Intake
Standardized project creation, ownership, requirements, and readiness.
03
Enterprise workflow transformation
Project Flowline
An organization-wide redesign of SchoolMessenger implementation delivery—moving disconnected project tracking into a purpose-built system of automated workflows, shared visibility, and continuous improvement.
The problem
The work had outgrown the system managing it.
SchoolMessenger used NetSuite to coordinate website, mobile-app, communication-product, and content-migration implementations. It held the records, but it was not designed to manage the handoffs, dependencies, accountability, and real-time visibility required by a complex delivery organization.
Teams were accustomed to the existing process, so the challenge was larger than selecting a new tool. We needed to redesign how work moved across implementation, project management, design, quality assurance, and leadership—and earn adoption without disrupting active customer projects.
Conceptual workflow
A portfolio-safe representation of the operating model—not a reproduction of proprietary screens.
Implementation
Role-specific work queues and automatically created downstream tasks.
Design & QA
Visible handoffs, validation gates, exceptions, and escalation paths.
Launch
Completion controls, reporting, and customer-facing delivery status.
What I led
Platform selection
Researched the options with leadership, helped select Jira, and translated department needs into a unified operating model.
Workflow architecture
Designed custom workflows and automations that moved work across implementation, design, and QA while creating required tasks at the right moment.
Role-based visibility
Created dashboards for project managers, designers, implementation specialists, team leads, account management, and senior leadership.
Adoption and training
Led hands-on training in U.S. and Canadian offices, including full project simulations that let teams practice every handoff before launch.
The operating result
One system became a shared language for delivery.
The transition used a controlled cutover: existing projects finished in NetSuite while all new projects entered Jira. That protected active customer work and allowed the organization to adopt the new model without a disruptive historical-data migration.
The new system materially improved throughput and gave teams and leaders clearer visibility into work in progress. Thousands of work items moved through the workflows, creating an operational record that was structured, searchable, and useful for decision-making.
After launch, I established a weekly open improvement forum where any employee could propose changes. Those ideas became a managed backlog of workflow, automation, and dashboard enhancements—turning Jira into a product shaped by the people who used it.
Leadership lessons
Design the work, not just the tool
The value came from clarifying ownership, dependencies, and decision points before configuring the platform.
Make adoption experiential
Teams gained confidence by walking real projects through the new system together before the cutover.
Keep improving after launch
The employee forum made frontline users co-owners of the operating system instead of passive recipients.
Preserve continuity
The phased transition improved the system while protecting customers and the delivery commitments already underway.