“
I came into my CE rotation as a retail employee with 12 years of Apple experience under my belt and no idea what I was walking into. I emailed strangers on a whim and asked if I could help, sorted through boxes and pallets, drove a pallet jack, and looked for opportunities to show up only the way I could. By choosing to be vulnerable and taking some risks, I learned a little more about getting out what you put in.
Em Allen · CE Showcase Presentation, May 2026
The Through-Line
The Knowledge Archive · CE Rotation 2026
How it started
Found six disconnected knowledge repositories at Apple that every engineering team was searching for. Not one person knew all six existed.
What I did
Built the governance, the taxonomy, and the stakeholder alignment. Delivered a 10-minute executive briefing. Self-initiated. No positional authority.
The result
Blank page to named owners and funded knowledge management system, under six months. That pattern runs through everything I build.
COVID Reopening · 2020
How it started
A 100-person Apple store. A global pandemic. Zero playbook. No one had done this before and the doors were opening in weeks.
What I did
Designed the Express Station format from blank page: distancing protocol, health screening, session coverage, zone assignments, and leader coaching behaviors — all defined before anyone walked back in.
The result
Ambiguity to operating system in weeks. Adapted 18 times as regulations changed. Still running under new leadership four years later.
Behavior Change at Scale · Genius Bar
How it started
1 in 20 team members was having Apple Business conversations with customers. Everyone called it a knowledge problem. I asked a different question.
What I did
It was a behavior problem. Built a three-part coaching system: managers coaching their teams, top performers paired with peers as mentors, and a reframe from obligation to customer impact.
The result
1 in 20 to 1 in 10 in 90 days flat. Tracked at 30, 60, and 90 days (Kirkpatrick Level 3-4). Not a program. A culture shift, confirmed by data.
Leadership Origin · Before Apple
How it started
Began coaching lacrosse at 15. Running camps with my mother, then solo, then youth teams, then playing NCAA Division I while coaching elite club every summer. The instinct to read who was struggling and what they actually needed — built on a field, not in a conference room.
What I did
When recruiting culture started to conflict with actually caring about the athlete in front of me, I stopped. Took a barista job to learn to lead somewhere different. Shift supervisor in under a year while coaching Southridge High School as Head Coach. Followed Apple in. Recruited mid-tenure to take over Lincoln's program. Left when the parents mattered more than the players.
The result
Every diagnostic instinct, every coaching pattern, every system I have built at Apple was stress-tested on a lacrosse field first. Starbucks was where I learned that leadership is transferable across any domain. The only thing that changed at Apple was the size of the stage.
Every system on this page was built inside Apple and held to Apple's standards — not as coursework, but as production infrastructure that had to survive real teams, leadership transitions, and global scale. That's the credential.
Coaching in Action
Not a knowledge problem.
A behavior problem.
A story worth telling
Everyone called it a skill problem.
It wasn't.
It wasn't.
Technicians were avoiding certain repair types. The obvious diagnosis was skill gap. The obvious solution was training. I asked a different question: why are they avoiding it?
It was a confidence gap with a specific failure mode. A lecture wouldn't touch that. So I built a game instead: bingo cards of repair types, played in teams, with a rotating facilitator baked into the design. The game surfaced exactly who was avoiding what, without anyone having to say it out loud. Once the gap was visible, we could coach the actual thing. Behavior changed. No one sat through a single lecture.
I trained the facilitator. Then I walked away.
Still running.
Moments of Note
Crisis Leadership · 2018
Apple made a public promise to millions of customers. My Genius Bar was where they came to collect.
Volume exploded overnight. Most stores saw service quality collapse. I kept 100+ people coached, the queue moving, and the human connection intact. Months of sustained chaos. Zero scripts.
Ovation Award for top NPS across the Pacific Northwest District, during the hardest operational stretch in a decade.
Ambiguity to System · 2020
No playbook existed for reopening a 100-person Apple store in a pandemic. So I wrote one.
Store closed March 2020. Before the doors reopened, I had written the complete operating system: distancing protocol, health screening, zone coverage, leader coaching behaviors. Nobody had to figure it out in the moment.
Ambiguity to operating system in weeks. Still running under new leadership four years later.
Partnership Without Mandate · 2019–2020
Nobody was showing up to Today at Apple. I didn't make attendance mandatory.
The obvious move was mandate. Instead I embedded programming directly into my peers' business results and made attendance useful rather than obligatory. No authority. Just alignment.
