Through VÔO, I deliver innovative multi-modal product design, product management, and narrative strategy for up-and-coming experiences in the retail, arts & culture, technology and social good arenas. Additional expertise in conversational AI, content design, consumer trends and collaborative brand experiences.

Lead UX product design partner and conversational designer for the Allstate Sales Bot, partnering with the product owner, business owners, international development leads and research partners to design and deliver a new and improved conversational customer self service experience. Additional work with IVR experience tuning, brand voice integration and junior designer mentoring.Big picture: Designed and implemented successful chat social conversation and dissatisfaction redirect strategies that improved customer perception of both the bot’s and the brand’s listening capability, significantly increasing containment rates; Collaborated with NLU analysis and research partners to refine and enhance the contextual and conversational quality of our responses and increase intent confidence scores/match rates;Established conversational design best practices and working alliances across platform verticals and designed NLU-informed, automated utterance analysis tools that can be scaled across multiple chat experiences, improving bot accuracy by over 15% in the first month of implementation; Mentored members of the Development and Chat Ops teams interested in qualitative data analysis to increase opportunities to correct intent errors; Mentored junior conversational designers in conversation strategy and technical understanding of voice systems.

Back to my fashion roots for this app consulting project. App Narrative Strategy consulting, and even a little creative content direction, for a brand new NM mobile experience. Big picture, I helped NM’s editorial content team (in close collaboration with Brand leadership) translate their unique voice into a scalable, product-oriented content UI strategy that would support the new experience; identify and refine the product’s value propositions, and define and differentiate individual features UI messaging moments and action patterns across multiple app features.

Part of a critical team focused on rapidly designing, launching - and testing in real time - cross-platform pandemic-related services and service changes under intense timelines.I delivered a content UI strategy with a complex combination of instructional, inspirational and legal content requirements by partnering with business leadership, brand, engineering, design partners, 3rd party vendors and other stakeholders to overcome technical, logistical and legal challenges; and collaborated with A11y partners to establish relevant Accessibility strategies for both digital and in-store customers.

In establishing the UX content program at Best Buy, one of the most important roles I played was championing how words – and the way we used them – can help create better customer experiences.In my role as a practicing lead UX Writer and Narrative Strategist, I led projects from a content perspective across all platforms including consumer-facing App and digital experiences, Chat, IVR, Voice-Enabled Shopping (Alexa Skills, etc.), AR/VR experiences and major enterprise initiatives – both for Best Buy’s consumer electronic and Health businesses.As a member of Best Buy’s UX Standards team, I worked across Best Buy to promote UX writing as a discipline; helped hire and train new UX writers and Conversational designers; and established functional language patterns to help our Design partners with consistency across experiences, (so we didn't waste time sweating the small stuff.)With insights from my team, I created a set of UX Writing design principles and guiding actions to inform our work and designed voice & tone, design process and content UI strategy tools to help that work stay aligned and move forward. I partnered with Research teams to encourage narrative strategy thinking in the ideation of product and feature design, as well as establish content testing as part of usability studies.

From geek to chic - serious to silly, I used an experience design approach to craft rich, multichannel campaign strategies that delivered measurable sales improvements and created big brand love.Served as lead digital copywriter for designer collaborations, special brand projects and cross-category divisions, including campaigns for 3.1 Phillip Lim, TOMS + Target, Altuzarra, Made to Matter, Faribault for Target, and Oh Joy! among others, with many collections exceeding their online sales goals by 40% or more after introducing a new product information content messaging strategy.Partnered with Target’s Media Network division as a consulting content strategist, developing both multichannel and persona-focused promotional strategies for brands such as Banana Boat, Brita, Charmin, LG, Purina and Starbucks, etc.Served as lead copywriter for Target.com’s Home & Outdoor Living and Holiday product categories Mastered the Target voice across all divisions, infusing copy with compelling, SEO-driven verbiage aiming to inspire and motivate trend-loving consumers

Creative Product Manager for Apparel & Accessories, Holiday & Special Projects, and Vendor Marketing experiences for Target.com platforms. Served as creative product owner for apparel & accessories, holiday, special brands and vendor marketing experiences across Target’s digital platforms; Consulted with user experience and development stakeholder teams to establish technical requirements; Collaborated with internal partners and outside agencies on creative strategy and implementation; Managed creative processed to ensure alignment with project and leadership goals; Facilitated digital content execution and deployment between Minneapolis and Bangalore teams;Performed QA for new site technologies, ensured Accessibility compliance across digital channels and partnered significantly in creative process redesign initiatives.Lead Product Manager - Email Marketing Partnered with creative teams, business analysts, product merchandisers and product managers to create fun, sales-focused email experiences that drove demand, acquisition, retention and engagement; Managed email content design, testing and deployment processes between Minneapolis and Bangalore teams, significantly reducing E2E process redundancies and execution errors and delays; Collaborated across stakeholder teams to develop new tools and timing that streamlined both the creative and development processes fundamentally, reducing overall program costs by over $2M annually, while producing an improved product that experienced increased guest conversion rates of over 300%.

Managed a portfolio of over 125 private, corporation and large institutional funders with annual revenues of $1.1M and integrated post-merger branding for Minnesota's largest provider of domestic violence services and specialized mental health care and legal services for women and families. In addition, designed successful direct marketing messaging and other re-engagement strategies for former Chrysalis foundation and individual donors. Responsibilities included developing grant proposals; cultivating and maintaining foundation relationships; identifying and cultivating relationships with external program project partners; designing and implementing program evaluation and fulfilling all grant reporting requirements; closing program funding gaps through strategic appeals to targeted individuals and organizations; and developing special program support opportunities for private foundation and major individual donors.

I design brand stories, consumer journeys and e-commerce content strategies for multi-platform experiences in the retail, arts & culture, technology and social good arenas. From geek to chic - serious to silly, I use an experience design approach to help companies tell their stories, enhance brand relevance, future-proof content strategies and keep digital and real-life ‘experiences’ connected in the constantly-changing world of what's next. Additional expertise in consumer trend analysis, unlocking content-driven revenue opportunities and energizing collaborative brand experiences.

Developed the branding and operational strategies for all-volunteer Minneapolis-based fashion, art and design publication. General responsibilities included establishing the voice for both on-line and print editions; instituting editorial policies and standards; planning and executing story concepts and editorials; creating operational systems including production, distribution and staffing; collaborating with creative director on all features and major editorial; managing contributing writers; editing major features and researching trends and retailers for product and advertising tie-ins. Additionally collaborated and produced numerous brand-establishing public events.