Work Experiences

I served as Content Design lead and then manager for Work Experiences, a suite of apps used by employees and contractors at campuses worldwide. The products supported everyday needs: bus schedules in Ride, menus in Eats, and campus services in Office Guide. My work connected the language people encountered in those tools with the shared direction the teams needed to build them.

“Carissa is an excellent Work Experiences partner. She’s truly collaborative and seeks input from the other WE Leads. …Work Experiences is a very complicated and ambiguous space that lacked top down leadership. Carissa was proactive in trying to bring order to this space, helping to craft a vision and mission, and to bring much-needed order and organization to the chaos.”

— WE lead

Make internal products friendly and delightful

The campus suite served people managing the practical details of their workday. I created an internal tone and voice guide to help make those products friendly and delightful to engage with.

The scope extended across the suite, bringing shared guidance to the language of transportation, food, and campus services.

Some delight was essential. These were tools people used all day, every day, and the usual dry enterprise voice did not reflect the campuses they supported: fun, playful, colorful spaces filled with art.

I worked with the Product Design team to draft storyboards exploring what the products should feel like and how they could reflect that campus atmosphere.

Create alignment across four teams

I worked with the other leads to help craft a vision and mission and bring order to the work.

I organized a three-day onsite for more than 20 people across four teams within Campus Experiences. The aim was to create alignment and a multi-year vision across products that supported related employee needs.

The onsite resulted in increased connection across Office Guide, Ride, and Eats, and a long-term strategy to fully unite them. The outcome was a shared direction for the suite, alongside stronger connections between the teams responsible for it.

Lead through changing workplace needs

As Content Design lead and later manager, I helped the team navigate COVID and the uncertainty created by campus closures. Roadmap discussions had to account for changing assumptions about where and how employees would work.

We debated questions such as whether employees would remain at home and whether the team should focus on videoconferencing tools. Those conversations were part of deciding what the space needed to support as workplace conditions changed.

Results

• A three-day onsite for 20+ people across four teams, creating alignment and a multi-year vision.
• Increased connection across Office Guide, Ride, and Eats, with a long-term strategy to fully unite the tools.
• Internal voice and tone guidance to make employee-facing products friendly and delightful to use.
• Content Design leadership through COVID-era uncertainty, helping the team debate roadmap priorities as campus needs changed.

Connect the product experience with team direction

This work spanned product language, cross-team alignment, and leadership. A shared voice helped shape how the tools felt to employees, while a shared vision helped the teams decide how those tools should develop together.