LaRia Rogers

She/Her

Designer, educator and small business owner

About

I’m a senior Business Designer at Fjord, Accenture Federal Studios, based in Washington, DC.Previously, I worked at Mindgrub as a Lead UX Designer. Before that, I spent 6 years in various Product Management roles at organizations such as Marriott International and NIH.As a Business Designer. I provide teams and clients with a unique lens to plan, design and implement research, workshops and design processes to address customer needs while providing clear direction and a north star vision for business values.I'm a proud alumna turned educator at the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Information. I teach undergraduate courses on topics that include effective teams and user research.Outside of work and school, I run a mobile bar business in the Washington-DC Baltimore area. My favorite beverage to tap is Kombucha!

Select work

While I've supported various types of projects, teams, clients and stakeholders, I pride my work on three personal statements:1. Never hide a bad idea. Let myself (and others) learn from it.
2. Leave things better than you found them. For the user and the business.
3. Show others you're listening by translating what they can't. A translator tells a story everyone can understand (and value).The following project overviews represent these values. Please note, at my current employer I strictly work on projects for government agencies. Each of these projects require me to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). This greatly limits my ability to freely share information here.If you want to know more about my process or the outcomes regarding any of my case studies, feel free to reach out!

Smithsonian Institution

Building Blocks for a Digital Humanities Capability at a Smithsonian Institution

Part of a small but mighty team of 3, I led the research, planning and implementation of operationalizing a Digital Humanities capability at a Smithsonian Institution.Role: Project Lead and Business Designer
• Conducted 1:1 stakeholder interviews to define definitions (and outliers) of success criteria for the operationalizing phase
• Facilitated weekly workshops with a HIIT approach (time boxed, focus, energetic mini-workshops with clear objectives ) to empower stakeholders to move from high ambiguity to high clarity
• Produced 6 final deliverables including a Future-state Blueprint, Strategic Program Roadmap and Digital Humanities ToolkitNoteworthy wins:
• Client saw high value and impact in our team's final deliverables. Following the conclusion of the work, the client presented our findings during an all-hands meeting to model organizational change management processes that can be applied to other internal teams and departments

Tags: Organizational Change Management, Service Design, Product Management

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Comed, an Exelon Company

Improving The Customer Experience of Limited Income Customers

Designed, implemented and synthesized research studies to support a 5-year roadmap on how to improve the user experience for limited-income customers. The outcome is a propensity model questionnaire to guide customers to the appropriate and available funding to help pay their bills.Role: Lead Researcher
• Planned, designed and implemented moderated (usability testing) and unmoderated (diary studies) testing to research the challenges and constraints of the affordance of a monthly utility bill
• Designed wireframes and interactive prototypes for test and validation of product solution
• Interviewed internal stakeholders (e.g. customer care personnel) to understand the top challenges customers communicate in regards to the affordance of a monthly utility billNoteworthy wins:
• Research results were consolidated into an executive summary and used for additional products and features as part of aligning against 5-year roadmap

Tags: Research and Discovery, Usability Testing, Prototyping

Military Department

Creating a 3-year North Star Vision For a Shared Services Center

Partnered with an account team for a business development opportunity to extend a contract with a mildep client. This included leading research and discovery, workshop facilitation, and final deliverables for a 3-year North Star vision roadmap.Role: Business Designer
• Conducted 1:1 stakeholder interviews to determine challenges, obstacles, and success criteria for the formation of a Shared Services Center
• Facilitated a full-day in-person workshop with a series of activities; 3 quick wins and 13 concepts were prioritized
• Supported Visual Design Lead with final deliverable of PowerPoint executive summary and Now, Next, Later program roadmapNoteworthy win:
• Client requested two additional workshops due to the success and positive feedback from the first (and previously only scheduled workshop in the SOW)

A workshop attendee's visual scribing during the workshop

Tags: Business Development, Organizational Change Management, Transformation, Agile