Building a More Meaningful Approach to Communications Measurement
The Challenge
We had communications data, but not a consistent way to interpret or use it. Metrics weren’t always understood or applied the same way, making it difficult to move beyond reporting numbers toward deeper conversations about performance.
We needed more than better reports. We needed a measurement system.
What I Saw
Improving the scorecard alone wasn’t going to solve the problem. Before we could produce consistent reporting, we needed consistency in what we were measuring, what the metrics meant, how they were calculated and interpreted, and what conclusions we could reasonably draw from them.
So instead of starting with the report, I started with the foundation underneath it.
My Approach
I started by challenging some of the assumptions built into the existing approach—particularly what we believed individual metrics could tell us about communications performance.
A click, for example, wasn’t automatically evidence that content was relevant, just as the absence of a click didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t. Open rates told us something useful, but not the whole story. And additional measures such as click-to-open rate could add context without becoming another performance target.
From there, I worked backward from the decisions we wanted the data to support. I established clearer definitions and standards for how metrics should be calculated, interpreted and used; reconsidered how content was categorized; developed baselines; and built governance, scorecards and reporting practices around a common methodology.
The goal wasn’t to create more metrics. It was to make the metrics we had more meaningful.
The Impact
The framework is helping shift the conversation from simply reporting numbers toward interpreting what they may be telling us.
We’re beginning to have richer conversations about engagement trends and how communications performance connects to broader business goals. A shared methodology and supporting operational processes have also created greater consistency in how results are analyzed, questions are answered and opportunities for improvement are identified.
The work is influencing decisions beyond reporting, providing a stronger foundation for conversations about channel strategy, content decisions and where communications may be most effective.
Measurement is becoming less about reporting the numbers and more about using them to make better decisions.
Creating Structure Around an Evolving Recognition Program
The Challenge
A major annual sales recognition program had evolved into four in-person events across two cities, with a fixed timeline immediately following year-end.
The timing created an unusual challenge: Communications production had to begin before final winners were known. More than 200 potential winner accolades needed to be developed so the team could move quickly once results were finalized, alongside multiple scripts, leadership reviews and other program content.
The challenge wasn’t simply volume. It was managing speed and uncertainty at the same time.
What I Saw
We couldn’t wait for every variable to be resolved before beginning the work. The timeline simply didn’t allow it.
The communications approach needed to create structure around uncertainty—identifying what could move forward, what depended on other decisions and where we needed enough flexibility to change course quickly.
The goal wasn’t to eliminate uncertainty. It was to build a process that could withstand it.
My Approach
I relied on a production process I’d built the previous year to create as much predictability as possible around inherently unpredictable work. It established a path from information collection through writing, editing, fact-checking, organization, senior-leader review and final script development.
As the program progressed, I led standing workstream meetings, established deadlines, managed dependencies, reinforced roles and responsibilities, documented decisions and elevated risks when necessary.
I also adapted the communications experience itself—balancing accuracy, brevity and storytelling so the recognition worked for an in-person audience and reflected the leaders and teams being celebrated.
My job wasn’t to have every answer. It was to keep the work moving while the answers were still changing.
The Impact
Ultimately, approximately 110 salespeople were honored across the four events. Preparing more than 200 potential accolades gave the team the flexibility to finalize the correct content quickly once winners were confirmed.
Most importantly, the complexity behind the scenes didn’t become the attendee experience. Salespeople felt recognized and energized, and the program remained focused on celebrating their achievements.
The complexity stayed behind the curtain. The recognition stayed at the center.
Turning Seller Feedback Into a Repeatable Listening Model
The Challenge
Senior leadership had called for an overhaul of the communications strategy in response to the volume of email reaching sellers. As the team moved toward a newsletter-first approach, we needed meaningful participation from sellers themselves to help refine the strategy.
But gathering feedback wasn’t enough. With three differently sized sales organizations, multiple sub-teams and participants ranging from frontline sellers to senior directors, we needed a way to gather perspectives that was both representative and useful.
What I Saw
Not every question required the same level of engagement. Some warranted sustained participation and deeper discussion; others could be answered through a much lighter interaction.
