Experience

Senior Design Strategist & Service Designer
Reinventing Credit & Offers Strategy

Kroger Technology & Digital, The Kroger Co.

November 2024 - Present

Lead Merchandising service designer and strategist on the Reinventing Credit initiative; creating a holistic credit membership and loyalty experience and providing customers with more ways to save by connecting digital products and offline customer touchpoints.

Develops research plans and conducts user research and user interviews.
Conducts discoveries to create artifacts including customer journey maps, scenario maps, ecosystem maps, service blueprints, et al.
Identifies gaps and pain points in user journeys and customer experiences; synthesizes research findings and pitches opportunity briefs to leadership.
Collaborates with cross functional teams including business stakeholders, product managers, developers, engineers and tech leads to drive design solutions.
Created and maintains repository of toolkits, templates, design artifacts and case studies.
Plans, organizes and facilitates in-person and virtual design thinking workshops and evangelizes human centered design methodologies.
Mentors and supervises junior designers; established a bi-weekly design review.

Senior Service Designer & Horizontal
Personalization & Offers Strategy

February 2024 - November 2024

Designed and executed user research to develop personalization and offers strategies.
Utilized user research to pitch a new product offering, a digital offers communications tool to provide customers with real time notifications of unused offers for items in basket and offer recommendations based on purchase history.
Developed a series of test and learn proof of concepts to leverage personalization sciences into the weekly digital ad; increased conversion rates, digital coupon engagement and rewards and points engagement contributed to overall Merchandising strategy resulting in $57 million in revenue year over year.
Collaborated with business partners, developers and tech leads in Merchandising and Customer Experience pillars to incorporate recommendation data sciences into user experiences and user interfaces.
Facilitated design thinking workshops using LUMA methodologies and evangelized design thinking and service design frameworks throughout the organization.

Senior Service Designer & Horizontal
Promotions, Offers & Digital Ad

August 2023 - February 2024

Responsible for employing design strategy and service design methodologies across three domains promotions, offers and digital ad; discovered gaps and opportunity spaces resulting in product agnostic innovative solutions.
Developed research plans and usability scenarios in partnership with stakeholders and users.
Developed a series of test and learn proof of concepts to integrate recommendation AI data science into the weekly digital ad.
Weekly ad innovations resulted in increased conversion rate, digital coupon engagement and rewards and points engagement resulting in $104 million in annualized growth.
Other responsibilities included managing projects from inception to execution, managing and cultivating stakeholder relationships, facilitating and leading design sessions, conceptualizing, refining and presenting concepts to leadership.

Senior Product & Service Designer
Promotions

August 2022 - August 2023

Led Kroger’s merchandising technology pillar focused on enterprise applications for promotion planning and promotion communication across four products: Promotions Planning Manager, Ad Plan Manager, Display Plan Manager, Event Planning Manager.
Promotions strategies increased digital e-commerce sales by 1.3% year over year, gaining approximately $1 million per week in overall system sales.
Responsible for user interviews and user research, identified redesign opportunities and developed strategic long term vision for promotions, promotions planning, and an integrated design system.
Facilitated design thinking workshops with key internal and external business stakeholders, subject matter experts, product managers, technical leads, etc.
Created design artifacts to visualize the end-to-end experience for users' current and future state workflows including (but not limited to) storyboards, experience maps, stakeholders maps, journey maps, service blueprints, and causal loop diagrams.

Service Designer & Design Thinking Facilitator

Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (Lisbon Municipal Chamber)

January 2022 - June 2022

Employed design thinking, user research and service design to develop strategies for urban development challenges.
Lead and facilitated design thinking workshops for stakeholders from departments of Transportation, Urban Design, Safety, Law Enforcement.

Brand, Advertising & Communications Strategist

The HEINEKEN Company

September 2021 - January 2022

Created new concept of communication and integrated advertising campaign focused on increasing and diversifying customer base.
Developed advertising communication strategy, media strategy and creative strategy to launch new product.

Senior Digital Strategist

Lipman Hearne

June 2019 - June 2021

Employed design strategy processes including user research, user experience, customer journey mapping, competitive analysis, and service design to uncover new opportunities; presented key insights to clients.
Conducted information architecture (IA), analytics and content audits to create new intuitively designed and delightful websites.
Collaborated with team members and organizational stakeholders to make key decisions on digital output, using insights from testing and performance data.
Supervised a team of four; developed ways of working, leadership and management frameworks for team effectiveness.

Digital Brand Manager

All Saints

September 2016 - June 2019

Responsible for setting strategic direction and guiding execution of deliverables spanning web experiences, custom market analyses, branding and advertising assets.
Spearheaded brand projects for new products, collaborated cross-functionally with design, creative and web development teams; managed deliverables and timelines.
Led accessory product innovation and go-to-market strategy for leather goods category.
Developed branding and design, including brand guide, brand identity, brand messaging, and visual communication for digital channels.
Conducted performance reporting and analysis to determine brand performance and make recommendations on brand activities.
Pitched design thinking and agile product led approach to innovate and evolve product and technology.

Education & Certifications

Education

Master's of Arts in Cultural Studies Management of the Arts and Culture

Universidade Católica Portuguesa

Concentrations: Migration, Food Justice & Food Equity, Food Systems, Diaspora Foodways

Master's Dissertation - Nyam: Re-claming African Culinary Heritage to Create an African - American Culinary Identity and Re-stor(y)ing African Diaspora Food Memories

Amélia de Mello Foundation Research Grant Recipient

Design Strategy MBA (DMBA)

California College of the Arts

Concentrations: Design Thinking, Design Research, Experience Design, Systems Thinking, Service Design, Brand Strategy.

Venture Studio Project: Kami Designs, Promoting Social and Environmental Harmony through Thoughtfully Designed Outdoor Products

Bachelor of Science, Business Administration

Financial Economics

Fisk University

Latin Honors: Summa Cum Laude
W.E.B. Du Bois Honors College
Senior Capstone Project: Innovation in Modern Menswear, Fashion and Design

Certifications

Facilitator of Human-Centered

LUMA INSTITUTE

Practitioner of Human-Centered Design

LUMA INSTITUTE

Skills

Design

Design Thinking

Design Strategy

Service Design

User Research

Experience Design

Systems Thinking

Futures Forecasting

Strategic Foresight

Information Architecture

Marketing & Branding

Market Research

Market Insight

Marketing Communications

Brand Development

Brand Strategy

Advertising

Communications Strategy

Management

Project Management

People Management

Program Management

Account Management

Relationship Management

Community Management & Engagement