GTM • COMMUNITY • CUSTOMER ADVOCACY • TRANSFORMATION
Build what customers value. Scale what drives the business.
I build, scale, and turn around programs and systems that connect customer needs, internal teams, and business outcomes—driving activation, retention, advocacy, and growth.
I build programs that connect customer needs, internal teams, and business outcomes.
My work sits at the intersection of community, customer advocacy, content, enablement, and customer experience. I work with organizations to understand what customers need, turn that insight into action, and create experiences people want to stay part of.
Across a career spanning more than two decades, I've launched programs from zero, scaled what was working, and stepped into programs that needed to work differently, at Microsoft, ForgeRock, Techstars, early-stage startups, and open source companies.
The common thread: find the friction, connect the right people and information, and build something that creates measurable value for customers and the business.
Customer trust is built through the experiences we create.
AI gives us powerful ways to understand customers, personalize their experiences, surface insights, and remove friction. We should use it.
But technology alone doesn't create a trusted customer relationship. Trust is built when customers get value, their voice is heard, their feedback is considered, and their experience matches the promises we've made.
The strongest organizations will use AI to make customer experiences more personalized and efficient and build human systems that deepen customer participation, contribution, advocacy, and connection.
Community orchestration in an AI-enabled world
Community teams increasingly work across fragmented systems for communication, events, learning, content, analytics, support, and customer feedback. AI adds another layer—not just another tool.
The opportunity is to orchestrate the pieces: understand where AI can remove friction or extend human capacity, choose the right tools and workflows for the job, connect knowledge and insights across systems, and preserve the human relationships that make communities valuable.
I’m exploring this through The Community Manager AI Lab, where I’m building an AI enablement and orchestration system for community professionals working across decentralized technology ecosystems. The work includes requirements, use cases, user stories, AI-assisted workflows, LLM and tool evaluation, and a practical body of knowledge for applying AI to community operations.
I use the same approach to AI enablement that I bring to any transformation: clarify the opportunity, define the requirements and workflow, align the people involved, test what works, and support adoption.
That's the work I do.
Where I create value
Build from zero
Turn a customer need or new idea into a strategy, operating model, and program people actually use, connecting the right people, content, systems, and measures from the start.
Scale what works
Build the systems, content, enablement, and feedback loops that allow successful programs to grow without losing what made them valuable.
Fix the friction
Find what's keeping a good program from working better, then connect the people, insights, and systems that can move it forward.
Connect customers to the business
Create feedback loops that bring customer insight, expertise, and stories into the organization to improve experiences, inform decisions, and drive measurable business outcomes.
Impact at a glance
Selected Impact
Microsoft
Established the operating structure for a 90-day community proof of concept evaluating Microsoft Teams as a community platform. Created use cases, requirements, testing processes, success criteria, and an issue and feedback-tracking system, then led onboarding, support, programming, and day-to-day execution for approximately 200 members with minimal client oversight.
Result
34% engagement, 80% onboarding health, and 78% CSAT, with findings and recurring issues reported back to Microsoft and CMX to inform the platform evaluation.
ForgeRock
Built a support community, content hubs, and Champions program that combined scalable peer support with high-touch advocacy.
Result
Deflected 30%+ of support issues, improved customer time-to-value and CSAT, helped retain two key Support employees, and contributed to $300K+ in avoided replacement and recruiting costs.
Techstars
Launched a new community platform and member experience by aligning Product, Engineering, Learning, Executive Leadership, and distributed teams around shared requirements, ownership, dependencies, governance, communications, and adoption.
Result
Launched in six weeks—five months ahead of plan—with 60% activation at sign-up, 45% 90-day retention, and 76 NPS.
CMX Denver
Turned member needs into targeted professional development, expert-led programming, and outreach to re-engage a stagnant chapter.
Result
Re-engaged 60% of lapsed members and increased event attendance from 10% to 88%, earning Excellence in Leadership and Service and Chapter of the Year awards.
What colleagues say
“Lori is a genius at designing and operationalizing communities that grow quickly and are extremely active. If you are looking for someone that can build and grow a community that functions as revenue, retention, and a brand loyalty engine, Lori is the right person for you!”
“She can take complex ideas and break them down into digestible pieces for others to better understand. She is adept at closing out any project through her persistence and cross functional connections.”
“Lori has a quick mind, broad knowledge, and responsive habits. I've appreciated her edits on my writing, along with her articulate speaking and writing… She's a great cross-functional partner to have.”
Building something new, scaling what works, or rethinking what could work better?
Let's talk about the customers you're serving, the outcomes you're working toward, and what it will take to connect the two.
Let’s Talk