Jennifer Walters Email and Phone Number

Strategic Planning | Special Projects and Initiatives

Designing human-centered organizational initiatives that facilitate the evolution and growth of the company through a focus on people, culture, and operations.

Design Researcher + Strategist Research & Ethnography | Strategy | Insights & Opportunity Development | Storytelling | Workshop Facilitation Clients: United States Department of Veterans Affairs | United Technologies | Otis | CLTCEC | AT&T

Collaborate with Creative + Client teams (Toyota) to develop researchstrategies that align with both long term business objectives and current ongoingdesign initiatives in an effort to transform the vehicle shopping experience.Create research plans, conduct user research and share insights to maintaina user-focused lens on all design work. Evangelize the value of research throughout the organization through presentations, workshops and case studies.

Our project team was tasked with creating a design solution that would increase user engagement on our client's website. • Conducted research to understand who the user is and what their needs were. Identified where users were leaving the page to optimize changes where a redesign would have the most impact. • Discovered insights that informed important design changes throughout the design process.• Created a content strategy that mapped back to user priorities and expectations. Designed wireframes to test and iterate on.• Designed and tested a prototype that was more intuitive for users, while supporting business objectives

Summary: Overseeing and developing all aspects of operations and back office business processes for rapidly scaling start-up in automotive industry; entry into LA was second market launch for the SF-based start-up; LA market entry was critical for company to execute their strategy of disrupting the car buying experience; company received $50M Series B investment from Goldman Sachs during second month of employment.Office Space Design & Relocation: Planned and executed office relocation from Santa Monica to East LA; scope included all aspects of space design, product selection, budgeting, vendor selection / management; ensured alignment to vision, strategy and growth goals; space efficiently enabled car delivery experience to grow from 20 cars to 200+.Business Process Development: Partnered with SF hub office to standardize best-practices for all backend business processes for future market launches; developed playbook to scale new locations that was deployed in SD and D.C.Talent Development: Developed and executed all aspects of HR processes including recruiting, on-boarding, training, career modeling, and retention; scaled LA office from 10 to 60 employees in six months; co-created and led on-boarding and training sessions for LA, SD, and D.C.Employee Experience Lead: Designed and led employee experiences to create unique culture in LA office; overcame challenges in diversity of employees – ranged from ex-Google engineers, ex-McKinsey consultants, car gurus, and mechanics all co- located in an operational space.

Summary: GM’s operational go-to for Communications firm; enabled the office to scale from 70 to 180 people. Led an administrative team of six that together served as air-traffic controllers to meet the dynamic needs for the office, teams and leaders in the region.Office Design and Relocation: Defined the vision, concept, and design of Class-A commercial space; partnered with architecture firm for build; determined color schematics that aligned with brand identity, created layouts that enabled multiple use-cases but also met the long-term needs for an organization that has continued to grow; oversaw logistics for move of 180 people overnightCulture Liaison: Served as eyes and ears on the ground for GM to understand culture of individual teams throughout; identified potential roadblocks and options for GM to implement; utilized empathy and found creative solutions to meet the needs of all stakeholder groups; talent ambassador in the local market that articulated company’s unique culture to prospective candidatesEvent Planning Lead: Planned all company events to share successes, promote culture, communicate initiatives, company values and circulate best practices; produced large scale special events from concept to completion; served as a primary POC for the Seattle office within global firm network and local community leaders; events included partnerships with Starbucks, Microsoft, University of WashingtonOperations: Hired, trained and led operations team in Seattle and Portland offices. Negotiated, evaluated and managed contracts and relationships with service providers and vendorsLeadership: Member of Global Citizenship team, sharing and implementing plans to support global strategic initiatives. Attended and hosted industry events as a talent ambassador, speaking with prospective employees about life and careers at Edelman; led local Living In Color team to organize volunteer efforts in our local communities.