Dynasty
Polishing a crown jewel for a longer business life
Industry
Technology
Business type
Computer hardware
Ownership model
Public
Phase
Growth
No. of employees
133,000
Years of collaboration
2019, 2020, 2022, 2023
MEB category
Strategy, Influence, Impact
Focus
Strategy & direction
Capabilities
Organization
Year founded
1984
Senior Director, Global Customer Development & Loyalty Marketing
Commissioning client
Content & Engagement
Function
Executive counsel
Systems building & calibration
Team & partner management
High-impact problem solving
Consensus building
Strategic planning
Change management
Brand marketing
Content strategy development & execution
Editorial direction
Business integrations & sales enablement
Member engagement
Membership management & growth
Event strategy, design & execution
Panel design, engineering & hosting
Executive counsel
The Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network - DWEN - is a global resource network and member community for 85,000+ women entrepreneurs.
Originally contracted for maternity leave coverage end of FY22; accepted invite to continue efforts as an embedded contractor for the duration of FY23 and to set up FY24.
Key responsibilities included driving existing content strategy within a dynamic system, calibrating content & engagement infrastructure, grow member engagement, and ultimately create next-generation content & engagement strategy with stronger business alignment and integrations.
ORGANIZE | CONTAIN | CONNECT
Refine an active and dynamic content and communications system for a program made up of independent initiatives and campaigns
Develop long-term content strategy and programming that directly ties to the business and is overtly aligned with business objectives
Manage cross-functional internal initiatives & business integrations to create stronger, obvious ties to Dell business, communications & marketing priorities
Contract & manage numerous content partners including subject matter experts, agencies and producers
Calibrating both team and system was akin to performing open-heart surgery on a patient that's awake - every tweak, change or new action was weighed in terms of system tolerance and the short- and long-term impact of disruption.
The work required
Constant mindfulness of the discomfort inherent to a change point’s ambiguous leadership
Intentional acknowledgement and encouragement, specifically during acutely stressful events
Open communications about how, why and when change would happen
Persistent optimism that planting seeds and connecting dots now will make for a stronger, more strategic and higher performing team later
For FY23
Content & engagement strategy
Programming and engagement roadmaps
Consistent art direction in all content & engagement materials
Various direct marketing emails from Dell Small Business
Original content & thought leadership
Strategy & execution of DWEN event at The Dell Experience, SXSW 2022
Created & moderated top-billed DWEN Powerhouse panel - the most-watched Dell-SXSW event second only to the featured discussion with Michael Dell
Strategy & execution of WE Cities research announcement + marketing & engagement campaigns
Brokered partnership with vendor for future mentorship platform
Content strategy & editorial direction for annual summit in partnership with Fast Company
Strategy & execution of annual Dream Tech Contest to celebrate women entrepreneurs leading innovation & positive human impact
For FY24
Content & engagement strategy
Programming and engagement roadmaps
A COHESIVE SYSTEM | A CONNECTED MEMBER EXPERIENCE | BUSINESS ALIGNMENT | EXPONENTIAL MEMBERSHIP GROWTH
We humanized the DWEN brand, member experience & content standards for overt business alignment and deeper resonance, ultimately growing membership and engagement exponentially.
Transformed team’s mindset
Established lines of sight between all activities and initiatives
Modeled transparent and contextualized communications with team
Established business focus to ensure all content and member engagement were on brand and aligned with or directly tied to Dell Technologies business priorities
Organized chaos
Created brand & programming cohesion from a system of independently managed initiatives, campaigns & content
Calibrated systems to be logical and efficient while mitigating disruption to existing operations
Organized both content and processes to integrate a compartmentalized system
Centralized majority of content collaboration and development involving multiple partners
Created inventory of all owned content for with an eye toward future SEO strategy
Established, onboarded editorial standards, guidelines and best practices
Threaded editorial through-lines across a vast content system to create a cohesive member experience and business alignment
Embedded knowledge, habits for cross-linking content to create a robust resource network within the DWEN platform itself
Expanded content marketing operations required to scale towards critical mass
Continuously worked with team to calibrate processes & system for greater efficiency
Systems thinking
Established systems thinking to ensure content and programming are
Engineered as the connective tissue to make individual efforts work as a single program via content strategy, website organization and member communications
Connected in voice, tone, design, and publishing
Distinguished as members of the same brand family
Inclusive of priority content partners and member voices - each representing a specific interest or expertise that reflect, speak to business priorities, or fill the gap between program and business priorities
Clear in ownership vis a vis partner visibility and preserving DWEN & Dell ownership
work products
work products
