Designing learning experiences at Google

I joined Google as a Program Manager in their Learning & Development department based out of Singapore from 2018 - 2021. The department known as PeopleDev created blended learning and development offerings around the Google brand for employee culture. All initiatives were grounded in data, organisational psychology, behavioural economics and adult learning theories. Due to the confidential information and nature of the internal programs, I will only describe my work and show AI-generated images from Midjourney instead of showing accurate documentation.

• Part of the core re-design team for Google’s global digital onboarding program with 95%> favourability.
• Co-led global department plan & communications during the initial COVID months. Received award from Chief People Officer Eileen Naughton and the leadership team.
• Led critical global policy change and stakeholder comms for onboarding program and culture shift, received an award from leadership.
• Conducted user research, then redesigned and launched 12 learning & development cultural onboarding programs across Asia-Pacific with the highest global favourability score of 97.3%.
• Co-designed an intern program for candidates with specific multiple accessibility needs including sight and physical mobility deployed in multiple countries globally to 100% initial user feedback. Received an award from People Operations leadership.
• Global lead for consulting on M&As - planned cultural onboarding into Google for >1500 M&A employees.

From 2018- 2020, my main focus was the cultural onboarding for new hires across the Asia-Pacific region. That meant the management and re-design from research to implementation of event-based day 1 onboarding experiences across 12 hubs in Asia that were running a bi-weekly basis. This was complete with local lectures on the company, local office culture, inclusion and more. I ran this with a team of 80 cross-APAC volunteers. I was also responsible for the main bi-weekly large-scale event at the HQ in Singapore where all Nooglers (new Googlers) would fly in from their hubs after their local orientation events. This comprised of a full day of lectures deep diving into company culture, product overview, company structure and future visions facilitated by senior members of staff.

With a focus on improving program scores across the region, I conducted investigations complete with user research and accessibility tests in the locations of Taiwan, Japan, Bangalore India, Singapore and Australia. Using our existing quantitative data sets complemented with our new qualitative information, key problems were identified, and local solutions were put into place. I designed new programs for each location that celebrated their local culture yet strong connection to the Google company as a whole. Given the high-profile nature and importance of these culture onboarding experiences for the Google brand, I was responsible for the change management, communications and live presentations to senior stakeholders at Director and VP level. Right up to the start of covid, 8 new event-based experiences were successfully launched at hubs across APAC, with plans for another 5. Of note, the India-based locations success rates went from ~75% to >93% percentile straight after launch. Singapore consistently hit 100% favourability. This whole design change was halted due to the outbreak of COVID that struck Asia first.

With the outbreak of COVID, I co-led the initial department research and response with my manager. I developed a project management and communications plan that we used to keep our global departments and partners informed of the rapid changes happening in Asia-Pacific. After this, I was put forward for promotion which I was awarded.

In 2020-2021 I was part of the global redesign team, consisting of 5 people under the leadership of Alyn Kinney, charged with creating a new digital culture onboarding program. We partnered with learning design agency Sponge. My responsibilities included art direction; this involved sourcing imagery from the Google internal archives for use across the program. I consulted the project on regional inclusion, taking local non-US centric perspectives into account. Alongside the other learning designers, I also assisted with crafting detailed briefs for the vendors. This project was launched to major success of >93%.

I left Google in August 2021 due to personal circumstances that had brought me back to the UK. Instead, I decided to pursue further education in art & design to expand my knowledge of creating immersive, narrative environments and branded learning experiences.