Tricia works with leadership teams when the business needs clarity about how it wins and where growth will come from. Across global companies, growth-stage organizations, and mature businesses navigating change, the work focuses on aligning strategy, leadership, and execution around a clear North Star.
The examples below illustrate how that clarity translates into better decisions, focused marketing, and renewed momentum inside the business which delivers measurable results.
Experience includes leadership roles and various engagements with organizations such as:
Selected examples from leadership roles and various engagements:
Starbucks
Situation: As specialty coffee expanded into grocery channels and beverage innovation accelerated, packaged coffee sales in Starbucks stores began to decline while requiring significant operational resources.
Challenge: Customers were confused about how to select the right coffee, and the category lacked a clear strategic direction.
Work: Tricia conducted a deep evaluation of the business and packaging strategy, helping define a new North Star for the category. This informed a refined product lineup, improved merchandising, clearer communication, and partner training.
Outcome: The new strategy delivered 100% category growth within two years while generating approximately $20 million in annual operational savings.
Microsoft
Situation: As competitors gained relevance with younger consumers, Microsoft risked losing cultural and market relevance.
Challenge: The company needed a clearer articulation of its brand direction and strategic narrative to align teams internally and reconnect with key audiences.
Work: Tricia led an in-depth evaluation of the brand across five strategic audiences using qualitative and quantitative insights. She co-authored a brand manifesto that clarified the company’s North Star and strategic direction.
Outcome: The manifesto was adopted internally and recognized by Microsoft’s CMO as the foundation for the company’s new brand identity and the “One Microsoft" concept introduced 18 months later.
COINSTAR
Situation: As a mature brand, Coinstar’s growth had stagnated and the business lacked a clear strategic direction for future expansion.
Challenge: Leadership needed alignment around a North Star that could guide innovation, cultural renewal, and future growth opportunities.
Work: Through deep customer insight and strategic evaluation, Tricia helped establish a North Star for the business and evolved the brand positioning to be more emotionally relevant and inspiring internally.
Outcome: With alignment around the new direction, the company delivered record revenue and profit for three consecutive years, launched a new service category, expanded internationally, and ultimately completed a successful sale to private equity.
Rad Power Bikes
Situation: During a period of rapid growth and organizational change, Rad Power Bikes needed experienced leadership to stabilize and guide the marketing organization.
Challenge: The company lacked a clear brand strategy, consistent marketing direction, and leadership continuity.
Work: Serving as interim head of brand and marketing, Tricia restructured the marketing team, implemented a new go-to-market process, hired a marketing director, and established the company’s first comprehensive brand strategy.
Outcome: Within six months, the organization had a clear strategic marketing foundation and leadership structure capable of supporting sustained growth.
DACO
Situation: A well-established distribution company with over 50 years of industry expertise was pursuing growth but lacked a cohesive marketing strategy.
Challenge: The marketing team managed multiple sub-brands and initiatives without a unified strategic direction.
Work: Tricia conducted a comprehensive assessment and developed a brand strategy and digital marketing plan focused on clarity, relevance, and differentiation. She also recommended consolidating multiple sub-brands under a single master brand.
Outcome: The refreshed brand identity and website strengthened the customer experience, created internal enthusiasm, and revealed opportunities for operational efficiency and revenue growth through SKU management.
Gliding Eagle
Situation: After years focused on building a seamless product experience, Gliding Eagle was ready to sharpen how it articulated its value to the market.
Challenge: The CEO needed a clearer brand and marketing strategy to refine the company’s vision, strengthen its value proposition, and identify where growth opportunities were most promising.
Work: As a strategic advisor over an 18-month period, Tricia helped shape the company’s brand strategy, messaging, audience focus, and marketing direction. She also led the company’s first market research effort to assess alignment between the intended value proposition and customer perception.
Outcome: The work clarified the company's market story, brought a stronger customer lens into decision-making, and identified opportunities to support future growth.
Whitman College
Situation: Whitman College faced growing controversy around its existing mascot and needed a process to determine an appropriate path forward.
Challenge: The institution required an inclusive and credible approach that could align a diverse set of stakeholders.
Work: Tricia designed and led a research-driven process engaging more than 10,000 alumni, students, staff, and administrators.
Outcome: The research clarified community sentiment and ultimately led to the introduction of the Whitman Blues mascot in 2017, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Outerwall
Situation: Coinstar, Inc. had grown into a portfolio of businesses, but the corporate identity no longer reflected the company’s broader strategy or future direction.
Challenge: The CEO initiated a transformation to reposition the parent company and create a brand that could unify the organization internally while clarifying its role externally.
Work: As the sole marketer on a small executive team assembled to lead the effort, Tricia guided the brand strategy process, helped select the agency partner, and coached the internal team through the development of a new corporate identity.
Outcome: The company was reintroduced as Outerwall, with a new name and visual identity implemented across internal and external touchpoints. The launch culminated with the company ringing the NASDAQ bell in July 2013.
Global Retail Leadership Team
Situation: A leadership team inside a global retail company had launched a new initiative but needed alignment and clarity heading into year two.
Work: Tricia facilitated strategic sessions that helped the team clarify objectives, success factors, and their North Star.
Outcome: The team aligned around a shared vision and strategic direction that strengthened their impact within the broader organization.
Bridgeways
Situation: Bridgeways, a nonprofit social enterprise focused on improving the lives of individuals living with mental illness, saw an opportunity to grow its contract manufacturing business.
Challenge: Leadership needed clarity about how to pursue growth while staying aligned with the organization’s mission.
Work: Tricia helped define a North Star for the next phase of the organization and developed a brand and marketing strategy to support that direction.
Outcome: The work clarified the organization’s growth path and strengthened its positioning while equipping the internal team to continue executing the strategy.
“She leads with a steady hand and always approaches challenges with a thoughtful lens and broad view.”
