Consulting
Design, product, and business strategy + execution
As an innovation and product development consultant, I've led projects for startups, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies across fashion, retail, supply chain, healthcare, finance, travel, and social impact. Previously, I have held organizational and project leadership positions at Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures (now BCG X), Method, and Giant Machines (now Deloitte Digital).
My services span the full product/service lifecycle and span both strategy and execution. With curiosity, empathy, and integrity, I seek out diverse inspiration and perspectives, create healthy, collaborative cultures, and solve complex problems with creative and validated solutions.
Nicole is a great problem solver who never shies away from recommending possible solutions to complex issues.
Super easy to work with, Nicole takes full ownership of her engagements and executes them brilliantly and quickly.
She is also one of the few people with a deep understanding of both the fashion industry and the technology world.
- Harshit Nigam, Senior Manager
Services
Haegue Yang - Frieze NY
Fractional Leadership
An executive partner to drive strategic initiatives and complex problem solving
Need a stand-in leader comfortable navigating ambiguity with innovation and product development expertise?
Business & Brand Strategy
Market analysis and unique value proposition definition
Looking to establish and validate brand positioning for your startup or new line of business?
Escher X nendo
City walkers by Julian OPIE
Design Strategy & User Research
Discovery and translation of qualitative and quantitative insights into actionable opportunities
Want to better understand your target audience and how to deliver on their needs?
Product Management & Strategy
Lean experiments and MVP definition, validation, and delivery
Need help creating and implementing a clear vision and roadmap that delivers customer benefits and business outcomes?
National Gallery of Australia
Cobalt Violet: Beautiful Water Bones, by Loris Cecchini - Venice Biennale
Learning & Development Facilitation
Design thinking and organizational workshops that upskill and align teams
Wondering how you can help your team grow, navigate change, and improve collaboration?
Design & Development
UX/UI design and full stack engineering through partner network
Need a brand identity, design system, clickable prototype, or product design and build?
Shimabuku - Venice Biennale
Clients
Projects
Empowering women to travel solo
SoloTrvlr a global travel advice platform with a mission to empower women to travel anywhere in the world with verified tips from a network of locals and seasoned travelers.
I led a lean team who partnered with SoloTrvlr in the lead up to their beta launch, on the brand strategy and identity, product strategy and design for key elements of the app, and design and build of the initial website.
Pursuing more equitable philanthropic models
UpStart supports social entrepreneurs in the Jewish community by providing them with tools, funding, and a network to bring their bold ideas to life. True to their innovative nature, UpStart was interested in developing new ideas to disrupt the traditional funding model, to create more accessibility, equity, and inclusivity.
In a validation sprint, a fellow strategist and I conducted stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, and concept ideation and product vision workshops. We defined personas and their customer journeys, tested UpStart's hypotheses, and surfaced new insights for exploration.
Machine learning to mitigate risk
Pharos
Pharos is an ML-curated news platform that makes critical and often indirect connections between current events and portfolios for risk management professionals servicing financial clients.
I led a large team responsible for building out the proof of concept and running a global pilot. While managing the highly complex project that included a mobile app, web app, and data science back-end, I drove critical features such as a machine learning feedback loop and significant data quality and UX/UI improvements.
A new way to find precious metals
MatMatch
MatMatch is a two-sided marketplace matching engineers and procurement professionals with hard-to-source materials and suppliers.
Leveraging insights from user and market research, I led product strategy and incubation planning including the product definition, venture setup, and technical solution. The MVP feature set included a robust search that simplified discovery of materials based on a combination of properties.
Envisioning the future of retail
Target is always looking for ways to better serve their guests and improve the shopping experience. They partnered with BCGDV on a 14-week innovation sprint to generate new business ideas embodying the future of retail, encompassing all digital and physical environments.
I was a product strategist on the project, part of the BCGDV team leading the innovation sprint and collaborating closely with deep subject matter experts from Target. We ran futures workshops, ideating, iterating, and refining 98 concepts in 72 hours that we pitched shark-tank style to Target leadership. The executives touted both the creativity and relevancy of the ideas, selecting multiple for implementation.
Revamping the online customer journey
One Drop
One Drop is a diabetes management platform including a mobile app, subscription ecommerce site, and coaching programs. After lauching, they were looking to increase cohesion of their ecosystem, and improve engagement and conversion.
Introducing strategic design thinking and product management methodologies, I introduced user research and testing to identify opportunity areas, and ran innovation summits to generate ideas, map out customer journeys, and create a product/service roadmap. I oversaw the design and development of the website overhaul, simplifying the consumer offering, streamlining and reducing friction in the UX, and positioning editorial content to improve target metrics.
Digitally transforming a 100 year old brand
Operating since 1818, Brooks Brothers is the longest running American retail brand. Long-specializing in tailored clothing, the heritage brand embodies high-quality materials and craftsmanship. However, as a scaled business with a wide array of off-the-shelf offerings, they needed to shift the company to digital solutions to manage their thousands of SKUs.
I was a lead consultant in the design and implemention of a product lifecycle management (PLM) system including multiple integrations, rolled-out to the entire global merchandising, design, product development, and production teams, plus vendors.
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