About
I have over 25 years of experience working at innovative technology companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Edmark (IBM). I’ve excelled in roles that allow me to use both my left and right brain and am happiest when I can be strategic, creative, a bit of a juggler, and surrounded by tremendously smart people.
I’m momma to two little girls and one zoomie-filled Lab. I’m also wife to a pretty fantastic and funny guy who loves his family, spreadsheets, back country skiing and scuba diving (preferably with sharks).
In my spare time I enjoy photography, hiking and Nordic skiing, traveling, writing picture books, being in the garden, anything involving our kids and dog, fresh air, and trying to perfect the art of making baguettes.
Experience
I’ve spent my career so far doing work I love in innovative, challenging and fast-moving environments. I am user-focused, strategic, creative, curious, collaborative, flexible and a great listener. I love clever content, thoughtful and intuitive design, learning new things, evolving brands and experiences and working with people who inspire me.
Work History
Writer
Self-employed
2023 - current
Actively writing several children’s picture book manuscripts for submission to publishing houses in the US and UK. Collaborating with a published illustrator in the UK on a title about a gaggle of cheeky dogs for kids ages 3 and older.
Founder & Editor in Chief, Kind Mind Magazine
Self-employed
2022 - current
Leading creation of Kind Mind — a quarterly print wellness magazine for 5- to 11-year-olds that inspires kids to be kind, curious, adventurous, and connected.
Director, Digital Platforms (PT Employee)
Joylux
Feb - Nov 2022
Led the Digital Platforms Team with a charter of increasing usage and satisfaction for the Joylux vFit device companion app in the US and Canada. Responsible for overall digital app strategy, ongoing updates, and day-to-day management. Completed a full app business review and menopause market analysis before broader international rollouts in UK and Brazil which revealed the need for a more cohesive and data-driven digital strategy and roadmap. Conceptualized and championed a major pivot initiative from the existing app model to a cross-surface digital strategic plan with the goal of creating seamless and intuitive experiences for customers regardless of entry point, Launched an updated incentive program, drove a customer experience with customized and meaningful data and editorial content for users to better educate women during their menopause journeys with tangible and measurable symptom improvement whilst collecting statistically significant user data to help Joylux with FDA clearance. Spearheaded a full redesign of the existing apps. Partnered closely with Program Management, FTE and contract developers in US and abroad, created wireframes and updated flows for design, oversaw branding and product management, legal, regulatory, analytics and marketing to ensure alignment and meet updated strategic goals and KPIs, budget, and impact. Led creative direction and development for the launch of the new-to-market NeoHeat companion mobile app for the Mommy Matters brand including wireframing, user flows, app branding, editorial content and device integrations. This role reported directly to the CEO, however also required close relationships with the Chief Medical Officer, VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, CFO and Regulatory.
Marketing Director (FTE & Consultant)
Shaw/Scott
2016, 2017 - 2020
Responsible for marketing strategy and content development/planning for the agency “house” brand for Shaw/Scott. Drove increased usage of Shaw/Scott social media, websites and other corporate assets. Evolved marketing portfolio for North America and EMEA by partnering with leads in Europe, Agency Services, Labs (SaaS) groups to road map, provide oversight for brand consistency and impact and evangelize updated Shaw/Scott brand, offerings and competencies. Delivered redesigns for both US and EMEA websites, the Shaw/Scott rebrand external roll out plan, employee onboarding experience, rebrand video creative, development of global brand campaigns and helped author a whitepaper series on the impact of the pandemic on retail loyalty. This role reported directly to the co-CEOs Melissa Shaw and Julian Scott.
Full-time Parent
Newborn-employed
2014 - 2016
Becoming parents was and is the best thing we’ve ever done. I was lucky enough to step away from the wild world of tech during this time to focus on our daughters’ care. Was compensated through love and increased outdoor play time.
Principal Site Manager, MSW, Corporate Communications
Microsoft Corporation
2004 - 2014
Responsible for MSW’s overall user experience including driving innovation and value into the brand, page layouts, design, information architecture, content strategy, navigation and visual and editorial style. Managed all technical portal projects as liaison to MSIT resources including dev and design. During my tenure, MSW garnered it’s highest KPIs on record with 93% customer satisfaction, an average of 20% YOY traffic growth, and 86% global reach from an audience of over 90K employees. Owned all analytics for the business including site analytics data, surveys, usability studies, and user feedback. Ensured my team made data-driven decisions by educating and evangelizing the specific needs of MSW users. Instituted and managed monthly dashboards and business score cards for quarterly and annual MSW strategic planning. Partnered with sales specialists and product group to help sell SharePoint to enterprise customers worldwide by presenting MSW as a showcase for how to successfully build and manage a custom corporate portal on SharePoint. Senior member of the Microsoft Portals Board which drove improvements across all major custom portals at Microsoft including technical process improvements, KPI consistency, shared research and planning, staffing models, cost savings, platform solutions, and strategy alignment. Provided thought leadership specifically in search, social media, IA and analytics. Also held positions as Site Manager and Sr. Site Manager during tenure.
