Garrett Smith

Garrett Smith Email and Phone Number

Director, Customer Experience (CX) Strategy @ MERGE | Customer Research | Workshop Facilitation | CX Visualization | Strategic Storytelling @ MERGE
Garrett Smith's Location
Chicago, Illinois, United States, United States
Garrett Smith's Contact Details

Garrett Smith personal email

About Garrett Smith

Highly skilled and experienced customer researcher, workshop facilitator, CX visualizer, and strategic storyteller with a proven track record of leading large-scale, cross-functional, end-to-end CX strategy initiatives. Expert at uniting cross-functional stakeholders to co-create future-state, omnichannel experiences.Key Skills:-Customer Research: Moderating interviews, scoping and planning research initiatives, and distilling actionable insights-Workshop Facilitation: Expert in planning and facilitating workshops to foster clarity, alignment, and collaboration-CX Visualization: Simplifying complex concepts through storyboarding, journey maps, personas, and visual frameworks-Strategic Storytelling: Crafting compelling narratives and presentations that align business goals and customer needs

Garrett Smith's Current Company Details
MERGE

Merge

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Director, Customer Experience (CX) Strategy @ MERGE | Customer Research | Workshop Facilitation | CX Visualization | Strategic Storytelling
Garrett Smith Work Experience Details
  • Merge
    Director, Cx Strategy
    Merge Oct 2021 - Present
    Chicago, Illinois, Us
    - Leading cross-functional, end-to-end CX strategy initiatives for digitally focused clients.- Driving client discovery to align business goals with customer needs. - Designing and conducting qualitative research to uncover actionable insights. - Facilitating client-facing co-creation workshops to identify future-state opportunities. - Delivering journey maps, personas, future-state CX storyboards, and roadmaps that identify short-term improvements while guiding long-term CX investments.
  • Self-Employed
    Principal
    Self-Employed Apr 2020 - Present
    HARQ is a customer-focused research & strategy partner that’s here to help cross-functional teams find focus, craft inspiring customer stories, and envision seamless customer experiences.
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
    Director Of Cx Strategy & Design
    Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Mar 2019 - Apr 2020
    Chicago, Il, Us
    - Successfully implemented a design sprint process that enables BCBS companies to rapidly co-design, prototype, iterate and test digital & physical solutions with customers over the course of a 7 day “Design Sprint Relay.”- Evangelized the design program to a breadth of audiences including c-suite leadership, operations and customer service management through in-person & online presentations.- Translated the design program prototypes and insights for application to the entire BCBS network, which resulted in validating and refocusing ongoing product development efforts across the system.- Acted as a CX & design subject matter expert through ongoing consultation sessions to aid in developing customer-centric capabilities, defining CX personnel requirements and coaching to refine storytelling skills.- Facilitated scoping workshops for internal partners that resulted in focused project goals, team alignment and clear next steps.- Rewarded the BCBSA Presidents Award as recognition for excellent performance.
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
    Manager Of Cx Strategy & Design
    Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Dec 2016 - Mar 2019
    Chicago, Il, Us
    - Successfully co-developed and launched the Blue Cross Blue Shield Signature Experience; a system wide customer experience vision that aligned the CX strategies of 36 BCBS companies, which impacts the customer experience of over 100 million people.- Designed and launched a toolkit that BCBS companies have used to translate CX strategy into digital, communication and service solutions.- Designed a CX project pitch template for the BCBS CX community that has enabled project teams to create proposals that connect customer problems to business needs.- Collaborated with research partners to plan and execute in-home & online customer research interviews, which led to designing customer journey frameworks used to identify opportunities for improvement within the BCBS customer experience.- Led 5 multi-day workshops to immerse over 200 BCBS stakeholders in customer healthcare journeys to identify, prioritize and align on key problems to solve.- Delivered conference presentations across the BCBS network about implementing customer experience strategy and rapid product development.- Facilitated and designed multiple BCBS CX community scoping sessions to identify opportunities for community enrichment and consulting offerings.
  • Sc Johnson
    Senior Associate Of Industrial Design & Brand Strategy
    Sc Johnson Jun 2013 - Dec 2016
    Racine, Wi, Us
    - Led a cross-disciplinary product development team for the Ziploc brand to identify customer insights and product development opportunities, which led to a global Ziploc printing program.- Partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and SC Johnson’s Base of the Pyramid team to design a mosquito repellent product in the ongoing effort to eradicate malaria from the world, which resulted in providing a breadth of product concepts that were used to evaluate market fit and business feasibility.- Led an initiative to refresh the Ziploc visual brand language and restructure the brand architecture based upon global quantitative research, which resulted in marketing assets that communicated expanding the possibilities of how to use the Ziploc product portfolio beyond food. - Collaborated with research and ad agency partners to identify insights about customers bringing food on-the-go, which resulted in designing a customer experience journey that was used to create interactive web based tools that helped customers clearly see the benefits of “being a lunch bringer.”- Collaborated with Ziploc marketers and ad agency partners to redefine the Ziploc brand purpose, resulting in long-term strategies for how to represent Ziploc in media and marketing assets.- Partnered with Ziploc marketing to define a Space Bags claims strategy based upon quantitative usage research, which drove redesigning packaging to reflect prioritized claims on shelf.- Led a large scale Ziploc design innovation project to, which led to relaunching a previously defunct product that was re-communicated using the identified insights.
  • Focus Products Group, Llc
    Industrial Designer
    Focus Products Group, Llc Jan 2010 - May 2013
    Lincolnshire, Il, Us
    - Designed, developed and launched over 30 products in 3.5 years across multiple brands as well as working directly with retailers such as: Williams Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Sur La Table.- Collaborated directly with Chinese manufacturing partners to gauge product feasibility, co-create product specifications and oversee tooling & production development.- Implemented customer-centric research methods under extremely tight budget constraints, resulting in designing 3 product platforms based upon creating solutions that worked together across the customer cooking/baking experience.- Created an internal blog to share customer research and housewares trends across the design, marketing and engineering departments.- Led weekly brainstorming sessions that incorporated marketing, engineering, sales, operations and customer service, which helped to develop cross-disciplinary “buy-in” across the organization for new product development.

