Starbucks
I’ve been a Starbucks Partner (employee) since 2015. I’ve held roles that span food and beverage, innovation and core business.
You can learn a little more about those roles below.
Sr. Managing Director, Innovation & Strategy - Partner and Customer Solutions
I am currently leading two functions at Starbucks - the Tryer Innovation center and an end-to-end system strategy team. The Tryer Innovation Center is a 20K sq. foot space that tests and optimizes +1K Innovative concepts a year. My strategy team is re-designing store systems to improve inventory flow and store throughput using equipment, industrial engineering, packaging and new operational standards. Together, these solutions will create capacity for growth and help our stores better meet customer demand.
Director, Business Strategy - Partner and Customer Solutions
I led a business strategy team at Starbucks that was responsible for a critical initiative that supports our company’s reinvention. Order channels have increased, beverage and food orders have grown more complex, and our product mix has changed in a dramatic way the past 20 years. However, our store operations, food and coffee equipment has not kept pace with the change. My team is leading a transformative agenda that will reimagine our product production engine so our stores can better respond to customer demand, reducing customer wait times and improving the barista experience.
Product Director, US Beverage - Core Business and Innovation
As the Director of US beverage at Starbucks, I led a team of 9. Together we were responsible for finding and activating insights, developing products that deliver on unmet customer needs across each promotional window and simplifying the beverage experience for our store partners to drive operational excellence, partner satisfaction and customer experience. If you’ve tried a Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew or Pink Drink, you’ve seen our work. My team was also responsible for margin improvement and new product testing. We partner closely with product developers, analytics teams, store operators, and digital teams across each project.
Product Director, US Food Innovation - New Food Platforms
I led the Food Innovation team at Starbucks and was responsible for improving the end-to-end food experience for our customers and delivering breakthrough food innovation that was delicious and nourished both people and planet.
We used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research to identify customer insights that can guide smart business choices. We relied on Jobs to Be Done Theory to ensure our products solve a problem for the customer.
Product Group Manager, US Beverage - Espresso, Cold Brew & Nitro
I led a team of 3 to deliver work that was people positive, planet positive and profit positive while undergoing an enterprise wide re-organization that created new ways of work. My team managed a $3B product portfolio. Here’s what I worked on -
Pioneered a human centered design x business analytics approach to develop a beverage strategy that guided a 24-36 month product calendar. This work included developing a plan to accelerate the growth of our alt-milk portfolio.
Created, developed and launched new product positioning that differentiates iced coffee, cold brew and Nitro cold brew so we can deliver breakthrough marketing and drive more incremental occasions.
Activated product strategy and commercialized near term innovation, like pumpkin cream cold brew, to increase relevancy, frequency and brand health in key promotional windows. I worked in close partnership with the Analytics, Consumer Insights, Operations, Sourcing and Product Development teams.
Reduced operational complexity by 30% to help support product quality and customer connection.
Product Senior Manager, Global Beverage Innovation - Wellness, Tea and Coffee
I was responsible for leading Global Handcrafted Beverage Innovation projects across coffee and tea. I led new product strategy, product development, testing, and product positioning with an eye on making the future now. I used human centered design to envision future forward commercial opportunities and design thinking to implement new product platforms in the US and Asia Pacific.
Developed frozen tea platform, strategy and concept - successfully sold into 11 Asia Pacific markets
Developed two Wellness platforms, executing multi-stage quantitative and qualitative learning plan
Executed testing plan and business case development for new coffee equipment to improve product quality and reinvigorate a $1B business
Product Manager, Global Beverage Innovation - Blended Platforms
I supported new product strategy, product development, testing, and product positioning for blended beverages so we could diversify beyond Frappuccino and fight the commodification of blended coffee. I used human centered design to envision future forward commercial opportunities and design thinking to implement new product platforms in the US.
Developed new elevated espresso platform, delivering +10% customer engagement +7 net cups/day
Delivered new blended platform to Reserve Stores , growing their total beverage sales +3.7%