Dare2Disrupt. Designing a global experience ecosystem.

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Dare2Disrupt - Overview

Dare2Disrupt was an internal global speaker series designed to energize and reconnect a distributed creative community during a period of remote work fatigue and uncertainty.

The initiative started as a side project and evolved into a cross-functional experience platform that brought together designers, technologists, leaders, and external industry voices through highly curated conversations around creativity, leadership, disruption, and the future of design.

My role extended beyond hosting. I helped identify the opportunity, shape the vision, secure leadership support, design the experience model, and guide execution from concept to launch.

The challenge

Early signals suggested deeper challenges within the global experience design community:

• Creative burnout and declining motivation

• Weak sense of community during remote work

• New hires experiencing expectation gaps

• Limited visibility of design leadership and creative culture

Internal research indicated that approximately 60% of designers felt unmotivated during this period.

The challenge became:

How might we create meaningful experiences that inspire people, strengthen community, and reinforce a culture of bold thinking?

Research and discovery

I conducted informal conversations with new hires and peers to understand their experiences and identify recurring themes.

Patterns emerged:

Emotional needs

• Inspiration

• Belonging

• Recognition

• Connection

Functional needs

• Exposure to industry perspectives

• Opportunities to learn

• Stronger internal visibility

• Greater interaction across teams

Opportunity framing

Rather than creating another presentation series, I wanted to create something that felt more immersive and emotionally engaging.

Design principles:

• Raw over corporate

• Conversations over presentations

• Community over audience

• Energy over information overload

• Diverse voices over familiar voices

Designing the experience

The experience system included:

Program structure

• Curated guest speakers

• Live audience interaction

• Real-time Q&A

• Pre-show entertainment

• Replay and reusable content

Supporting ecosystem

• Branding and identity

• Promotion strategy

• Website experience

• Content planning

• Speaker onboarding

• Feedback loops

Launching an MVP

The initiative moved from idea to launch within roughly five weeks through collaboration across leadership and cross-functional partners.

Launching quickly meant prioritizing:

• Core experience quality

• Technical feasibility

• Content strategy

• Audience engagement

Impact

The initiative expanded beyond the original audience and generated strong engagement signals:

• 50,000+ internal touchpoints and mentions

• Participation across multiple talent communities

• High attendee satisfaction and recommendation scores

• Positive feedback around morale and community sentiment

Reflection

This project changed how I think about design.

I learned that meaningful experiences are not limited to screens and interfaces. Designing for behavior, emotion, and community can create impact at a much larger systems level.

I also learned that influence sometimes begins before formal authority.

View detailed case study here