LeVero

As the company went through mergers and acquisitions I took on teams from new companies in addition to taking over the responsibility of the global marketing team.

This is what the organization I built looked like day-to-day while I also scaled up or down contract talent as needs arose.

Define

A clear statement of the purpose and value of my team helped kick off conversations with everyone from engineering to marketing leadership as the company expanded.

Service Team Mentality

Design is a service team first. As the company grew, it was important to educate new employees ranging from Product Operations Specialists to SVPs of Product on whom we serve cross-functionally. Creating and updating charts like this helped onboard senior executives.

OKRs

Beginning in Q1 of 2023 Discovery Education began implementing Objectives and Key Results at the Executive level. We received five major Objectives, but not enough direction as to what OKRs were, or how to explain the value to our teams.

I researched the history of OKRs and became deeply interested in rolling this out exactly as it had been done at Intel by Andy Grove- not redefining, but running the program as it was designed to be implemented. I read the defining book on OKRs and took the online course offered at Measure What Matters.

Implementing OKRs changed the way I prioritized incoming work and revitilized my team’s sense of purpose in a way I had not yet experienced. Below I will lay out my methods of tying each job no matter the size to company goals.

Roles and Career Paths

I defined each role with key responsibilities, major teams the role supports, skills and a rudimentary career path early on. Below are a few examples.

Career Paths Expansion

As my team expanded and I took on leadership of new teams and role types, I developed this Growth Framework to cover the major responsibilities expected of the team members and help guide them through levels ranging from potential through mastery.

Career Paths Outlined

With the Growth Framework in place I was able to lay out the levels of the career paths available considering the value of those who chose to be individual contributors and those who had an interest in moving on to design management.

On the left you can see both the framework of the career paths and the hard and soft skills defined. These would be weighted differently for each job description.

Three Career Paths

Below are three examples from the career paths I developed for my organization. These were reviewed with our human resources team, adjusted with feedback and adopted.

Team Cohesion & Bonding

When budget allowed, I organized a yearly trip for my organization. This was vital to helping new members feel included and keep team spirits up. I designed the trips around a central design event and then added additional activities to keep folks engaged and getting to know each other better.

Remote can be tough, this really helped make everyone feel like one team as we experienced mergers, acquisitions and reorgs.