The bigger the puzzle, the more fun the solve.
Photograph by Rob Yaskovic
PassionMy career has been guided by my love of a good challenge. Creating worthwhile experiences, making life easier for other humans, bridging the solitary existential divide — I see no greater challenge than this. Throughout my rich career, I have developed productions for television, multi-level and multi-lingual cross-disciplinary curricula for national and international schools, digital and physical experiences for megacorps and nonprofits, and multi-million-dollar-winning pitches for myself and others. Any endeavor, any client, any challenge, I give it my all — because why spend the time we have here any other way?
Business Transformation
Leading cultural, operational, and digital transformations for businesses of any size.
Strategic Planning • Staff Planning • Change Management • Product Innovation • Risk Management • Business Process Outsourcing and Insourcing • Regulatory Compliance • Board Governance • Data Analysis • Information Systems
Experience Design
Guiding digital and physical product and experience design from idea to launch.
Interactive Design • Service Design • Experience Strategy • Ethnographic Research • Pain Points • Mindsets • User Journeys • Concepts • Wireframes • Information Architecture • User Testing • Agile Methodology
Photograph by Dennis Kummer
Highlighted ClientsI engage in all things — in life and work — with genuine curiosity. In my 20+ years traveling the world and guiding business transformation and experience design for clients spanning industries, nations, and market values, I have seen time and again the value of starting with questions and not presuming answers. I challenge reasons for why and re-examine notions of how. I believe we can always learn more and do better, as teammates and humans — and I model this belief every project, every day.
Royal Bank of Canada
The largest bank in Canada, with 12.5 million customers, RBC needed to up their digital conversion game. Working with a team of experience designers, human insights specialists, and industry experts, I led a deep-dive research and analysis engagement that resulted in a tiered customer acquisition strategic roadmap for multi-product, omni-channel conversion.
Oliver Wyman
A global leader in management consulting, Oliver Wyman specializes in strategy, operations, risk management, and organization transformation — and they were in need of some organization transformation of their own. Invited by the Head of Experience Design, I was asked to run experience design workshops for senior leadership, advise on staffing, and lead client projects to demonstrate how establishing an Experience Design practice in-house will lead to deeper client relationships, stronger cross-disciplinary and intra-departmental collaboration, and larger account acquisitions in a rapidly evolving market.
Working Assumptions
Working Assumptions is a private operating foundation dedicated to supporting art and education in the examination of work and family. Recruited to professionalize the organization, I led a multi-year organizational transformation that included strategic planning, operational planning and infrastructure building, brand strategy, marketing, accounting, compliance, curriculum design, physical and digital product design, staffing, and board governance.
Planned Parenthood
The leading provider of quality, affordable healthcare, Planned Parenthood receives 60 million website visitors and 2.4 million people in their health centers annually. A few years ago, I was tapped to work alongside senior leadership to lead strategy and implementation across two areas: a comprehensive digital experience overhaul, and the development of a 5-year strategy plan for the national office and 63 affiliates around the country.
MetLife
MetLife is one of the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, with 90 million customers in over 60 countries. In 2018, after a major rebrand, MetLife needed to update their digital touchpoints, starting with their website. A 5-month engagement driven by anticipatory design covered research, preliminary conceptual designs, user testing, design, copywriting, and annotating.
TIME Magazine
A cultural icon, TIME magazine needs no introduction. But, a few years back, their digital interface needed a major renovation. That meant introducing infinite scroll for readers and a custom time-saving CMS for journalists breaking huge stories.
Jonathan Kerrs — Partner and Head of Strategy, SYPartners“Innate in Annika is an ability to do anything. I need to repeat this—the ability to do anything. This may be one of the hardest aspects of Annika’s personal gravity to capture, as too often people lay claim to skills and expertise they don’t fully own. With Annika, it’s often the opposite. She is without ego, and as such, comes without the baggage of a braggart. And yet, I have seen Annika learn, try, refine, master, and then teach skills at a pace that is confounding.”
Munawar Ahmed — Partner and Global Head of Experience Design, Oliver Wyman“Annika is a deep empath and a quick study. She is brilliant with clients and an incredible strategic thinker, juggling multiple pieces of complex information in her mind and coming through the other side with tremendous clarity. Being a good strategist requires bringing together the right words and right visuals, at the right time, and romanced in the right way. Annika is very, very good at that. She is able to bring confidence, clarity, and human-ness to never-been-done-before concepts that transcend industry.”
Photograph by NASA
Volunteer WorkI live for language — visual and verbal — and its power to connect and inspire us. I’ve dedicated many years, and many moments of laughable embarrassment, to learning foreign languages. Through this, I have shared new and profound experiences, knowledge, and perspectives enriched by diverse cultures and history with people around the globe. And I’ve helped those unable to speak English navigate complicated systems so they could build a better life for themselves and their families here in the United States.
Asylum Seekers
Translating Spanish to English and vice versa, I’ve helped non-English speaking women escaping gang and domestic violence find amnesty in the US.
H2B Visa Program
I’ve worked with local small-business owners in dire need of labor bring international workers into the country through the complex H2B visa program.
Education & Teaching