I also wanted the council to become more than another meeting. It needed to be a listening mechanism we could actually use.
My Approach
I developed the council charter and designed two levels of participation.
The Core Council provided sustained involvement through pre-work, surveys and facilitated discussions. The Extended Council offered a lighter way to gather targeted input for specific questions. The representation model was designed to provide voices from across the sales organizations while accounting for differences in their size and structure.
I created and delivered onboarding for both groups, then translated the leadership mandate into a research agenda. I led collaborative sessions with my team to identify what we needed to learn, synthesized the questions into discussion areas and created the schedule and operating model.
I also defined the roles required to run each session successfully, created a central structure for the work and led the first session to demonstrate the model before transitioning subsequent sessions to other team members.
The Impact
The council created a structured way to bring seller perspectives into the evolution of the communications strategy while also creating greater connection between the communications team and the people it supported.
Just as importantly, the operating model wasn’t dependent on one person. The structure, roles and process allowed other team members to lead subsequent sessions and made the approach repeatable.
I didn’t just facilitate a conversation. I helped build a system for continuing it.
Featured Impact
Building a More Meaningful Approach to Communications Measurement
The Challenge
We had communications data, but not a consistent way to interpret or use it. Metrics weren’t always understood or applied the same way, making it difficult to move beyond reporting numbers toward deeper conversations about performance.
We needed more than better reports. We needed a measurement system.
What I Saw
Improving the scorecard alone wasn’t going to solve the problem. Before we could produce consistent reporting, we needed consistency in what we were measuring, what the metrics meant, how they were calculated and interpreted, and what conclusions we could reasonably draw from them.
So instead of starting with the report, I started with the foundation underneath it.
My Approach
I started by challenging some of the assumptions built into the existing approach—particularly what individual metrics could reasonably tell us about communications performance.
Clicks can be a useful signal of interest, but context matters. Our audience was made up of busy salespeople, and much of the essential information was intentionally provided within the newsletter itself. A seller could open the newsletter, get what they needed and move on without ever clicking through. So the absence of a click couldn’t automatically be interpreted as a lack of interest or relevance.
That led me to think more carefully about the role each metric should play. Open rates could tell us something about reach. Clicks could provide a behavioral signal. Click-to-open rate could add another layer of context. But no single measure should be expected to tell the whole story—or be used to make conclusions it couldn’t support.
From there, I worked backward from the decisions we wanted the data to support..
The goal wasn’t to create more metrics. It was to make the metrics we had more meaningful.
The Impact
The framework is helping shift the conversation from simply reporting numbers toward interpreting what they may be telling us.
We’re beginning to have richer conversations about engagement trends and how communications performance connects to broader business goals. A shared methodology and supporting operational processes have also created greater consistency in how results are analyzed, questions are answered and opportunities for improvement are identified.
The work is influencing decisions beyond reporting, providing a stronger foundation for conversations about channel strategy, content decisions and where communications may be most effective.
Measurement is becoming less about reporting the numbers and more about using them to make better decisions.
Bringing Structure Around an Evolving Recognition Program
The Challenge
A major annual sales recognition program had evolved into four in-person events across two cities, with a fixed timeline immediately following year-end.
The timing created an unusual challenge: communications production had to begin before final winners were known. More than 200 potential winner accolades needed to be developed so the team could move quickly once results were finalized, alongside multiple scripts, leadership reviews and other program content.
The challenge wasn’t simply volume. It was managing speed and uncertainty at the same time.
What I Saw
We couldn’t wait for every variable to be resolved before beginning the work. The timeline simply didn’t allow it.
The communications approach needed to create structure around uncertainty—identifying what could move forward, what depended on other decisions and where we needed enough flexibility to change course quickly.
The goal wasn’t to eliminate uncertainty. It was to build a process that could withstand it.
My Approach
I relied on a production process I’d built the previous year to create as much predictability as possible around inherently unpredictable work. It established a path from information collection through writing, editing, fact-checking, organization, senior-leader review and final script development.
As the program progressed, I led standing workstream meetings, established deadlines, managed dependencies, reinforced roles and responsibilities, documented decisions and elevated risks when necessary.
