Hillsborough Street App
We conducted a customer survey and discovered 75% of individuals spending money on food and beverage on Hillsborough Street are college-aged.
With such a tech savvy core customer base I knew we needed to reach them on their mobile devices.
After pitching the idea of a mobile app to the Board, I served as product manager overseeing the budget, the selection of a development team, and feature backlog.
The app features upcoming events, a list of all merchants in the district, segmented by category, and the ability to track your bus or parking meter in real-time.
In partnership with N.C. State and the City of Raleigh, we also included emergency notifications.
I oversaw UX testing, design, and the product launch. We had a hard deadline for 1.0 to be deployed by the Phase II groundbreaking (see below) and we achieved our sprint goal.
We announced the app in front of city and county elected officials, University leadership, as well as the N.C. Department of Transportation. Media coverage included local and regional affiliates of NBC, ABC, and CBS.
Z-AC Calculator
Endura, the largest manufacturer of performance door components, approached Brasco /// to develop a responsive ROI calculator for their sales team during the launch of the world’s highest performing door sill, Z-AC Cap Sill.
In the product manager role, I coordinated with the client on design, development and took stakeholder feedback to the development team.
We delivered a microsite, ZACSaves.com, and a web-based calculator that shows savings in real-time to Endura's three core customers Installers, Dealers, and Pre-Hangers.
Salespersons use the calculator as an engagement tool at trade shows and construction sites, allowing decision-makers in the office to easily engage with the field via an emailed report.
The Little Triangle, a parent-to-parent guide of the Triangle’s best activities, was my final project at Momentum.
We worked in a team of three to develop my classmate’s idea. We were given two and a half weeks to deliver our minimum viable product (MVP). Two of us worked mainly on the backend while the other worked on the frontend.
In addition to my role helping to build the backend of the app, I maintained user stories on our Trello board and led the daily stand-ups.
There were many firsts for me on this project including building web scrapers to populate our database, operating on the PostgresSQL command line, and utilizing JavaScript and APIs to convert addresses into latitude and longitude in order to place markers on a custom map.
The idea for the platform was to help bring a bunch of disparate resources together for parents inside a certain geographical area. Parents can leave reviews of a business or event and can rate them both.
We recruited a bunch of parents to review several businesses and events. These are hyper-local reviews from your neighbors.
At Momentum’s Demo Day we delivered a presentation to a packed house of industry leaders at Full Frame Theatre.
Watch our Demo Day presentation.
Phase II Communications
Phase II was a $20 million renovation to half a mile of Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. The project was originally planned for 18 months, however delays ultimately pushed it to 26 months.
The project included the addition of three roundabouts, bike lanes, and pedestrian safety measures. Additionally, all utilities were moved underground and lines that had not been touched since 1940 upgraded. Construction was literally at the threshold of dozens of businesses.
During Phase I construction district businesses reported a 70% decline in sales. Phase I, completed in 2010, lasted 18 months, but was still on the minds of many community leaders when Phase II was announced.
Our team made clear to the City of Raleigh a well-orchestrated public relations campaign would be needed for Phase II. To that end, I created and launched the "Yes, We're Open" digital campaign with the goal of boosting merchant sales during a 24 month construction cycle.
I coordinated communications to property owners, merchants, and the community with the City of Raleigh's engineering project management team. Tools we used included the smartphone app (detailed above) and weekly round table discussions with merchants and construction supervisors.
Food and beverage sales - a good barometer of economic health in the district - during the two years of Phase II construction were average or better compared to the previous 24 months.
$61 Million Performance Contract
A particularly fun project while working in the University Sustainability Office at North Carolina State University was handling public relations for the first performance contract in the history of NC State and the University of North Carolina System.
The $61 million price tag also made it the largest performance contract on the east coast.
Cates Utility Plant was outfitted with, among other energy saving measures, a combined heat and power (CHP) system.
Performance contracting, repaying the cost of improvements through energy savings, was a contentious issue with the NC Legislature at the time and a lot of eyeballs were focused on Cates Avenue.
Therefore, a key challenge leading to the ground-breaking was engaging the campus, community, and key stakeholders, including legislators and the Board of Governors, as to the importance of the project.
We developed a web-based interactive utility map of NC State’s main campus, working closely with the Energy Management and Buildings Maintenance and Operations departments.
The system included two 5.5 MW turbines, to increase efficiency of steam production by 35% while supplying 30% of campus electrical power. We utilized blueprints of the turbines to more accurately depict the system.
The renovations to Cates Utility Plant were completed in 2012 and the map is currently in use by professors in NC State's College of Engineering to demonstrate how CHP systems work.
NC State has gone on to perform many successful building systems upgrades using performance contracting as a funding mechanism.
sustainability.ncsu.edu/chp (must enable Flash)
S.E.E. NC State Podcast
The most downloaded content on the NC State iTunesU channel.
I launched the Society, Economy, Environment (S.E.E.) NC State Podcast during my time as Outreach and Communications Coordinator for the University Sustainability Office.
The concept was to have engaging conversations with local leaders in the fields of sustainability, energy, and climate impact.
The podcast, one of many tools in my outreach plan, was the most downloaded piece of content on the NC State iTunesU channel for several years.
My duties included everything from scheduling the interviews, editing the episodes, and promoting the S.E.E. NC State series. Ultimately, more than two dozen episodes were released.
As host the podcast’s host, I conducted interviews with everyone from professors to front-line staff and internationally-known musicians, including John Bell, lead singer and guitarist for Widespread Panic.
Please enjoy a sampling on Soundcloud.
Steep Canyon Rangers
I was the first manager and booking agent for the Steep Canyon Rangers (2001 - 2005). I booked the band’s first tours outside of North Carolina, including the mid-Atlantic, Deep South, and Rocky Mountain regions. I secured their first dates in New York City and on festivals such as Bonnaroo.
During this time the band released Old Dreams and New Dreams, Mr. Taylor’s New Home, and The Steep Canyon Rangers on Bonfire (Red-Eye imprint) and Rebel Records.
We landed on radio programs such as Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour, WNCW’s Goin’ Across the Mountain, and out west on KSUT. Getting stories placed in The New Yorker and The Tennessean helped drive sales and conversations with industry players in key markets.
The band won the RockyGrass Band Competition in 2001 which helped open doors in Colorado. We showcased at SXSW for the first time in 2004. (I had four bands on my roster showcase that same year.)
I couldn’t be happier for their continued success and encourage you to visit their site:
