ROSS MBA
MOVING FROM DESIGN TO PRODUCT MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT
After the success of the “One More” rebranding campaign with New Balance, I began thinking about a career change into something more brand and marketing related. I’d applied to 12 schools, was accepted to 10, and chose the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
My initial goal was to become better with branding and marketing and then return to design in a leadership role; however, my experiences led to me starting my own company: Focus.
DESIGNER TO PRODUCT MANAGER
I had a great experience while at Ross.
I met some amazing people, I worked on amazing projects, and it forever shifted how I approach problem solving.
The shift from design to marketing/product management wasn’t easy. I was a product person at my core, and there’s a belief deep inside that the product and the user should come first in all decisions. However, the Ross classes, professors, and students helped me understand the depth of financial, operational, and governance issues that impacted the products I’d been working on.
When I came to school, I imagined going back into design armed to the teeth with the knowledge to fight back against the other side of the table, but rather than outfitting me with weapons to fight those battles, I think Ross fostered an empathy with the other sides of the business, and put me in a much better position of compromise and understanding.
I was able to flex some of my design background while in school for various clubs and projects. While I’ve moved on professionally from designer to manager, I’m still fond of the work, and I’m capturing some of it here.
MBA+ CAMPAIGN
An exercise for the Applied Advertising. We were assign to create a campaign to help Ross differentiate itself from other schools top ten schools. In a market where differentiation is difficult, where schools become commodities that point solely to their test scores and post school salariesour group came up with the concept for “MBA+”.
MBA+ had the core tenet that an MBA is more than scores and salaries, it’s about the experience and the network. The concept was that you were going to get an MBA “plus more”.
I played with the concept where the shirts, onboarding, and promotional materials could use the MBA+ branding. We found through discovery that many students gravitated to Ross because of the connected alumni network, the global placement programs, and the access to top tier sports teams. The final presentation used hand crafted examples to show both the more serious and lighter side of how to express the campaign.
DIFFERENTIATION IN A COMMODITIZED LANDSCAPE
FOCUS
CLASS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP BECOMES A STARTUP
Part of my final Entrepreneurial class was to build a pitch for a business with 3 other classmates. I’d seen the proliferation of wearable sensors since New Balance with Nike+ and Fitbit getter ever stronger, and I’d had the idea for a while to see if motion recognition and signal processing could be used with some of the new data coming from these sensors to track workouts along with running and steps and sleep.
The initial pitch was to create a fitness band worn on the wrist that could automatically track your workouts. We performed initial user research on desirability and price point as best we could, identifying key user needs and price sensitivities. The final product in the presentation would be priced at $99 and target 25-35 gym goers, selling through B&M and online retailers.
The deck you see below would evolve into FocusMotion, but this was the first foray into navigating the thought processes behind starting a business in the hardware/algorithm/fitness space.
In hindsight, it was a naive approach, but the presentation provided and opportunity to explore the concepts I’d had on paper and develop a sense of excitement around the emerging wearable market.
DESIGN & BUSINESS
DIVERGENT THINKING FOR THE MBA
I joined the Design & Business club in 2010. Started by Stephanie Gioia, the club’s intent was to help teach divergent thinking to business school students while hosting information sessions and speakers that could provide insight into “design-thinking” roles for MBAs.
Rebecca Silver had designed the logo the prior year, and the club already had a solid brand presence. We worked together as a group to not only express the brand in all of our messaging but also stand out among the other clubs with a cohesive, professional, and even playful communication strategy to our members.
D&B LABS
D&B Labs were curated to bring specific voices to the Ross School of Business that didn’t really get a chance in the past. While Ross had rosters full of consultants, private equity, operations specialists, and marketers, it lacked perspective form people behind the product. We were lucky enough to host people like James Cairnes from Adidas and Catherine Sun from Frog to speak on their experiences on creating amazing products. The below images were used for promotion and way finding.
D&B
Garment Designs
T Shirts and hoodies designed for the D&B members to buy, wear, and fund raise with. An interesting design exercise at business school to bring a little levity to the D&B branding that we could show off.
REINVENTING THE MOB
Data visualization for MISC Magazine. A fun look at how digital mobs evolved and how there were changing the brand, corporate, and political landscapes. The final product became a little information dense due to specific requests, but the messaging around it was an interesting deep dive into how high information access and lowered action thresholds can create augmented collective shouts, coordinating efforts and aligning participants to create change.
HLBSA
I did some design and brand work for different clubs and people in school. Below is for the HLBSA Club. I tried to capture the colors for all of the South American flags and a unique logotype to convey the unifying nature of the club while holding onto the essential expression of Central and South American cultures.
