ABOUT GALEN

Just do one thing? No thanks. I’m constantly learning. And I’ve had years of experience practicing and honing a variety of professional skillsets that have given me the confidence to know I can deliver, consistently.

Design Strategy // portfolio

Before making a thing, you have to get clear on what you’re solving for. That’s the key difference between design and art. Design is externally driven. You are in service to another, to a problem, or to a need. You have to ask why, learn, research, and frame KPIs that guide the creative process.

  • INDUSTRY & COMPETITIVE AUDITING

  • MACRO-BEHAVIORAL TRENDS

  • PROBLEM / OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION

  • METRICS OF SUCCESS & KPIS

  • EXPERIENCE PRINCIPLES

  • LEARNING & RESEARCH PLANNING

  • ROADMAP & ACTION PLANNING

Process Mapping // case

More than the pretty charts and technical details, a Process Designer is someone who maps current and future-state workflows and relationships between functions on a team. It’s about capturing the optimal and macro-order of activities to ensure optimal success.

  • CURRENT-STATE AUDIT

  • STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS

  • LIVE WORKSHOP CAPTURE

  • SYSTEM & DEPENDENCY MAPPING

  • METRICS OF SUCCESS & KPIS

  • LEADERSHIP PRESENTATION

Experience Design // case

There is no point trying to explicitly control anyone. You can’t tell a person how to walk through a store, or how to interact with a site. That would be creepy. Instead, Experience Design is about helping to guide consumer behavior based on existing expectations and contexts. It’s mostly about psychology. What is the best form of this solution to ensure usability?

  • PERSONAS & DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

  • USER FLOWS & WIREFRAMES

  • WORKSHOP FACILITATION

  • INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

  • USABILITY TESTING & PRIMARY RESEARCH

  • DESIGN GENERATION & ITERATION

  • DEVELOPMENT & EXECUTION PLANNING

Presentation Design

The discipline of making a good presentation differs from Graphic Design because of YOU. Your voice, your tone is all part of the storytelling. You and the content have to work together to ensure optimal resonance and effectiveness for your audience. It’s not about looks, it’s about business storytelling.

  • CONTENT STORYBOARDING

  • COPY WRITING & IMAGERY

  • PPT TEMPLATE CREATION

  • CHARTERS & PROJECT ARTIFACTS

  • SLIDE EDITING

  • HIGHER LEADERSHIP DELIVERY

Environmental Design // case

This is often lumped together with Interior Design, but there are key differences. Environmental Design operates on the macro, combining elements from indoor and outdoor, architecture, decor, light, sound, texture, and orientation. It’s about the physical felt experience of space.

  • SPACE PLANNING (BUBBLE DIAGRAMS)

  • RELATIONSHIP MAPPING

  • 2D SPACE ELEVATIONS

  • SPACE CHANGE MANAGEMENT

  • COMMUNICATION HIERARCHY

  • OPERATIONAL DESIGN

  • SCALED EXECUTION PLANNING

Leadership // case

I’ve been a corporate people-leader for years and have also lead peers and stakeholders through sticky project phases and politics. To me, leadership is not about being the best or knowing the most. It’s about being of service. Recognizing the unique talents and temperaments of your team and unlocking their highest potential, in service of the work.

  • PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • MENTORSHIP & ADVOCACY

  • FEEDBACK & DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

  • BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

MY CREDENTIALS // LinkedIn

WORK EXPERIENCE

Sr. Manager, Enterprise Strategy, Lowe’s Home Improvement

Manager, Design Strategy in Store Environment, Lowe’s Home Improvement

Lead, Design Strategy in Store Environment, Lowe’s Home Improvement

Producer, Customer Experience Design, Lowe’s Home Improvement

Gallery Curator, Schiltkamp Gallery, Clark University

Design Editor, Scholarly Undergrad Research Journal, Clark University

Faculty Assistant, Clark University Fine Arts Department

Trend & Style Intern, CXD, Lowe’s Home Improvement

EDUCATION

Certificate in Advanced Leadership, 2022
Emory University, Goizueta School of Business

MBA, General Management, 2017
Clark University, Worcester, MA

BA, Psychology and Studio Art Double Major
Clark University, Worcester, MA

Institut Catholique de Paris
Paris, France

Henry M Gunn High School
Palo Alto, CA

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

I worked as a direct report to Galen for 3 years at Lowe’s as the strategic arm of the Concept Design team, taking on complex retail challenges through the prism of spatial design. I found Galen to be a fantastic manager who empowered me with clear expectations, insightful information and context, and impactful situations in which my work could be highlighted. She struck a great balance between guiding me and giving me the space to work independently through difficult problems. Additionally, she provided me with networking and developmental opportunities at the company that have helped me grow in my career. I always found her work to be thoughtfully researched, value-driven, and beautifully designed and presented.