Garrett Smith Skills

Product Design Rapid Prototyping Experience Design Rendering Concept Development Design Strategy Design Research Rhino Concept Generation User Centered Design Concept Design 3d Modeling Business Strategy Strategic Planning Project Management Illustrator Indesign Photoshop Design Thinking Storytelling Innovation Management Contract Negotiation Sketchbook Pro Brand Strategy Multi Disciplinary Teams Design Leadership Innovation Development Ethnography Consumer Insight Strategic Design Strategic Insights Design Res Product Des Product Road Mapping Human Centered Design Managing Agency Relationships Sketching Rapid Visualization Industrial Design

Garrett Smith Education Details

  • School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago
    School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago
    Industrial Design
  • University Of Wisconsin-Madison
    University Of Wisconsin-Madison
    Studio Arts
  • Canterbury Christ Church University
    Canterbury Christ Church University
    Studio Arts

Frequently Asked Questions about Garrett Smith

What company does Garrett Smith work for?

Garrett Smith works for Merge

What is Garrett Smith's role at the current company?

Garrett Smith's current role is Director, Customer Experience (CX) Strategy @ MERGE | Customer Research | Workshop Facilitation | CX Visualization | Strategic Storytelling.

What is Garrett Smith's email address?

Garrett Smith's email address is gs****@****rge.com

What schools did Garrett Smith attend?

Garrett Smith attended School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago, University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Canterbury Christ Church University.

What skills is Garrett Smith known for?

Garrett Smith has skills like Product Design, Rapid Prototyping, Experience Design, Rendering, Concept Development, Design Strategy, Design Research, Rhino, Concept Generation, User Centered Design, Concept Design, 3d Modeling.

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