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Communications team charter and “manual of me”
Communications team charter and “manual of me”
Project
Project
Communications team charter and “manual of me” documents to clarify how we work together.
Problem
Problem
Our team cared about the work and each other, but everyone was operating on unspoken assumptions about tools, interruptions, note‑taking, and communication preferences. That led to random pings, duplicated tracking, and lost knowledge when people moved on.
What I did
What I did
Drafted a team charter that outlined how we use chat, email, Asana, shared drives, and meetings, and how we handle interruptions, coordination, and documentation.
Left prompts and blanks for my manager to complete so she could shape it with her own leadership perspective, then worked with her as she refined it.
Brought the charter to a team retreat where we talked through the details and used it to guide deeper conversations about how we want to work.
Created a “manual of me” template and asked each teammate to fill it out, describing how they communicate, how they work best, and what they need from others.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I like to turn invisible norms into explicit agreements so teams can protect each other’s time and energy while still getting a lot done.
Tags: Process improvement
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Internal intranet: IA, build, and ongoing stewardship
Internal intranet: IA, build, and ongoing stewardship
Project
Project
Design, build, and ongoing stewardship of DEQ’s internal intranet as the central employee hub.
Problem
Problem
Staff needed a single place to find policies, resources, templates, and updates, but information was spread across an old frankenstein’s monster intranet, shared drives, email threads, and ad hoc links. That made onboarding harder, created silos, and made staff feel unsupported.
What I did
What I did
Designed the information architecture for the intranet based on what was wrong with the old one, so employees could find what they needed by topic and task, not internal hierarchy.
Integrated the intranet into internal communication, using it as the source of truth and knowledge base for the department, linking to it from emails, meetings, and the employee newsletter.
Maintained and updated the intranet as a living system, not a one‑time project, including periodic IA adjustments as the organization changed.
Advised other departments on how I approached intranet structure and governance so they could apply similar thinking to their own internal hubs.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I like preserving scattered institutional knowledge in a way real humans can use it, and then treating that space as a long‑term stewardship responsibility, not just a launch.
Communications intake process
Communications intake process
Project
Project
A project intake process to clarify goals before web or communications work begins.
Problem
Problem
Requests for help came in through every channel and often lacked basic information about goals, audiences, or what success should look like. That left the team blindsided and forced us to spend the first meeting just trying to figure out what people wanted.
What I did
What I did
Designed an intake form that asks core questions like “What should your audience know, think, or feel after this?” and “What does success look like for this project?”
Set up a simple practice where, no matter how a request arrived, we would send people to the same intake before their kickoff meeting.
Walked teams through the form so it felt like a helpful jumpstart, not a gatekeeping tool, and repeatedly assured them they only needed to do their best and we would unpack it together.
Designed the completed form as a shared project tracker and coordination hub from kickoff onward so everyone kept in sync regardless of varying task management preferences across teams.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I like to front‑load clarity in small, humane ways so projects move faster and feel better for everyone involved.
Accessibility adoption plan
Accessibility adoption plan
Project
Project
Accessibility adoption plan for DEQ ahead of the 2026 federal compliance deadline.
Problem
Problem
Thousands of PDFs and other materials were being created without much awareness of accessibility requirements, and almost no one in the department understood what the new federal rules would mean. Waiting for the deadline would have put staff into a crisis with a lot of risk and not enough time.
What I did
What I did
Authored the full accessibility plan myself after noticing the deadline and the scale of the problem.
Worked backwards from the federal deadline to build a phased timeline, then added a second, more realistic timeline that would put us a year late but included clear tradeoffs and risks for each option.
Framed accessibility as part of taking care of our audiences, not just a legal checkbox, and built change management elements into the proposal, including training, support, and internal champions.
Submitted the plan even knowing leadership might not adopt it, which later led a colleague tasked with accessibility work to say that using it earlier would have prevented all of the challenges she was facing.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I am willing to be honest about what it really takes to do something right, and I think in terms of long‑term institutional health rather than quick fixes.
IT project self‑service hub
IT project self‑service hub
Project
Project
Employee self‑service hub for starting and managing IT projects.
Problem
Problem
If an employee wanted to buy software or build a new tool, there was no clear path. People asked around informally, picked tools too early, ran projects without real project management skills, duplicated efforts across divisions, and ended up with projects that stalled or dragged on for months or years.
What I did
What I did
Partnered with the agency auditor to map the full journey from “I think we need a tool” through procurement, implementation, and long‑term maintenance.
Created guidance that explained types of software in plain language and showed example timelines for realistic IT projects.
Built templates for scoping, risk analysis, stakeholder mapping, ownership, and long‑term funding questions like who will maintain it and what happens after one, three, or five years.
Turned that work into a self‑service resource hub so staff had a starting point instead of relying on rumor, guesswork, or emergency help.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I like untangling cross‑team problems and giving people just enough structure to make better decisions without drowning them in process.
