The Pokémon Company International

Role
Interim Communications Director, UX Strategist, Content Designer

Timeline
August 2020 – June 2022

Overview

The Pokémon Company International's internal employee ecosystem supports teams across multiple departments, functions, and global regions. Employees relied on a collection of internal tools, communication channels, and content repositories to access organizational knowledge, resources, updates, and operational information.

Challenge

Employees faced a fragmented information environment that made it difficult to locate critical resources, navigate internal systems, and access organizational knowledge efficiently. Existing content structures, navigation patterns, and CMS workflows created barriers to discoverability, content maintenance, and employee engagement.

Approach

Led internal communications and digital experience initiatives while developing a strategic redesign proposal for the company's employee CMS and internal knowledge ecosystem. Applied UX research, content strategy, information architecture, and systems-thinking principles to reimagine how employees discover information, access resources, and engage with organizational content.

Content Strategy & Information Architecture

Research revealed that employees were not struggling with a lack of information. They were struggling to locate, understand, and trust information distributed across disconnected systems, communication channels, and content repositories.

To improve discoverability, I developed a scalable information architecture, taxonomy, and navigation framework organized around employee goals and tasks rather than organizational structures. Content patterns were designed to support common employee needs, including knowledge discovery, self-service support, policy guidance, team collaboration, and organizational communication.

The proposed experience combined content governance, search optimization, knowledge management, and UX principles to create a more intuitive employee ecosystem. By standardizing content structures and establishing reusable patterns, the platform was designed to improve consistency, reduce information fragmentation, and support long-term scalability across global teams.

Design Principles

• Organize information around employee needs rather than departmental ownership

• Reduce information fragmentation through shared content systems and governance

• Support self-service knowledge discovery before support requests are needed

• Create scalable content structures that can evolve with organizational growth

• Improve trust through consistency, clarity, and discoverability

Key Contributions

• Faced with fragmented internal systems and inconsistent content experiences, conducted stakeholder research and platform analysis to identify barriers to information discovery, informing a future-state employee portal strategy.

• Defined a scalable information architecture, taxonomy, and navigation model that simplified knowledge discovery and aligned content organization with employee needs.

• Created executive communications, operational documentation, and knowledge resources that translated complex organizational initiatives into clear, actionable guidance for employees.

• Aligned business, operational, and technical stakeholders around a shared vision for the employee experience, resulting in strategic recommendations for improving internal communication and knowledge sharing.

UX Writing & Content Design Decisions

The experience was designed to reduce cognitive load and help employees quickly find the information needed to complete tasks, make decisions, and navigate organizational processes. Navigation systems, labels, knowledge categories, and resource pathways were structured around employee language and workflows rather than internal departmental terminology.

Content patterns emphasized clarity, self-service support, and progressive disclosure, helping employees access the right information without requiring extensive organizational knowledge. The proposed knowledge center experience also explored opportunities for personalized recommendations, contextual guidance, and AI-assisted knowledge discovery to improve efficiency and reduce search friction.

Impact

• Developed a strategic vision for modernizing the employee CMS and knowledge ecosystem

• Identified opportunities to improve information architecture, search, and content discoverability

• Established recommendations for scalable content governance and knowledge management practices

• Improved alignment between employee needs, organizational communications, and digital experience strategy

Key Takeaways

Enterprise experiences are often invisible to customers but critical to organizational success. By combining UX strategy, content design, technical communications, and systems thinking, it is possible to create internal platforms that help employees find information faster, work more efficiently, and stay connected to the broader organization.