The Presbyterian
Church (USA)

It became clear early that this was not primarily a design or information architecture problem. It was an alignment problem.

Before meaningful design work could begin, the organization needed a shared understanding of who their users were, what success looked like across divisions, and how decisions would be made when priorities conflicted. Without that foundation, speed would increase risk rather than reduce it.

To establish shared direction, I designed and facilitated a full-day kickoff retreat that brought leaders from across previously siloed divisions together. Preparation included a pre-work survey that surfaced internal challenges, priorities, and goals, as well as a collaborative exercise to define a small set of shared experience values that would guide decisions throughout the project.

This work introduced a user-centered decision framework that allowed stakeholders to move from individual advocacy toward collective ownership. It also created early trust, clarity, and buy-in which proved critical as the project progressed.

The goal of discovery was not simply to gather user insights, but to establish a shared, evidence-based understanding of users across teams that had historically operated independently. Research was framed as a collective learning process that could shift conversations away from opinion and toward observable patterns and needs.

I designed a mixed-methods discovery approach that balanced scale and depth. Quantitative surveys were distributed to thousands of church members and leaders to identify patterns across audiences, followed by qualitative interviews and task-based exercises that explored motivations, frustrations, and mental models.

The insights were synthesized into personas and journey maps that served as practical decision-making tools rather than static deliverables. For an organization where research had not previously guided digital strategy, discovery created a shared reference point that helped teams prioritize and move forward with greater clarity.

Once alignment and shared understanding were established, the design challenge became clear. The goal was not simply to design a new website, but to create a unified system capable of supporting diverse audiences, complex content needs, and multiple internal teams over time.

Before exploring visual direction, I focused on defining the platform's underlying structure. I led the development of a consolidated information architecture and worked closely with engineering partners to define content types, relationships, and migration strategy so the experience could scale without introducing unnecessary complexity.

With that foundation in place, we developed a flexible design system and visual direction in parallel. Structured collaboration with stakeholders grounded feedback in shared experience principles rather than personal preference, allowing teams to create content independently while maintaining a cohesive and adaptable experience.