Feedback survey design coaching
Feedback survey design coaching
Project
Project
Coaching staff on designing short, respectful, and decision‑ready feedback surveys.
Problem
Problem
Teams often tried to attach a “quick survey” to whatever they were doing, which usually meant ten or fifteen minutes of questions that chased too many goals at once and asked things people could not reliably self‑report. That led to low response rates and fuzzy data.
What I did
What I did
Worked on roughly twenty to thirty surveys with different teams, helping them start by naming one clear goal for the survey.
Trimmed or rewrote questions so they directly served that goal, and encouraged simple, one to two minute surveys with clear time estimates and a short explanation of how we would use the feedback.
Applied behavioral thinking, for example shifting a Tribal survey question from “Where do you like to get your news?” to “Where do you usually get your news?” so we measured actual behavior instead of idealized habits.
Sometimes recommended skipping a survey entirely and just collecting minimal contact information when feedback questions did not fit the situation.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I protect both respondents and decision‑makers by pushing toward fewer, better questions that match the real decision we are trying to make, including thinking of how the resulting data will be used from the beginning of survey creation.
Service design for incentives and forms
Service design for incentives and forms
Project
Project
Service design support for incentives and digital forms, including air quality programs.
Problem
Problem
Incentive programs often required people to navigate jargon‑heavy applications, confusing steps, and narrow timelines, which created unnecessary barriers for the very communities we were trying to reach. Forms and processes did not reflect how people actually think or how much mental bandwidth they have on a typical day.
What I did
What I did
Advised program staff on simplifying incentive structures and application steps so people could see what to do without wading through layers of internal logic.
Pushed for more realistic, ongoing program timelines instead of brief enrollment windows that were hard to communicate and easy to miss.
Helped redesign forms using plain language and form psychology so instructions were shorter, field order matched how people think, and error states felt more supportive.
Applied the layered guidance model to incentive program pages so applicants could see a clear overview first, then details if they needed them.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I see application and form design as part of equity and trust, not just paperwork, and I try to remove as many unnecessary hoops as I can.
Web writing guidance and culture change
Web writing guidance and culture change
Project
Project
DEQ Style & Writing Guide and ongoing coaching on plain language and web writing.
Problem
Problem
Content across the agency was written in a mix of bureaucratic styles and formats, which made it hard for the public to understand and for staff to keep pages consistent. Improving one page at a time could not keep up with how much content was being created.
What I did
What I did
Wrote the DEQ Style & Writing Guide, grounding it in federal plain language guidelines and tailoring it to our environmental programs.
Led trainings and one‑on‑one coaching sessions that helped staff spot jargon, shorten paragraphs, favor bullets and headings, and write for people reading on screens.
Encouraged people to think about how their audiences describe things, not how we describe them internally, and to use that language in headings and links.
Reviewed and lightly updated the guide about once a year so it could evolve while still feeling stable and reliable.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I like building systems and habits that raise the baseline for everyone, instead of relying on myself to be the final editor on every piece of content.
Team tools, Asana, and file organization
Team tools, Asana, and file organization
Project
Project
Making our team’s project tracking, file storage, and tools more usable in daily practice.
Problem
Problem
Before we aligned on tools, each person tracked projects in their own notes and relied on meetings to stay coordinated. We had a shared Google Drive structure, but no shared agreement on how to use it. Important links and documents were easy to lose or recreate.
What I did
What I did
Introduced Asana in a way that matched how our team actually worked, focusing first on helping individuals track their own tasks and attach key links.
Focused on showing teammates how to use Asana’s calendar view as a simple way to find past work by date and reopen the associated docs and materials.
Encouraged a “cross‑link everything” habit so agendas, Asana tasks, project docs, and personal notes all pointed to each other instead of living in isolation.
Developed a Standard Operating Procedure for how to use our shared drive so files had predictable homes and were easier for anyone to find later, which became a template for the entire Department.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I build small, practical changes that make everyday tools feel more like support and less like extra admin.
Employee newsletter and internal communications
Employee newsletter and internal communications
Project
Project
Design, content strategy, and ongoing production of DEQ’s internal employee newsletter.
Problem
Problem
Important updates, wins, and resources for staff were scattered across email chains and meetings. There was no regular, cohesive way to highlight work across divisions, share changes, or point people to intranet resources.
What I did
What I did
Co‑designed the newsletter with my team and took the lead on visual design, layout, and structure.
Continuously looked out for content across the department, helped refine and edit submissions, and shaped each issue around clear themes and priorities.
Built the newsletter layout, wrote or edited connective copy, and sent issues on a regular cadence.
Linked strategically to intranet pages and other internal resources so the newsletter reinforced the intranet as the main place to find deeper information.
Shared what I learned with other departments when they asked how we approached internal communications and intranet integration.
What this says about how I work
What this says about how I work
I love supporting employees and smoothing the internal workings of an organization by creating internal channels that feel human and readable while quietly teaching people where to find reliable information.
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