4x attendance in two consecutive quarters. Zero mandates issued.
The Fourteenth Conversation · 2018–2019
Every time I coached a team member, the response was the same: "I've never had a problem before."
Holding the line means staying consistent when someone is likable, each incident looks small, and the deflection is smooth. I documented everything, coached through every pushback, and kept the work honest. The job wasn't punishment. It was protection.
The hardest management work isn't the performance review. It's the fourteenth conversation.
Authority Gap · CE Rotation 2026
The person with the answer had stopped responding. The deadline hadn't.
Three programs, eight global SKUs. The System EPM on the lead program had gone quiet: weeks between replies, every channel tried. The Global Supplier Manager (GSM) was late on every deliverable, across every program, every week. No title gave me authority over either. So I built what I had: a documentation pattern, clean escalation to leadership when silence became a schedule risk, and a dashboard that made accountability gaps impossible to ignore. When the EPM changed mid-rotation, I rebuilt the working relationship with the incoming EPM in weeks and kept the program on track.
You can't mandate accountability without authority. You can make the cost of silence visible.
By the Numbers
12 years across retail management, corporate program management, coaching, and systems building. Here's what that looks like in numbers.
12
years at Apple, every function
100+
person team led for 6 years at a training store
2x
Apple Business referral rate in 90 days flat
4x
Today at Apple attendance, two consecutive quarters
Top 5
of 30 Portland stores, sustained over 6 years
6
disconnected repos unified into one governed system
55k+
characters of PM documentation per week, generated by a 342-entry keystroke shorthand library built for this work
3
concurrent NPI programs spanning multiple product lines, 30+ cross-functional stakeholders globally
180+
weekly status dashboards produced and published (packaging programs, 2022–2026)
53
performance reviews written across 5 consecutive cycles, 20+ employees
5
onboarding tracks built, Specialist to Manager, all still running
55%
shrink variance reduced in 6 weeks as interim ops lead, no handoff
In Their Words
87/100 customer satisfaction score across 397 service interactions, sustained over 18 months at a high-volume training store through crisis operations and peak-demand periods. Three signals showed up in the language repeatedly.
On empowering
"Ultimately helped me help myself."
Customer satisfaction survey · Jan 2026
On listening
"I liked how you listened to what I wanted to cover. You are my hero!"
Customer satisfaction survey · Nov 2025 (Black Friday)
On the combination
"Personable and knowledgeable and made me feel at ease. Very genuine and friendly. We connected right away."
Customer satisfaction survey · Dec 2025
On being human
"Very patient and polite and funny."
Customer satisfaction survey · BPV
On presence under pressure
"It was extremely busy and they patiently helped me through transferring info from my old computer to the new while tending other customers as well."
Customer satisfaction survey · Dec 2025
Inclusion & Advocacy
One Voice, Company-Wide Impact · 2019–2020
I escalated one piece of feedback on a company-wide product announcement.
It turned a clinical release into a company celebration.
It turned a clinical release into a company celebration.
Founded Women @ Apple Retail DNA and served as its first volunteer lead; directly accelerated Pride @ Apple DNA's launch and was selected as a founding Pride @ Apple lead within nine months. Then a product announcement landed wrong. I wrote one piece of feedback, at the right moment, framed for the right audience. The release strategy changed.
One person. One feedback. Company-wide impact.
Contact
87 out of 100.
Every conversation. Measured. Consistently.
Career Timeline
Packaging Engineering Program Manager | Corporate Rotation
Apple · Cupertino, CA (Remote, Portland OR)
Jan 2026 – Jun 2026
Competitive 6-month corporate rotation: stakeholder alignment, cross-functional program leadership, AI-augmented operations, and 0-to-1 knowledge systems design.
- Identified six disconnected knowledge repositories no single team had mapped. Built the governance model from scratch: unified location taxonomy, documentation standards, and cross-functional ownership structure. Aligned Legal, MarCom, Engineering, and Apple University across competing priorities and delivered a 10-minute executive briefing that converted a self-initiated discovery into a funded pilot. Blank page to funded in under six months.
- Managed 3 concurrent programs spanning multiple product lines from design review through manufacturing launch: 30+ stakeholders across the Americas and Asia; no positional authority; every decision moved because I built the visibility and trust that made stakeholder accountability the natural path.