— Direct Report

Galen is exemplary in everything she does. Strong communicator visually, verbally, and written; incredibly thoughtful approach to every new challenge; has a highly-developed skill for taking amorphous problems and grounding them in useful context; incredibly diligent and hard-working; selfless; establishes and maintains an awesome network of cross-functional partners; willing to stretch and grow...and more.

— Team Peer

Galen often connects projects to larger business initiatives so that everyone working on the project has a better understanding of the holistic picture.

— Client

Galen supports the team with strategy work that benefits the direct team and outside partners. She brings such experience, insight and education to the team. I would like more individuals on the team to get to know Galen and understand her role and how we can leverage her. She inspires me to better.

— Leader

Galen generously shares the praise for positive feedback received for our work. She also does a superb job in managing collaborative conversations, ensuring everyone's opinions are heard and valued.

— Team Peer

Galen's superpower is her ability to deeply listen, ask meaningful and clarifying questions; ask additional questions to cross-functional partners that may require research and reformulate it all into a powerful strategic PowerPoint presentation that is digestible for leadership is extremely beneficial to the organization. I am appreciative of her collaborative approach and impressed with her work.

— Client

No one can outwork her. Her example provides a drumbeat for the entire team to follow.

— Team Peer

She is extremely responsive and the work she delivers is beyond expectations. She is transparent when the findings dispute a hypothesis, as she is grounded in the outcome that is right for the business. Her ability to translate thoughts, ideas, observations and data into a digestible PowerPoint presentation in a timely manner is a significant strength.

— Team Peer

Galen is a coach and a motivator, both through her actions and interactions with team members as well as her passion for the craft and industry. Her strong sense of curiosity inspires others to do there best.

— Leader

Her towering strength is her ability to absorb and make sense of seemingly random bits of information and then send those bits back out in an organized way. If this doesn't already have a name, it should be referred to as 'Galening'

— Team Peer

Galen is a connector of both people and ideas. Galen's ability to triangulate very complex scenarios and communicate back to others in ways that all can understand is a uniter that delivers results.

— Leader

I have had the pleasure of working alongside Galen for over 4 years and on several cross functional projects at Lowe’s - including a consumer trends project focused on identifying consumer and retail trends driving the future of the home improvement industry. Galen is a strategic and innovative thought leader who not only understands the business question at hand, but has the ingenuity to bring multiple pathways and solutions to the table. Galen is both a servant leader and a natural “dot connector” who ensures the right people or teams have the information needed to succeed. Galen has always been a natural partner for my work in consumer foresight as she - seemingly effortlessly - manages the day to day while understanding the bigger picture and simultaneously keeping an eye on the future. In addition to all her wonderful business and leadership traits, Galen is a fantastic human who shines while ensuring others shine as well. I recommend her whole heartedly and without hesitation.

— Stakeholder

ARTISTIC SKILLSETS

Fine Art Painting // portfolio

I’m trained as an studio artist, with a strong preference for painting and drawing. I tried 3D, didn’t go well. Nature scenes with visual poetry and symbolism is a favorite: Rene Magritte, Maurice Dennis, and Claude Monet.

Photography & Editing // portfolio

I’ve always loved the poetry of moving pictures, and still frames. There was a time in college that I wanted to be a filmmaker, so I bought a DSLR camera and got good at capturing a moment. Experience with portraiture and event capture.

Event Curation // case

Events like weddings and parties are a unique form of creative expression. The combined layers of textures and color in space can feel overwhelming. I’ve helped others hone decisions about flowers, dresses, colors, stationery, music, venues, and more.

Color Theory

Everything is color; how we feel about a place, a person, a climate, a memory. It’s a core part of our sensory experience, one that I’m passionate about. This could be personal color or professional, either way it’s the same process.

Body Typing

I really hate this phrase, so if anyone has a better one then I’m all ears. I see shapes in the physical form and believe that if we learned to see them too, we would be less manipulated consumers. I loosely follow the Kibbe system, but not the cult.

Thrift Shopping

You really want to go shopping with me. I know the difference between PYREX and pyrex. I can spot polyester a mile away. I can tell if something will fit without a fitting room. And I have the best shopping karma.