A new chapter awaits...

A year ago to the day, I started at Foot Locker. Almost a year to the day, it's time to take on a new challenge in the industry and hang up my stripes!

My gratitude goes to the people I called teammates!

Over the last 12 months, I've had the privilege to work with some of the best and brightest in digital technology and both leaders old and new from CEO to business analyst and back.

• My teams under Amit Jain , Dennis Mühlenstädt , Mohan Indraganti along with Sathiya Balakrishnan , Darla M. Weber, MS, PMP, CSM, SSGB , Madhavi Padamati, MBA , and Steven D. paved the way for new digital experiences on the web and mobile apps.
• Business partners in David Miller , John Wompey Kick Van Der Staak , Todd Smyth (and the other Ecomm Leaders), as well as the entire CX team, carried that vision into the market and kept our customers at the center of everything we do...
• Also, the best engineering group in the industry in Justin Daniels organization, with talent like Kyle Flynn to see things through to the end.

My key takeaways

There are countless lessons learned about leadership, humility, communication, and strategy... Here are four that I will carry forward into my next chapter.

• People before Politics - What I can say is that people make a difference in our day-to-day jobs, and Foot Locker is an amazing brand with some of the best people in the industry. I learned to always put them first, keep an open and empathetic ear, and understand what makes each person unique, then find problems to be solved that require their talent. Probably grew the most here thanks to some open and honest conversations with HRBP and my team.
• Process Definition before Problem Solving - Sometimes the hardest thing is to get people to agree on the approach to solving the problem vs the tendency to just jump in and start talking about solutioning. Convergent thinking vs. Divergent thinking (or in UX, the 'double diamond'). There's a time and place for both, but jumping into solutioning before defining the process to discuss and the problem being discussed is a great way to churn and not 'solve' anything.
• Pragmatic before Progressive - I led product management, and the early discussions around the roadmap had some very cool stuff on it. Where we started was on shoring up fundamentals first, which we called "focus on the core". Sometimes, slowing down to audit the key aspects and taking a pragmatic approach feels like going slow, but in the long run it creates a foundation for a digital experience that can later on be much more progressive.
• Change Management before Anything Else - Org Change Management is and will always be fundamental. 'Why' and 'Why-Now' have to be answered and clear. Nobody will follow if they don't know where we're going or why we're going there. Awareness, desire, and knowledge of the changes are fundamental at the onset.

What's next?

At my core, I know and love the retail industry, at the intersection of digital experiences online & in-store... and the technology that makes those come to life. Ultimately, Order-Management is my first love.. and I'll end up continuing that work regardless of the next chapter (which I'm hoping to announce after taking some time to gear-down, rest and refocus).

For now, I'm taking a ton of calls to learn more and meet some amazing folks in the industry.

Let me know if you ever want to talk shop or if any opportunities in the digital tech, marketing tech, or OMS space are worth exploring more!