OPEN TO WORK

Digitizing the employee reward and recognition program

Senior Design Producer / Program Manager • Mailchimp • 2018 - 2021

📈

80%

employee satisfaction lift

💰

$549k

immediate cost savings

🌎

25k kg

CO₂e emissions reduced

👥

2,000+

global employees served

🏆 Awards recieved

Gold Freddie Award (2018) — recognized for impact on employee satisfaction

Spotlight Award (2021) — recognized for positive environmental impact

Context

Mailchimp's Rainbow Room was a beloved employee reward and recognition shop — but it only existed as a physical space at Atlanta HQ. As the company scaled globally, the program that was meant to celebrate employees became a source of inequity: if you weren't in Atlanta, you had no access.

The problem

Two problems needed to be solved simultaneously: a structural equity gap in the recognition program for 2,000+ global employees, and an unmanaged physical inventory that had grown to 28 tons of stale, wasted stock sitting in a warehouse. Neither had a defined owner, a budget, or a process.

My approach

I approached this like a product launch, not a facilities project. That meant assembling the right stakeholders, defining the users (every employee globally) mapping the requirements, managing the build, and measuring success after launch. Simultaneously, I ran the inventory wind-down as a parallel workstream with its own milestones and reporting.

The work

Zero-to-one platform build - led the full lifecycle of the digital Rainbow Room from discovery through scoping, build, launch, and iteration with a cross-functional team

Global equity design - ensured the platform was accessible and equitable for all 2,000+ employees regardless of location or time zone

Inventory audit & elimination - conducted a full physical inventory audit, eliminating 28 tons of stale stock and recovering $549k in immediate savings

Design Playbook - authored the organization's first comprehensive Design Operations Playbook, establishing standards from individual craft to organizational scale

Internal communications - launched a design blog and monthly newsletter to increase the visibility of design work across the organization

Fulfillment optimization - redesigned stock-keeping and tracking protocols, resulting in a 60% increase in operational efficiency

Results

80% increase in global employee satisfaction ratings*

$549k in immediate cost savings from inventory elimination

$2k/month in projected ongoing overhead reduction

25,000 kg CO₂e reduction in carbon footprint*

60% increase in fulfillment operational efficiency

What this shows

This case study matters because it proves I can operate outside the traditional DesignOps lane. I didn't just optimize an existing process I identified a structural equity problem, convinced leadership it was worth solving, and led a cross-functional team to build something entirely new. The lasting impact is that every Mailchimp employee, regardless of location, finally had equal access to recognition.

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