Colleen Durst Email & Phone Number

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada

I help organizations think differently about growth. Through a marketing communications lens, I support clients as they navigate the worlds of branding, marketing, business and consumer innovation. I’m also a workshop facilitator that applies human-centric design and creative problem solving best practices to lead clients to breakthrough discoveries.

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

As a lead facilitator at the Deloitte Greenhouse in Toronto, I had the opportunity to bring together ecosystems of diverse leaders and lead them through important conversations that would allow them to tackle the biggest and most complex challenges facing their organizations, industries, and societies. I designed and facilitated workshops and created psychologically safe spaces for leaders in order to incubate ideas, shift mindsets and create breakthroughs that will form the foundation for future success.

Toronto, Canada Area

As a Chief Customer Officer, I acted as the Voice of the Customer. Officially, I created a vision and strategy for the customer experience, but really I listened to customers' stories and helped the business understand how to act upon the needs of customers.- Acted as in-house subject matter expert for research and service design, customizing design research to meet project requirements while developing best practices- Designed and launched a national, bilingual Customer Experience Measurement Strategy (Voice of the Customer program) to gain input from customers in order to capture relationship and transactional insights to improve CX and operational efficiency- Launched and standardized an innovative, agile methodology consisting of facilitated "Ideation Squads" designed to focus cross-functional stakeholders on solving critical enterprise pain points, related to service delivery and organizational structure, in both digital and non-digital channels, with a human-centric lens- Identified a new strategy, in partnership with product and sales leaders, to re-engage a lapsed customer base- Increased usage and engagement of a legacy enterprise-wide customer retention program by quantifying the ROI in proactive customer intervention versus recovery efforts- Recognized with the First American People First Award for outstanding contributions

Toronto

I applied my knowledge on innovation processes and design research best practices coupled with industry trends to inform course requirements and curriculum for the three-year program.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

As an inventor, I facilitated business owners through the innovation process in order to create new products and services for customers. I partnered with a team of inventors to optimize and streamline the innovation pipeline across multiple lines of business within Financial Services. I applied strong analytical skills to identify opportunities that aligned with the corporate strategic priorities.

As a strategic creative thinker that helped brand teams identify solutions for growth challenges through innovative approaches that leverage insights from consumers, assets and technology, I was responsible for expanding the North American client base by leading, designing and delivering high-priority, multiphase innovation projects. Happen® is the creative innovation consultancy that opens up opportunities for companies that are serious about improving their innovation success rates.Our vow? To transform innovation success rates – striving for 100%. An audacious goal and one that’s working – so far we’ve delivered over $1.7 billion in incremental revenue for many of the world’s leading brands. And as our clients have grown so has Happen – from 5 people to more than 60 in 5 offices around the world.

Toronto

I managed the successful delivery of several multi-phased innovation projects, to uncover breakthrough insights and solve complex challenges, including digital experience and transformation, product pipeline building, business model innovation and white space opportunity prioritization, on behalf of cross-functional client teams across industries including CPG, FMCG, liquor, travel and financial services, B2B, B2C, digital and non-digital experiences

Consulting associate on numerous insight-led innovation projects and strategic ideation workshops for a range of clients including Bacardi, Canadian Tire, Winners, and Bruce Power.Acted as Editor in Chief for an innovation publication dealing with topics on brand naming, trend forecasting and product pipeline ideation. Co-presented during World Creativity and Innovation Week, in Toronto, and during the Richard Ivey School of Business Innovation Week, in London, Ontario.

Completed an extended internship in the marketing & communications department at GO Transit, a provincial government transportation agency. Identified potential strategic partnerships coinciding with corporate strategic objectives, explored creativity by contributing articles to customer and employee newsletters, and through collaborative efforts, gained positive media coverage for the organization.

Honours, Public Relations

Activities and Societies: Humber Student Federation, Events Assistant

Stand-Up Comedy And Improvisation

Education record