RETAIL TO HQ STRETCH PROGRAM

ORGANIZATION
Athletic Footwear and Apparel Corporation

RESULTS
A scalable, award-winning learning journey that increased internal promotions, improved retention, and strengthened internal talent pipeline, while celebrating the unique strengths of retail teammates.

Participants in the program were promoted at over 4x the typical rate for retail employees, unlocking untapped talent and creating new career pathways from store to HQ. To date, employees from 15+ countries have stretched into roles in corporate offices near them, expanding the internal pipeline with talent deeply connected to the brand and its consumers.

OPPORTUNITY
Unlocking the deep consumer knowledge, brand passion, and diverse talent in stores, while supporting employees as they stepped into stretch roles at HQ

AUDIENCE
Retail employees transitioning into corporate roles, along with their store and HQ managers

DETAILS
This work sat at the intersection of strategic planning and experience design. Bringing strategy, structure, and empathy together to support career growth from store to corporate. 

To start, we listened. My team and I engaged deeply with the people at the heart of the journey: the retail employee stepping into a stretch role, their in-store manager, and their new corporate manager. Through user interviews and journey mapping, we surfaced key moments, emotional highs and lows, and what support was needed, when and why.

From there, we designed a cohort-based development experience rooted in confidence-building, storytelling, and a strong connection to culture and strategy.

We worked hand-in-hand with HR, Legal, and Compensation to establish clear global guardrails, then co-created an activation toolkit that gave each geography the flexibility to adapt the program to their unique context, without losing consistency or integrity.

Making the moment
Mapping what’s next

ORGANIZATION
Global Executive Team, Pet Nutrition Division

THE RESULT
A reconnected leadership team aligned in purpose and vision, equipped with renewed clarity, deeper trust, and the emotional capacity to lead through transformation.

As part of the engagement, I designed and delivered a set of core artifacts to support activation:

• Participant Workbook (printed and bound)

• Facilitator Guide

OPPORTUNITY
Equip a leadership team to navigate a pivotal transition by deepening alignment, trust, and clarity. Laying the emotional and strategic groundwork for leading transformational change

AUDIENCE
Senior executives stepping into expanded leadership responsibilities during a period of organizational evolution

DETAILS
This was a moment that mattered for a global leader in Pet Nutrition. A leadership team standing at a threshold, navigating complexity, honoring the past, and preparing to lead others through transformation. The goal: to pause with purpose, reconnect as a team, and step into what’s next with clarity, trust, and intention.

Grounded in experience design, I mapped the emotional arc of the day, guiding leaders through a thoughtfully sequenced journey. Each phase explored a core question and created space for honest reflection, collective meaning-making, and shared commitment.

The experience unfolded across five curated excursions, designed to invite presence, spark insight, and deepen connection. To support this, I created a hand-bound, beautifully designed workbook, part guide, part keepsake, that served as a reflective companion throughout the day and a tangible anchor for the conversations that followed.

Held in a historic garden in Japan, the setting offered stillness, perspective, and intentional disconnection from daily demands. Through structured dialogue, creative exercises, and quiet reflection, leaders revisited pivotal moments in their personal and collective journeys, clarified who they wanted to be as a team, and emerged reconnected, with the emotional clarity and trust to lead forward.

Designing an experience to activate shared commitment

ORGANIZATION
Global Professional Services Firm

THE RESULTS (so far)
Early pilots have sparked deep conversation, personal reflection, and renewed connection to the organization’s purpose and values. The experience is now being refined and scaled for global delivery. Building a foundation for a more connected, values-led culture.

Deliverables (in progress):

• 1-Day Immersion Experience Deck

• Facilitator Guide

• Participant Workbook

• Criteria and Guidelines for Facilitators

• Train-the-Trainer Materials

OPPORTUNITY
Activate a new set of Culture Aspirations, moving beyond awareness to shared commitment and lived behavior across the organization.

AUDIENCE
12,000+ employees globally, including executives, people leaders, and team members—supporting cultural alignment at every level

DETAILS
This wasn’t about introducing a new framework. It was about inviting a new way of being.

A global professional services firm had just launched a new set of Culture Aspirations, bold commitments to how the organization works, leads, and thrives together. But to bring these aspirations to life, awareness wasn’t enough. People needed space to reflect, connect, and commit.

We aligned on the intention: not to train, but to create a shared experience that sparked personal reflection and meaningful dialogue. The result was a culture conversation, a one-day, in-person experience designed to meet people where they were, and guide them toward a renewed sense of purpose and belonging.

Each phase of the experience supported a key shift, from disorientation to clarity, from skepticism to ownership. Participants moved from asking “Why am I here?” to saying “I know what this means for me, and I’m ready to start.” Along the way, they explored where they’d been, clarified where they were headed, and defined what it would take to show up in alignment with the new culture.