation is what gives us the confidence to make bold predictions, and the credibility to stand behind them when they come true.

There's also an incredibly creative side to the work as I collaborate with our creative directors to understand our models, data and early reads to go from raw signal to fully realized trend: identifying the cultural thread tying it all together, developing the visual language and landing on a name that captures the vibe while sparking curiosity, giving us trends like Western Gothic, Eclectic Grandpa and Moto Boho (which was named by yours truly!). Watching a trend go from a collection of seemingly disconnected ideas to something that people adopt IRL? That never gets old.

Long story short: I'm involved every step of the way from statistical models to the mood boards. Someone's gotta connect the dots between econometric methods and Glamoratti!

If there’s one thing you’d want people to know about Pinterest Predicts, what would it be? 

That these trends aren't just vibes pulled out of thin air and they're definitely not AI-generated! Every single trend in the report is backed by real data proof points sourced from what people are inspired by all around the world. 

Which 2026 trend inspires you the most? 

Cabbage Crush is my absolute favorite this year, I mean take a look at this Cabbage Crush wedding board! I now know way too much about cabbage biology (the Brassica family runs deep) and have a running list of cabbage dishes from all over the world to try. But beyond my newfound leafy obsession, this trend is a powerful reminder that a trend isn't always something new. Sometimes, the next big thing is something that's been right in front of you, something that is familiar, overlooked and ready for a modern remix!

Ready to discover the 21 Pinterest Predicts trends of 2026? Visit pinterestpredicts.com. Inspired by the magic behind the trends? Explore opportunities to join us here.