I also adapted the communications experience itself—balancing accuracy, brevity and storytelling so the recognition worked for an in-person audience and reflected the leaders and teams being celebrated.
My job wasn’t to have every answer. It was to keep the work moving while the answers were still changing.
The Impact
Ultimately, approximately 110 salespeople were honored across the four events. Preparing more than 200 potential accolades gave the team the flexibility to finalize the correct content quickly once winners were confirmed.
Most importantly, the complexity behind the scenes didn’t become the attendee experience. Salespeople felt recognized and energized, and the program remained focused on celebrating their achievements.
The complexity stayed behind the curtain. The recognition stayed at the center.
Turning Seller Feedback Into a Repeatable Listening Model
The Challenge
Senior leadership had called for an overhaul of the communications strategy in response to the volume of email reaching sellers. As the team moved toward a newsletter-first approach, we needed meaningful participation from sellers themselves to help refine the strategy.
But gathering feedback wasn’t enough. With three differently sized sales organizations, multiple subteams and participants ranging from frontline sellers to senior directors, we needed a way to gather perspectives that was both representative and useful.
What I Saw
Not every question required the same level of engagement. Some warranted sustained participation and deeper discussion; others could be answered through a much lighter interaction.
I also wanted the council to become more than another meeting. It needed to be a listening mechanism we could actually use.
My Approach
I developed the council charter and designed two levels of participation.
The Core Council provided sustained involvement through pre-work, surveys and facilitated discussions. The Extended Council offered a lighter way to gather targeted input for specific questions. The representation model was designed to provide voices from across the sales organizations while accounting for differences in their size and structure.
I created and delivered onboarding for both groups, then translated the leadership mandate into a research agenda. I led collaborative sessions with my team to identify what we needed to learn, synthesized the questions into discussion areas and created the schedule and operating model.
I also defined the roles required to run each session successfully, created a central structure for the work and led the first session to demonstrate the model before transitioning subsequent sessions to other team members.
The Impact
The council created a structured way to bring seller perspectives into the evolution of the communications strategy while also creating greater connection between the communications team and the people it supported.
Just as importantly, the operating model wasn’t dependent on one person. The structure, roles and process allowed other team members to lead subsequent sessions and made the approach repeatable.
I didn’t just facilitate a conversation. I helped build a system for continuing it.
More of the Story
Building From the Ground Up
Some of my most interesting work has started with very little infrastructure and a need to create what was missing.
At the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, I built repeatable processes across media relations, executive communications, events and a CEO radio program in a lean environment with limited resources. Earlier at Coca-Cola Global Finance, I established a weekly communications channel and the editorial process behind it to help connect a geographically dispersed organization.
Making the Complex Clear
Much of my career has required me to communicate in areas where I wasn’t the subject-matter expert. I’ve worked across government procurement, global finance, restaurant technology, product launches and sales—learning enough to ask the right questions, understand what matters and translate specialized information for the people who need to use it.
At Georgia DOAS, that meant interviewing subject-matter experts across the organization and turning procurement information and organizational accomplishments into communications for employees, vendors and annual reports. At Chick-fil-A, I communicated technology releases, updates and service disruptions for the team supporting restaurant operators. At Mercer, I worked as a communications expert on a new-product launch team and developed the crisis communications strategy used to prepare for product delays and service disruptions.
Operating at Scale
My work has taken me from lean organizations to global enterprises, often communicating across large and varied audiences.
At Coca-Cola, my work supported a Global Finance organization of approximately 4,500 associates. At Georgia DOAS, communications reached more than 15,000 registered vendors in addition to internal audiences. Today, my portfolio at Cox Automotive includes Sales-wide communications reaching up to 1,500+ sellers and performance managers, along with major initiatives, industry events and recognition programs.
Earning Trust Beyond the Assignment
I was hired by Georgia DOAS to support communications for State Purchasing. Over time, successful assignments led to new ones, including work beyond my original division.
I was tapped for special projects by the agency’s Commissioner and, later, its Communications Director, expanding my work into areas including Fleet, Risk Management and Surplus Property. The assignments ranged from annual-report storytelling and promotional campaigns to award submissions and other high-profile communications.
