Leading Through Ambiguity: Building the Web Marketing Strategy for College@Elm
From January to May 2025, I served as Facilitator & Product Owner of the Web Marketing Team, one of five teams (Social Media, Email, Web Development, Branding, Web Marketing) shaping the launch of College@Elm, an innovation and workforce development hub.
Our challenge: turn an unclear vision into concrete deliverables. Stakeholders knew the results they wanted (visibility, engagement, growth) but not the exact products to get there. My team of six stepped into this ambiguity, transforming research and data into actionable strategies.
Project Overview
Acted as the bridge between stakeholders, my six-person team, and the other four College@Elm teams.
Coordinated inter-team collaboration to ensure consistent messaging and avoid overlap.
Kept my team agile, guiding them through pivots and shifting priorities.
As a Facilitator, I…
As a Product Owner, I…
Served as the final line of quality control, reviewing all deliverables before stakeholder presentations.
Balanced precision with creativity to ensure outputs were polished and impactful.
Worked alongside my team to refine their work, offering direction and feedback that elevated the end product.
The greatest challenge of this project was the lack of a clear roadmap. Unlike the Social Media or Branding teams, which had specific deliverables from the start, we were asked to essentially define our own success criteria.
To overcome this, we:
Translated vague stakeholder goals into measurable deliverables.
Relied heavily on interviews and field research to uncover real user needs.
Drew on case studies and competitor analysis to ground our ideas in best practices.
Iterated rapidly, testing concepts and pivoting when results didn’t align with stakeholder expectations.
This process was messy, but it gave us the chance to exercise creativity and strategic thinking to provide College@Elm with assets that were both practical and innovative.
Navigating Ambguity as a Team
Our team delivered a comprehensive toolkit that positioned College@Elm for digital success:
SEO Audit → A full analysis of the website’s visibility with prioritized recommendations.
GA4 Guide → A custom-built resource that enabled stakeholders to track and interpret web traffic effectively.
Content Library → 700+ assets, including images, copy snippets, and video content, designed for use across web and social channels.
Website Copy Fill → Content to align with the brand voice and support the new site’s structure.
Professional Video → A high-quality, 75-second promotional piece that I produced independently from concept through final edit.
Final Deliverables
This project pushed me to grow as both a leader and problem-solver. Acting as both Facilitator and Product Owner, I learned how to manage through ambiguity, maintain alignment across multiple moving parts, and convert open-ended goals into a cohesive digital strategy.
The deliverables we produced, from a detailed SEO audit to a 700+ asset content library, continue to shape the digital identity of College@Elm. More importantly, the experience reinforced my ability to guide teams, balance creativity with precision, and deliver measurable impact in complex environments.
