Team Connection Program
Designing systems, rituals, and in-person experiences that foster connection, collaboration, and belonging across a global organization.
Role: Experience Strategy & Design Lead
Scope: Global · 6,000+ employees · 20+ teams
Overview
The Team Connection Program is a global platform of in-person experiences designed to help teams build connection, collaboration, and belonging.
As Adobe navigated return to office, I saw a gap between large-scale events and the kind of connection people were actually looking for within their teams. I partnered with teams to design experiences grounded in their context, often tapping into cultural shifts toward more analog, play-based, and participatory interaction.
What began as a series of small experiments evolved into a global platform reaching 6,000+ employees. I defined what makes a connection experience feel engaging and worth showing up for, then translated those principles into playbooks, formats, and tools that enabled teams to independently create and sustain their own rituals.
Impact
6,000+ employees engaged
20+ teams and organizations
Global rollout across multiple sites
95% reported increased team connection post-intervention
Designing the Experience
Part 1: What makes a great connection experience
Through research and experimentation, I defined what makes a meaningful team connection experience.
A host to welcome participants and set tone
Intentional, not forced
Designed for interaction, not passive participation
Flexible to team context
Creates opportunities for authentic connection
Leaves teams feeling more connected and aligned
Part 2: Experience formats
I designed a range of experience formats to support different team needs, and playbooks to enable team leads to scale the experience.
Flagship events
Developer Day, Product Experience DayTeam rituals
Lego Block Parties, Call BlitzesSummits & offsites
Structured team gatherings
Part 3: Experience flow
Each experience was designed as a series of intentional moments:
Arrival → sets tone
Shared context → alignment
Interaction → connection
Reflection → meaning
Prototyping Connection
I approached the program as a series of experiments to understand what actually drives connection and engagement in real-world settings.
Through live pilots across different teams and contexts, I tested how participation, play, structure, and environment shape connection and engagement.
Examples include:
Principal Scientist Summit
Super Sales Day, Sales BDR Call Blitz
Product Experience Day (Express)
I observed a growing desire for analog, play-based experiences that felt more human and interactive than traditional events.
Featured Experience: Lego Block Parties
Play-Based Experience in Action
Lego Block Parties were designed as a playful, low-pressure way to bring people together, tapping into a broader shift toward analog, nostalgic experiences. By leaning into hands-on, shared activity, the format made it easy for people to interact and connect in a way that felt natural and energizing. It quickly became a repeatable model used to kick-start team connection initiatives across locations.
We then applied this approach with real teams to help them launch and sustain their own connection rituals.
Case Story: Express Team
From 0 → Sustained Team Rituals
We partnered with the Express team to kick off their first connection experiences, using play-based formats like Lego Block Parties to create immediate energy and engagement. These early activations were intentionally simple, designed to demonstrate what a great experience feels like and give the team a quick win.
What started as three pilot events evolved into a sustained model of monthly rituals, with the team continuing to design and run their own experiences over the past two years.
Scaling Connection across the Organization
As formats proved successful, I translated them into a scalable organizational model that enabled teams to independently design and sustain their own connection rituals.
Rather than centrally producing experiences, the goal was to define what “good” looks like and create systems that others could adapt and apply within their own teams.
This included:
Playbooks (DIY Team Connection Guide, Culture Champions Toolkit)
Team Connection Ideas & Kits
Team Connection Program Strategy
Team Connection Ideas & Kits
DIY Team Connection Guide
What Participants Said
“The guide was very comprehensive with its recommendations — in fact, I’ve already shared it with other community builders at Adobe!”
“Connecting with peers across different product lines that call the Atlanta area home… the feeling of unity was unmatched!”
95%
felt more connected to their team
-Lego Block Party participants (across 7 locations)
The work reinforced that meaningful connection is not created through large-scale events alone, but through rituals and experiences that feel participatory, locally relevant, and easy for teams to sustain over time.
Defining what makes a great experience feel engaging and enabling others to create it became the core of the work.