- Built a live program visibility dashboard tracking the full active program portfolio across every line of business: replaced a 14-tab Keynote deck that 20+ team members were manually updating every week with a filterable tool with automated accountability gap surfacing, group-by-LOB, and CSV export. Presented to VP-level leadership and transferred to the incoming team as their official ongoing NPI status tool, with full refresh automation and handoff documentation so the tool outlasts the rotation.
- Functioned as de facto Chief of Staff across 3 concurrent programs: owned the synthesis layer for VP-level program reviews, distilling 30+ stakeholder threads into executive-ready briefings before each decision-point review, so leadership had a single coherent picture instead of a status report from every workstream.
- Built the AI workflow layer that accelerates PM output: voice memo to formatted meeting notes in under 5 minutes, via a custom-built MCP server with persistent context across every program. The system compounds: the longer it runs, the more accurate and specific it gets.
- Built a text-expansion system converting shorthand into fully formatted PM output: status updates, stakeholder emails, meeting agendas, and follow-ups in seconds. Maintained parallel cross-program tracking in Google Sheets across all active programs: sample demand, vendor timelines, and status visibility in one place.
- Designed AI adoption curriculum for non-technical employees: 5-document package built on adult learning theory, instructional design scaffolding, accessibility standards for neurodivergent and aging-adult learners, and scrum methodology. Built evaluation checkpoints at weeks 1, 4, and 8 to measure behavior change, not just completion. Audited own first draft, identified 7 structural gaps, rebuilt: a complete instructional design cycle.
- Caught build readiness blockers before they reached manufacturing windows, without ownership of the schedule or positional authority over the vendors. Asked why, not just what. Closed items that had been open for months because I was willing to own the thread when no one else had claimed it.
Apple Genius (Senior Certified Technician, Mac & iOS)
Apple Retail, Bridgeport Village · Portland, OR
Nov 2024 – Present
Deliberate step back to IC after six years in management: rebuild technical depth, prove the ability to compete from any level, then position for the corporate track.
- Returned to Apple in a technical IC role by choice and competed for the January 2026 corporate engineering rotation, winning the placement within the first year back.
- Consistently pulled into coaching and problem-solving conversations outside my immediate role; primary diagnostic resource for emerging leaders across the team.
- Earned Exceeded Expectations in both Teamwork and Results in FY25, working part-time, in the direct year before entering the corporate rotation.
Chief of Operations
Ren the Hair Magician LLC · Portland, OR
May 2025 – Present
Sole operational layer for an independent creative business: everything the principal shouldn't have to think about so they can stay in their craft.
- Managed the full business operations infrastructure from scratch using Apple Freeform, Google Docs, and Numbers: website, financial tracking, bookkeeping, tax preparation, and client-facing systems. Zero additional staff.
- Served as program management layer for all community engagement initiatives the principal designed: translated creative vision into logistics, timelines, and execution.
- Managed principal's schedule and capacity to protect sustainable throughput: rest, limits, and recovery time built into the calendar by design, not negotiated after the fact.
Manager, Genius Bar
Apple Retail, Bridgeport Village · Portland, OR
Aug 2018 – Jun 2024
Designated Apple training store: one of a small number in the US where the job is building the leaders who serve customers, not serving customers directly. Leadership development, coaching, and curriculum design were core functions here.
- Led a 100+ person team at an Apple training store for six years, where the job wasn't serving customers: it was developing the leaders who did. Ranked top 5 of 30 stores in the Portland market, sustained over six years.
- Identified that 1 in 20 team members was having Apple Business conversations with customers: a behavior problem, not a knowledge problem. Built a three-part system: coached the coaches on how to lead their teams, matched top performers with peers as mentors, and reframed the why from obligation to customer impact. Tracked at 30, 60, and 90 days (Kirkpatrick Level 3-4): 1 in 20 to 1 in 10. Not a new program: a culture shift confirmed by data.
- Built full L&D infrastructure for a 100+ person org: custom competency frameworks (Lead and Manager levels, Lominger-derived), a 10-week structured coaching curriculum, a 5-track onboarding system covering every role from Specialist to Manager, and operating playbooks for new service formats. All designed for handoff. All still running.
- Created Same Unit Repair Bingo: a gamified competency diagnostic that surfaced technical skill gaps and changed behavior without a single lecture. Trained the facilitator and walked away. Still running after handoff.
