DACIA J. FAISON ROE
pronounced [day•sha]
Coach + Consultant

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • tktk

  • After years of changing companies from the inside, I spent two-years partnering with HR agencies to help organizations make meaningful change.

    • Teamed with a beverage start-up to reorganize, gain efficiencies, and level-up their leadership capabilities.

    • Supported a newly hired CPO to assess, activate, and expand the motivation and accountability of their teams.

    • Coached and trained people leaders to lead effectively, and humanistically.

    • Developed performance management programs that activated a culture of learning and development.

  • 2017, NYC called and I answered. First stop was a consulting agency known for ground-breaking work and partnering with some well-known leaders. I tell people that you might not know SYPartners, but you’ve likely experienced their impact. Here, I got the incredible opportunity to lead a team building their digital leadership platform.

    Surrounded by consulting everyday gave me a little bit of a bug; what would it be like to do short engagements with specific outcomes? To zoom in, activate and enable people, and then off to the next thing? Thanks to Etsy and Cityblock, I got the chance to try and it’s shaped my POV in some powerful ways.

  • They were the biggest internet-based radio platform and one of the first apps on the iPhone. In 2014, Pandora Media had just experienced its biggest employee growth to date. It was time they made deeper investments in attracting and retaining the best of the best talent in the Engineering space. This is where I came in—leading their growing People team, I:

    • applied neuroscience and humanity to design and deliver a leadership series for 450 people managers.

    • led internal communication and marketing efforts for the HR division.

    • implemented a ‘no-ratings’ performance management program to reduce bias in developing and promoting employees.

    • created a bespoke digital learning platform to deliver core growth and development programs to the more than 2000 employees.

    • partnered with the Diversity team to inculcate moments of inclusion and equity into all employee learning experiences.

    • scripted and hosted the first ever internal podcast series.

  • In 2001, before the iPod iPhone, there was a scrappy group of retail experts that came together to open the first Apple Stores. During my 12 years with Apple Retail, Inc, I:

    • created the Apple Retail mentor program that connected newly hired in-store Apple Retail leaders with seasoned leaders to provide on-hands training and support.

    • designed and led efforts to test and migrate HR, Inventory, and Communication systems for Retail Operations.

    • designed the communication guidelines, team structure, and publishing workflow, for the global employee communication effort that supported multiple countries and more than seven languages. 

    • created operational practices, inventory controls, and training for the first U.S. iPhone launch and iPad

    • coordinated the operations and created the store employee communications for the first international iPhone launch. 

    • opened 125+ Apple stores including the first stores in Japan, England, Scotland, Paris, Italy Madrid, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada.

  • In the mid 90’s I was part of a fearless team of people in Los Angeles who, unbeknownst to them at the time, were playing key roles in the rapid expansion of Starbucks Coffee Co. I not only opened dozens of stores, but also:

    • developed the store manager training to support rapid expansion.

    • prototyped an early version of the Starbucks drive-thru on the bustling Sunset Strip.

    • tested the first ‘store-in-store’ experience with a small footprint Starbucks in a trendy laundromat on Hollywood Blvd.

Career Highlights + Stories

  • Starbucks

    Before the Frappuccino

    When coffee was simple, and Baristas could hold dozens of drink orders in their heads; we didn’t need no cup markings!

    Starbucks wanted store managers with retail, not food industry experience. Heck, I didn’t even drink coffee at the time.

    • One of the first “multi-store” leaders overseeing a handful of Los Angeles locations.

    • Designed and implemented the New Leader training to support the rapid expansion happening in Los Angeles in the late 90s.

    • Prototyped the first “drive-thru” concept on the Sunset Strip.

    • Developed processes to roll-out and ensure consistency of the game changing product, The Frappuccino.

  • Apple

    The launch of Retail

    In a loading dock at the Glendale Galleria in Southern California with a scrappy “store opening” team, we unloaded truckload after truckload of iMacs, PowerMacs, and Macbooks into a space cloaked in secrecy.

    It was May 2001 and I was part of, and baring witness to, the first of hundreds of Apple Retail stores that would catapult this companies into one of the most iconic brands in history.

    • Managed inventory operations and processes for all Apple Retail locations.

    • Developed training for in-store Inventory Control Specialists.

    • Ensured the accurate and timely load-in of hundreds of Apple products for new store openings.

  • iPod

    “I’m good, I have a Walkman”

    That’s what I said to someone who asked my if I was going to get one. And I said this sitting in the stockroom of the Apple Store in Peabody, MA while we inventoried pallets of iPods wrapped in black shrink wrap the morning of the big announcement.

    I was in charge of ensuring product arrived, in secrecy, to the now 6 open Apple stores.

    This would be my first rodeo of MANY Apple Retail new product launches.

    I did buy an iPod FWIW.

  • Stanford d.school

    Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford

    Or just, the d.school

    This was a life-changing opportunity.

    In late 2010 I was 9 years into a wild and diverse adventure with Apple Retail — and I was hitting a career wall.

    Parallel to my experience, the vision behind Apple Retail. Ron Johnson, had left the company and a huge gap where innovation once was.

    tktk

  • Pandora Radio

    First iPhone "radio" app

  • London, UK

    The first time I had ever been to London was a 36 hour whirl-wind trip to walk the nearly finished Apple Store, Regent Street, in 2004.

    6 years later I’d be asked to move there to help develop the structure and processes required for a global retail communication team.