Managing Editor, Large Accounts, Toys & Baby Stores
Amazon.com
1999 - 2004
Led day-to-day creative development, merchandising, and production of online content for the Toysrus.com, Imaginarium.com, Babiesrus.com, Sportsrus.com, and R’Zone (video games), Target, Marshall Fields, and NBA stores on Amazon.com. Managed a team of FTE and freelance editorial staff. Acted as liaison between merchandising leadership and buying teams at partner companies and Amazon large accounts editorial, program management, product management, web development, SDE, design, and browse teams. Responsible for analysis of site performance metrics to drive site improvements. Owned content licensing budget and relationships including Parenting magazine, Mayo Clinic, Dr. Sears, and other industry leaders. Also held positions as Toys Editor, Sr. Toys Editor, Sr. Toys and Baby Editor, and Managing Editor of Toys & Baby during tenure.
Copywriter & Editor, Consumer & Educational Software
Edmark, an IBM Company
1997 - 1999
Responsible for writing all packaging, press releases, product back liners/sleeves, advertising, direct mail, newsletters, sell sheets, Web pages, tradeshow signage and booth materials, cross-sell pieces, catalogs, and in-store promotional materials for Edmark, Crayola, IBM and World Book software titles. Served as project manager for the Edmark Let's Go Read! Series packaging and marketing materials (education and retail versions). Worked with consumer and education Product Development teams to edit and proof documentation manuals and teacher's guides. Developed the Edmark brand and logo usage style guide for both internal and external use and distribution. Reported to Creative Director.
Associate Product Manager, MSN Brand Marketing
Microsoft Corporation
1996 - 1997
Coordinated MSN promotional activities and materials for K-12 education, field marketing, entertainment, television, radio projects, sweepstakes, and other customer facing campaigns. Reviewed scripts and coordinated efforts for MSN product placement opportunities in movies and television. Coordinated and managed the MSN presence at all national tradeshows including collateral and signage development and demos/presentations. Managed the MSN PR web site including daily content updates (copy and HTML), coordination with PR agencies, and maintaining the online press kit.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Communications
University of Washington
Awarded 1995 Best Creative Advertising Portfolio and Best Campaign Plan for Reebok Kids from The UW School of Communications.
Internships
B2B Marketing Intern, Organization Customer Unit
Microsoft Corporation
Winter 1996
Public Relations Intern
Pacific NW Ballet
Summer 1994
Additional experience
NW Region Board of Directors, Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH), 2010 & 2011
Orphan sponsor and volunteer, Guatemala & Haiti, Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (NPH), 2008 - present
Founder, Tiny Small Tiny, a bespoke children’s accessory online shop, 2016-2019
Freelance writing, product/account management, content strategy, photography, and marketing projects for clients including WebMD, Microsoft, BuzzBee Agency, Horton Lantz Marocco Design, Amazon.com, T-Mobile, Intel, Friends of the Orphans, Waypoint Health Innovations, Roome Landscape, Shaw/Scott and Globius Travel.
Testimonials
I had the pleasure of working with Melissa over several years while she led marketing for my digital agency Shaw/Scott. Melissa is a strategic thinker with the ability to craft a vision and bring that vision to life. She was instrumental in helping us fine-tune our positioning and develop a marketing communication plan. She also helped to execute that plan and author thought leadership pieces. Moreover, Melissa is an absolute pleasure to work with. She’s smart, gracious, detail-oriented, and tenacious. She helped wrangle myriad stakeholders and keep our efforts on track. I hope to have the opportunity to work with her again in the future.
— Melissa Shaw (direct manager at Shaw/Scott)
“I had the pleasure of working with Melissa for about 5 years at Amazon on the Toys & Baby team. I was consistently impressed with Melissa’s sincere passion and tremendous creativity, her deep understanding of the business, her ability to tackle whatever came her way, and her utmost dedication to deliver the highest quality work. ”
“Melissa is exceptional at both creative user focused design and technical acumen. She is a passionate leader who develops strong strategic plans and direction and builds the necessary coalitions to sell in her ideas. Melissa can be as hands on as necessary to get things done, but also excels at identifying the necessary talent to lead through long range complex projects where it becomes hard to maintain forward momentum. Melissa always has fresh ideas and keeps current with industry trends. She loves to take smart risks and experiment but keeps the user experience central to her thinking and measures the efforts. She is courageous and is not afraid to say when an idea isn’t paying off or has run its course. Melissa is one of the strongest strategic thinkers I had ever had the pleasure to work with - her plans were not only creative, smart, and user focused - but they were actionable and real. Melissa’s individual contributions and her contributions to a team cannot be overstated.”
“Melissa is an outstanding teammate and project leader. As the lead of the largest portal within Microsoft, she managed project strategy, web IA and design, multiple redesigns, business requirements, technical and platform requirements, and analytics and measurement - all with an extremely high bar, and often with tough partners and budget constraints. She is a natural at optimizing web sites and identifying experiences and features that will generate results, be it traffic, engagement, or customer satisfaction. She is also a genuinely lovely person to work with, generous with ideas and feedback, and personally dedicated to her projects and team.”
For more recommendations, please see my profile on LinkedIn
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