- Operated as diagnostic coach for emerging leaders: identified whether someone was stuck in process, stuck in confidence, or working from the wrong frame entirely, then designed the intervention for that specific gap. Multiple people on the team moved into expanded roles during or after my tenure. Same diagnostic instinct I now apply to systems.
- Designed the COVID Express Station operating playbook from scratch: full format change, social distancing protocol, session monitoring, health screening, zone coverage, and leader coaching behaviors defined. Ambiguity to operating system in weeks. That is change management without the title.
- Facilitated leadership cohorts, new hire onboarding, and certification programs for 50 to 200 participants: adapted delivery in real time based on where people were actually stuck.
- Quadrupled Today at Apple attendance over two consecutive quarters: diagnosed why the existing program wasn't landing, redesigned the team coaching approach, and built the peer mentoring structure that drove the shift.
- Built a new service program from scratch and drove it to 85 customer NPS and #2 iPhone focus ranking across the Oregon/Alaska market within one year.
- Co-led a documented coaching newsletter and peer accountability program designed to move key performance metrics from target to outstanding: built with three other senior leaders in the final months of this tenure, drove measurable behavior change within weeks.
- Ran the full operating cadence for a 100+ person org: weekly leadership team reviews, monthly performance cycles, quarterly goal-setting and resource allocation, and annual hiring, succession planning, and competency calibration across all functions and roles.
- Led the Genius Bar team to earn the Ovation Award for top NPS across the Pacific Northwest district: a result of six years of consistent leadership culture, diagnostic coaching, and operational quality.
Apple Store Leader Program
Apple · Portland, OR
Aug 2016 – Aug 2018
Apple's selective 2-year cross-departmental leadership development program: rotating through sales, technical support, business development, and operations across multiple Portland stores. Designed to build the next generation of Apple leaders. I was the exact target population.
- Completed Apple's selective 2-year cross-departmental leadership development program, rotating through sales, technical support, business development, and operations. I was the exact profile this program was designed to develop, which means I know what works from the inside, not just from the data.
- Selected as interim operations lead at a second Portland store: stepped in with no handoff, no context, and exceeded all benchmarks. Reduced store shrink variances 55% in six weeks (60 adjustments per week to 27) by co-authoring team workflows, building cross-functional accountability, and getting team members to co-own the fix.
- At the close of that milestone, the Washington Square Store Leader sent a personal invitation to meet about Leadership at Apple: one of the clearest early signals that the work was visible and the pipeline was already open.
- Recruited by store leaders to support Connection Team development while still in the ASLP program: recognized as a leader and development resource before holding formal management title. Senior manager Exchange Journal feedback: "You established yourself as a leader with this group, and as a resource for support, encouragement, and accountability."
Expert & Specialist
Apple Retail · Portland, OR
Jul 2014 – Aug 2016
Foundation years: earned Apple technical and sales certifications across service, repair, and customer experience; completed the In-Store Guest Trainer adult learning residency; selected for ASLP. Everything built from here.
- Apple-certified senior technician (Mac and iOS); primary mentor for Specialists navigating complex diagnostic scenarios; selected for the Apple Store Leader Program out of store-wide competition.
- Completed Apple's In-Store Guest Trainer program: one week of intensive adult learning theory followed by a nine-month residency designing and delivering onboarding for every role from new hire to senior technician. The foundation of everything I do in L&D.
Head Coach & Program Manager
Lincoln High School Lacrosse · Portland, OR
2015 – 2016
Hired as Head Coach concurrent with the Apple tenure: interviewed for and won the role, built the program infrastructure from scratch, and handed it off with a successor ready to lead it.
- Built a coaching curriculum and a player-to-coach pipeline; left with a program that ran itself and a successor ready to lead it.
