GTM Culture Champions Program
Designed a scalable model for in-person connection by translating best practices into a structured program, enabling local teams to launch and sustain experiences that feel relevant, engaging, and worth showing up for.
Role: Experience Strategy & Design Lead
Scope: Global · 10 sites · 2.4K+ employees · 32 culture champions
1. Overview
A global program designed to create meaningful in-person connection through locally driven experiences and team rituals for Adobe’s GTM organization, shifting from centralized events to a distributed model of experience design.
Impact
Participatory, informal experiences consistently drove stronger engagement than traditional, structured events.
10 global sites (New York, San Jose, Atlanta, Chicago, London, Munich, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney)
2.4K+ employees impacted
16+ event experiences
32 culture champions
90%+ felt more connected to the GTM organization
Designing and Scaling the Experience
While best practices for connection already existed, the challenge was translating them into experiences that people were actually excited to participate in and that could be scaled through local teams.
My role was to define what makes a great connection experience and translate those principles into formats, guidance, and tools that culture champions could easily adopt and run themselves.
Principles
Designed for participation, not passive attendance
Prioritized culturally relevant and timely formats (e.g., End of Quarter, All Hands, key milestones)
Leaned into play, analog interaction, and social energy
Created low-pressure environments that encourage interaction
Focused on experiences people want to be part of, not just attend
Translated into simple, repeatable formats that volunteers could sustain
Experience Examples
These principles were translated into formats such as cross-team lunches, leadership panels, and play-based experiences like Lego Block Parties, tapping into a broader cultural shift toward analog, nostalgic interaction and creating a more approachable way for teams to connect.
Scaling Through Program Structure and Playbooks
The program was designed as a system, not a series of events. Instead of centrally producing experiences, I created a structure that enabled local teams to design and run their own. The focus was not just on scaling events, but on scaling what makes an experience feel engaging and relevant.
Culture Champion model (local hosts across sites)
Quarterly event framework + ongoing team rituals
Playbooks with connection best practices and formats
“Quick win” templates for low-lift, high-impact moments
Operational tools (budgeting, planning, communications)
Global support and resource hub
Enabling and Onboarding Teams to Launch
To ensure the program could be sustained locally, I partnered directly with teams to put onboarding best practices into action and help them launch their first experience. The goal was to create an early “quick win” that built confidence, demonstrated what a great experience feels like, and set the tone for future events.
Kick-off pilot events
Onboarding decks and kickoff sessions
Role clarity and expectations
Event planning frameworks
Starter event formats and templates
Volunteer recruitment and activation tools
New York Pilot
For each site, I partnered with teams to design and launch a kickoff experience. In New York, we started with a simple concept: activating the breakroom as a shared, welcoming space. The experience centered around coffee, donuts, and a short host-led kickoff to bring people together in an informal, low-pressure setting.
Small design interventions played an important role:
Identity icebreaker stickers (inspired by SYPartners) helped people quickly share something about themselves and made it easier to start conversations
Connection Bingo encouraged cross-team interaction in a light, low-pressure way
Culture Champion hosts kicked off the event, establishing purpose and tone
By keeping the format simple but intentional, teams were able to see how small design choices shape behavior and connection, giving them a clear model to build on for future experiences. This reinforced that a great experience doesn’t need to be complex, but it does need to be intentional.
Post-pilot, I gathered attendee feedback and shared insights with culture champions to guide future events. This approach created a repeatable model for how teams could quickly launch and sustain their own connection rituals.
What participants said
“The GTM org is often siloed, especially between Sales, TPS, post Sales. This type of event fosters connection and lets us chat not in a purely-deal setting.”
“[The NYC Breakfast Social] is awesome! It can be intimidating to introduce myself to new people, but the stickers and bingo make it easy”
“Seeing the leadership team from all parts is great and talking in a more open and collaborative environment feels inclusive”
Designing Connection Through Enablement
Meaningful connection doesn’t come from large, centralized events alone, but from experiences that feel relevant to people’s everyday context.
The most effective approach was not to design everything centrally, but to define what “good” looks like and enable others to create it themselves. By translating best practices into simple, repeatable formats, teams were able to design experiences that felt both locally relevant and consistently high-quality.
This work reinforced that scaling connection is less about producing more events, and more about empowering people with the tools, structure, and confidence to create meaningful experiences on their own.