Adage
See how I lead product, AI, and transformation.
VP of Strategy & UX
2015 – 2023
I built Adage's strategy and UX practice from 2 people to 25% of revenue.
Adage already had deep platform and commerce credibility across Tessitura, Optimizely, ACE, and SmartSeat. I built the strategy and UX practice that expanded the firm from implementation partner to transformation lead on marquee work including The American Academy of Pediatrics, The Kennedy Center, and the American Retirement Association.
- Team Built
2% → 25%
- of company revenue
$250K → $500K+
- average deal size
Bootstrapped
- self-funded growth
The Problem
Adage could build almost anything a client specified. It still couldn’t win the work that mattered: the strategy-led transformations that go to firms with design and consulting muscle.
Engineering alone doesn’t win a Kennedy Center. The firm needed a capability it didn’t have, and a way to sell it.
The Constraint
Stable Revenue First
There was no budget. Adage was bootstrapped, so every hire had to be paid for by work the practice hadn’t won yet.
I inverted it: win the work first, then build the team to deliver it.
The operating model: how the work became sellable
Capability, packaging, pricing, enablement.
01
Capability
Strategy, discovery, and vision, service-marked as Adage Alignâ„ : design-thinking workshops assembled a la carte per engagement.
- Analytics & SEO
- Brand Strategy
- Service Design
02
Packaged
A named methodology and fixed-scope offerings, backed by 300+ documented process guides, so delivery didn’t depend on any one person. What I built still runs: years after I left, Adage Align is still a named Adage service line, and “Align” is still a stage in the Adage proven process.
03
Service Designed
Productized pricing, plus two accelerators that sold on release and paid back their build cost.
04
GTM
Enablement and brand built so the team could sell it. A first-time services seller closed $1M in eight months.
Early Proof
The bet paid off first in the arts, where design wins the signature institutions. Those names gave the practice the credibility to sell bigger.
The strategy-led work the practice unlocked.
AAP is where Adage crossed from build partner to transformation partner.
The American Academy of Pediatrics came to Adage asking for digital strategy. In the sales cycle I showed their CTO and COO that what they were describing was bigger, a digital transformation, and that the way in was design thinking. I gave the COO a copy of Change by Design. He read it. That reframe won the first engagement, a vision and discovery sprint, and opened a multi-year transformation the firm could never have bid before.
The approach, the service prescription, and the priorities were mine; senior UX leads and a growing design and engineering team drove the delivery. Over seven years the account grew past $1M a year.
One account proved the entire bet.
From two people to a quarter of the company, bootstrapped from day one.
AAP Account
$1M+
Annual spend, seven-year account
Agency Growth
20%
Year Over Year
Repeatable Delivery
300+
Process guides documented