Specializing in turning ambiguity to actionable innovation by defining the right problems to solve —and leading creative vision that compels people to action.

Executive Creative Director, Experience Design
Avanade / Accenture       2/2019 – 2/2024

• Set the bar and roadmap for creative strategy, product innovation and user experience for the 200+ person, cross-disciplinary North America Experience Design team: visual design, UX, product, motion, content strategy, marketing, tech innovation, software engineering, and sales
• Led the ‘north star’ creative vision for connected, personalized, end-to-end experiences across physical and digital products for multiple global companies in various market sectors — leveraging creative strategies fueled by data insights and human-centric design goals.
• Strategized with Fortune 500 companies at both the C-Suite and product team levels—to deliver enterprise-wide, scalable digital experiences on a wide-range of projects in Customer Experience (CX), Data & AI, and Workplace Experience (WX)
• Defined and facilitated workshops for C-Suite, global client stakeholders, and internal stakeholders as a Certified Luma Facilitator in Design Thinking
  Grew and nutured the experience design talent headcount during the Covid pandemic, and developed career path roadmaps for the different practices (visual, UX, content)

GTM STRATEGY / BUSINESS IMPACT

• Partnered with Accenture on their GTM product and strategies in sales opportunities
• Worked closely with the internal Microsoft GTM product team to help humanize and customize their ‘out of the box’ offerings for client branded consistency, UX customization, and accessibility
• Partnered with software/ product team MVPs on creative and roadmap strategy, scope of work, team staffing models, and delivery excellence standards
• Developed XD Business Accelerators to be used by clients and Avanade and Accenture’s business development team (ie. heuristic assessments, personalization primers, persona and journey frameworks)
• Authored and piloted an internal persuasive storytelling curriculum, which became part of the onboarding and L&D program for over 30K employees
• Led creative on Accenture Interactive’s largest digital marketing transformation deal ($172M), co-building their repeatable End-to-End Services Transformation Delivery Model and scoping a 5 year transformation deal with Microsoft Digital Marketing: including global staffing and team models, defining ops models, workflows, and running operations for Accenture’s Content and Design Studios— a team of 40 content strategists, designers, product, martech, experimentation, and tech

TEAM / DESIGN OPS

Reconstructed the North America Design Ops model for the internal UX and product team; (then used this model as a new service offering to sell to Avanade’s Fortune 500 clients needing product team transformations).

• Assessed and developed new benchmarks for Design Maturity and Experience Design KPIs —continuously improving quality of work, methods, techniques, skill gaps, and evaluation criteria.
• Authored and produced a global XD Innovation Speaker Series, called Dare 2 Disrupt — Scaling creativity across the business and propagating bold, innovative thinking — bringing in industry-leader insights from Sangya Singh, Director of Innovation at Microsoft; and Vivienne Ming, a leader in cognitive neuroscience / AI, and others
• Transformed creative culture (silos / processes / mindsets) remotely during the pandemic to inspire and empower growth: co-creating 12+ internal innovation incubators and cross-disciplinary program initiatives still in practice
• Established XD’s AI creative workflow processes — implementing new technologies and optimizing time to value

Principal / Creative Director
Petrie Creative      Raleigh, NC     2004 – 2018
Strategic branding, creative direction, integrated marketing, UI / UX design and design services for higher education, disruptive technologies, remotely distributed teams, SaaS companies, and start-ups. Worked as a creative strategy consultant for agencies and technology companies on XD and branding best practice integration, as well as team leadership for their in-house departments.

KEY CLIENTS
Buildcoin Foundation, NC State University, Golden Corral, Phononic, ViiMed, Duke University, Triangle AMA
AGENCIES
McKinney, Walk West, T3 Advertising, Howard Merrell, Rella:Cowan, Mellonaid, Drumroll Media

KEY PROJECTS

BuildCoin Foundation  2018
Identity, branding, infographics and website for this emerging cryptocurrency and blockchain non-profit, domiciled out of Zug, Switzerland, whose aim is to accelerate strategic infrastructure and construction projects globally. Led creative, research, strategy and design for the foundation’s partner companies (CG/LA and OpCenter) and their marketing teams. Established brand and product trust in an unproven market space —which resulted in a partnership with the government of Sao Paulo, Brazil to complete feasibility studies for lighting projects in 30+ municipalities. buildcoinfoundation.org

ViiMed (SaaS) Company Rebrand 2017
Worked remotely with the ViiMed marketing team in Washington D.C. to rebrand and relaunch their identity, create a comprehensive brand guide, and redesign digital and printed marketing materials and visual design for their SaaS product release —in preparation for their next round of funding.  petriecreative.com/portfolio/viimed

Portfolio    petriecreative.com
Strategy Documents & Agency Work    petriecreative.com/client_resources
Linkedin    linkedin.com/in/michellepetrie
Writing    medium.com/@michelle_46064
Illustration    mambosaki.com