How I Map to Roles
| What the role needs | Where this portfolio answers it |
|---|---|
| Ambiguity to structured plan | Archive initiative (blank page to funded, 6 months); 90-day behavior change program (Genius Bar); interim ops lead with zero handoff (ASLP); CE rotation: structure created where none existed, across 3 concurrent programs |
| Enablement / program design | 10-week coaching curriculum; Kirkpatrick Level 3-4 evaluation; competency frameworks; Same Unit Repair Bingo; In-Store Guest Trainer; 5-track onboarding; AI adoption curriculum |
| AI operations & integration | Voice-to-doc pipeline (custom MCP server); text expansion (342 keystrokes = 55,000+ chars); EPx AI Fluency; live NPI dashboard replacing 14-tab Keynote deck |
| Executive influence without authority | 10-min briefing converting 6 months of self-initiated work into a funded initiative; Archive alignment across 6 XF teams with no mandate; product rollout changed from one piece of feedback; CE rotation: 30+ stakeholders, zero direct reports |
| Data-informed iteration | 1 in 20 to 1 in 10 tracked at 30/60/90 days; automated gap surfacing in NPI dashboard; AI system with persistent context that compounds over time; every program built with measurement loops, not just delivery milestones |
| Multi-workstream program mgmt | 3 concurrent NPI programs spanning multiple product lines, 30+ cross-functional stakeholders across the Americas and Asia; Genius Bar: hiring, coaching, training, ops, and culture simultaneously for six years |
| Knowledge systems design | Archive: 6 disconnected repos to unified taxonomy + governance + named XF ownership; L&D systems designed for handoff; all programs outlived the tenure of the person who built them |
| Apple culture & change leadership | 12 years at Apple across retail and corporate; ASLP alum; CE rotation driving change without authority; re-entered the corporate pipeline on own terms, from IC, within the first year back |
| AI enablement & technology adoption | AI adoption curriculum (Kirkpatrick Level 3 evals at weeks 1, 4, 8); custom MCP server build; voice-to-notes pipeline; EPx AI Fluency; text expansion system at scale. Behavior change demonstrated, not just completion rates. |
| Context distillation for decision-makers | 10-min briefing converting 6 months of Archive complexity into a funded initiative; NPI dashboard built as a leadership view, not an operator view; every stakeholder update written for the person with 10 minutes, not 60 |
| Making the principal more effective | Chief of Operations: translated creative vision into logistics, built calendar infrastructure to protect sustainable throughput; CE rotation: owned the coordination layer so engineering leadership stayed on technical decisions, not status management |
| Needs assessment before solution design | Apple Business conversations: behavioral gap, not knowledge gap; Genius Bar repairs: confidence failure mode, not skill gap; Archive: findability failure, not storage failure. The different question every time before a single deliverable was built. |
| Adult learning principles and instructional design | In-Store Guest Trainer (adult learning principles + 9-month onboarding residency); Kirkpatrick Level 3-4 measurement designed into programs at build, not added after delivery; Same Unit Repair Bingo designed to surface who is struggling without requiring self-disclosure |
| Performance management and development cycles | Exceeded Expectations (Teamwork + Results) FY25, working part-time, year before CE rotation; Genius Bar Manager: annual reviews, development plans, and growth ladders for 100+ person team for six years; AI curriculum built with 8-week behavior change tracking |
| Leader development and coaching framework | Coaching system producing manager-led development (not HR-led); competency frameworks for Genius and Specialist roles; recruited to support Connection Team development while still in ASLP; 30+ leaders sourced and developed over six years at the Genius Bar |
| People operations at scale | 100+ person team, six years: full hiring-to-offboarding lifecycle, 5-track onboarding program, performance management, culture; top 5 of 30 Portland stores sustained across multiple leadership transitions; CE rotation: 30+ stakeholders driven entirely by relationship and accountability infrastructure |
| Information architecture and taxonomy design | Archive: 6 disconnected repos to unified taxonomy with named XF ownership and governance; NPI dashboard: the entire active program portfolio, filterable by any dimension from one source; L&D programs built modular and searchable, not just deliverable |
| Documentation built to outlive its author | COVID reopening protocols ran four years under new leadership; Archive governance and intake process designed for successors; NPI dashboard with full refresh automation and handoff documentation; CE rotation: every deliverable packaged for the incoming team before departure |
| Operational system design and automation | Text expansion system (342 keystrokes = 55,000+ chars output); MCP server with persistent context across all active programs; NPI dashboard auto-refresh pipeline; Chief of Operations: website, financial tracking, bookkeeping, tax prep — zero additional staff |
| Governance frameworks and XF ownership | Archive: defined owner roles, review cadences, and intake process where none existed; NPI dashboard: accountability surfaced at LOB level by design, not by exception; COVID reopening: protocols designed so any leader could run them independently; CE rotation: escalation paths and stakeholder accountability built without positional authority |
Education & Credentials
B.A. Classical Civilization, HonorsUniversity of Vermont · NCAA Division I Varsity Lacrosse
Agile Leadership SpecializationUniversity of Colorado System · 2023–2026
Apple EPx AI FluencyApple enterprise AI fluency program · Claude Code · May 2026
In-Store Guest TrainerAdult Learning Principles · 9-month onboarding residency
SpanishConversational fluency, in progress
Tools & SoftwareFreeform · Google Docs · Tableau · Asana · Keynote · Excel · Google Sheets · Numbers · Canva · Wix · CapCut · iMovie · PowerPoint · Word · Claude Code (MCP server build)
Contact
None of this was assigned.
