Sponsorship

As my work is internal, I’m not able to share my work publicly. Please reach out to me to chat about it.

Since July 2020, I’ve been a member of the Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Council at Guardian with a specific focus on the acquisition, retention, and the success of new and existing underrepresented talent. As a member, I’ve collaborated closely with the council, members of HR, and design colleagues throughout the process. I’ve more specifically been working on creating a sponsorship program for internal employees at Guardian who’s mission is to retain, uplift, and energize underrepresented talent in leadership.

PROJECT PREVIEW

Here’s a little preview of my work. I worked alongside a member of HR and senior design strategist with the occasional input from council members.

Research

I led the strategy and research for the sponsorship program. To understand the problem better we did a competitive analysis comparing other company’s programs, read leading research papers on sponsorship vs. mentorship vs. coaching strategies (what works and what doesn’t), and interviewed leaders at Guardian to understand their experience and understanding of sponsorship was.

Ideation

After the initial research and user interviews we used Miro to collaborate, ideate, and synthesize our data. We created an agile-like sprint plan to keep us on track and to hold us accountable to what’s in progress, what still needs to get done, what’s already completed, and what’s blocking us from getting a task completed.

Presentation

We presented our plan to a key stakeholder and the inclusion and diversity council to get feedback. The feedback was really helpful, so we iterated back on our plan and continued planning for the launch.

Kickoff

We held a kickoff meeting for the potential sponsors which was led by an external leader in the inclusion and diversity space. Sponsors told stories on their experience with sponsorship to gain empathy and trust with the audience, we went over the roles and responsibilities, and the program structure. Protégés participated in a four hour workshop where they learned to develop and enhance their brand and board of directors, practice communication skills, and to ask for what they need.

Program implementation

The program is meant to be a many : many relationship, meaning that many sponsors can have many protégés and vice-versa. This can allow for more organic relationships and the opportunity to have multiple connections that you can lean on when you see an opportunity or need one. Participants all have to opt-into the program which is exciting because the hope is that everyone that agrees to participate will be passionate, skilled, and ready-to-go!