All of it still runs without me.
What I've Built
CE Rotation · 2026
NPI Program Visibility Dashboard
Program ManagementOps VisibilityStakeholder Alignment
Replaced a 14-tab Keynote deck that 20+ team members were manually updating every week with a live dashboard tracking the full active program portfolio across every line of business: filterable by program, grouped by LOB, automated accountability gap surfacing, CSV export. Presented to VP-level leadership and handed off to the successor team as their official ongoing NPI status tool, with full refresh automation built in so no briefing is needed.
Still in use
Live on Apple network
Genius Bar Management · 2018–2024
Genius Bar L&D Infrastructure
L&DOrg EffectivenessBehavior Change
Built 6 learning systems for a 100+ person org from scratch: competency frameworks, coaching curriculum, 5-track onboarding, crisis playbook. One coaching cohort doubled a key team behavior rate in 90 days, tracked at Kirkpatrick Level 3-4. Every system designed to outlast me. All still running.
2x behavior rate in 90 days, measured at Kirkpatrick Level 3-4. 6 systems across 6 years. All still running under the next leader.
6+ systems, all outlived my tenure
Lominger-derived
Kirkpatrick Level 3-4
Genius Bar Management · 2022
Diagnostic Learning Design
L&DBehavior ChangeInstructional Design
Technicians were avoiding certain repairs. The obvious answer was training. The real answer was a confidence gap with a specific failure mode — a lecture wouldn't touch it. Built bingo cards instead: repair types as squares, played in teams, with a rotating facilitator built into the design. The game surfaced who was avoiding what without anyone having to say it out loud. Once the gap was visible, we coached the actual thing. Behavior changed. Still running.
The artifact: Same Unit Repair Bingo. Surfaced each person's gap without anyone having to name it out loud. Coaching landed on the actual problem. Still running after handoff.
Diagnosis before solution
CE Rotation · 2026
Packaging Knowledge Archive
Knowledge ManagementOrg DesignExecutive Influence
Self-initiated. 6 disconnected repos no one had mapped. Built location taxonomy, governance model, and cross-functional ownership structure: the org's first knowledge management system for this category. Funded executive briefing in under 6 months. Zero positional authority.
10-minute executive briefing turned a self-initiated discovery into a funded cross-functional initiative. Stakeholders: Legal, MarCom, Engineering, Apple University. 6 disconnected repos to one governed system. First cross-functional knowledge governance structure for this product category at Apple.
Zero positional authority
CE Rotation · 2026
AI Voice-to-Notes Pipeline
AI OperationsPM ToolingSystems Design
Custom MCP server. Voice memo to structured meeting notes in under 5 minutes. Persistent context that compounds over time.
Voice to structured output: under 5 minutes end-to-end. Covered all 3 concurrent programs across the full 6-month rotation. Context compounds session to session: the longer it runs, the more accurate and specific it gets.
Under 5 min end-to-end
CE Rotation · 2026
Text Expansion System
AI OperationsProductivityWorkflow Automation
342 keystrokes, 55,000+ characters of structured PM output. Status updates, emails, agendas, follow-ups. Daily active use, full rotation.
342 keystrokes, 55,000+ characters. What it made possible: a full status update in 3 minutes, a stakeholder email in 90 seconds, a meeting agenda without starting from blank. Daily active use across 3 concurrent programs for 6 months.
342 → 55,000+ chars
CE Rotation · 2026
AI Onboarding Curriculum
L&DChange ManagementInstructional Design
5-document package on adult learning theory, accessibility standards, and scrum. Designed Kirkpatrick Level 3 evaluation checkpoints at weeks 1, 4, and 8: behavior change in the workflow, not just survey scores or completion rates. Audited my own draft, found 7 structural gaps, rebuilt. Complete instructional design cycle.
Self-audited the first draft, found 7 structural gaps, rebuilt from scratch. Kirkpatrick Level 3 checkpoints at weeks 1, 4, and 8: behavior change in the workflow, not survey scores or completion rates.
Self-audited and rebuilt
This Page · 2026
Portfolio Site
Front-End DevelopmentAI-Augmented BuildSystems Design
Single-file HTML, no framework. Custom dark design system, tabbed architecture, scroll reveal animations, and an AI-integrated build pipeline. Built with Claude Code. You're looking at the output.
Built with Claude Code
Contact
The presenting problem
is never the real one.
The Diagnostic Instinct
How I enter a problem
I ask what's actually broken before I build anything. The presenting problem is almost never the real one. Same Unit Repair Bingo didn't start as a game; it started as a question about why technicians were avoiding certain repairs.
See the story →How I coach
Process, confidence, or wrong mental model? Three different root causes. Three different interventions. The targeted thing is the only thing that actually changes behavior. Not a one-size training. The specific thing.
See the story →How I build systems
Everything designed for handoff from day one. If it requires me to maintain it, it isn't finished. The goal is a system that runs without me, with feedback loops built in and clear ownership transferred before I leave.
See the story →How I move without authority
Build the visibility and trust that make accountability the easier choice. When people can see the full picture and understand why it matters, they move. Positional authority is just one way to create motion. Rarely the most effective one.
See the story →How I Work at the Org Level
How I diagnose org problems
The same diagnostic instinct that works on individuals scales to teams and organizations. Is this a process problem, a clarity problem, a trust problem, or a wrong-frame problem? Different root cause, different intervention. I map the org before I prescribe the fix.
See the story →How I approach change
Ambiguity to operating system is a sequence: align stakeholders on the problem before proposing solutions, build the minimum viable process, test under real conditions, document for handoff. I've run that sequence in a crisis (COVID playbook in two weeks) and in a slow burn (Archive: six months, zero positional authority, funded pilot at the end).
See the story →How I run the rhythm
Operating cadence is infrastructure. Weekly reviews, monthly cycles, quarterly planning, annual calibration: each one is an opportunity to surface the right information to the right people at the right moment. I've owned that cadence for a 100+ person org for six years. The skill transfers.
See the story →How I function as a force multiplier
The goal is always to make the people around me more effective. Moved a three-way budget standoff forward without owning the answer. Surfaced two programs to red before anyone else called it. Removed myself from a coordination loop when the right call was to step back. I'm most useful when I'm least visible.
See the story →AI Workflow
Voice to Structured Output
Voice Memo
→
Auto-Transcription
→
Custom MCP Server
→
Structured Meeting Notes
→
Archive + Action Items
Text Expansion System
342 keystrokes
→
Typinator templates
→
55,000+ characters
→
Structured PM output
What the Record Shows
30 days · 303 sessions · self-audit
I tracked everything I did.
Then I read what it said about me.
Then I read what it said about me.
Not as an exercise. As infrastructure. Every decision, escalation, build, and recovery logged across a six-month rotation. At the end, I ran the data. Three patterns showed up consistently.
PM Under Pressure
Stakeholder escalations at 10pm. Five parallel email threads across three programs. Lead time math from scratch with adjusted tone for a sensitive audience. Holding emails when holding is the right call. Judgment sharpens under load.
Stakeholder Navigation
Moved a three-way budget standoff forward without owning the answer. Escalated two programs to red before anyone else called it. Removed myself from a coordination loop when the right move was to step back. Synthesis and framing do what mandate cannot.
Systems That Outlive the Builder
Every pipeline, dashboard, and curriculum designed for handoff from day one. If it requires me to maintain it, it isn't finished. Six systems built across the rotation. All still running under new leadership.
The gap the record named wasn't capability. It was translation. Director-level work, filed as task completion. I tracked the pattern. Then I changed the language.
What I'm Building Toward
These aren't separate functions. They're the same instinct applied at different altitudes. Find what's fragmented. Build what consolidates it. Make sure it runs when I'm not there.
The work I want sits at the intersection of people, systems, and organizational health: Enablement and L&D, AI Adoption, Change Management, Program Management, Org Effectiveness and Knowledge Management, Business Operations, Chief of Staff. Different titles. Same through-line.
The corporate rotation was proof of concept: director-level work, no title, global team, zero positional authority. Six systems built. All still running. I'm looking for the place where that compounds.
For Chief of Staff specifically: I work best with principals who think in systems, move faster than their org can document, and need someone who can hold the full picture so they can stay in the decision. Not a scheduler. Not a gatekeeper. The person who makes the executive more effective at the most important moment.
Contact