Technical transformations don't fail on the technology. They fail when the people who have to use the technology aren't moved to use it. At WMATA Digital Modernization, I built communications designed to close that gap, at both enterprise scale and campaign scale, across a 13,000-person agency that spans everything from headquarters analysts to frontline operators without regular email access.
The problemTechnology lands on people, not org charts
The vendor was UKG. The technology was a new workforce management platform called MetroWorkforce, replacing the existing MetroTime system. Below the platform was a workforce that had already lived through Kronos and MetroTime. Employees weren't just tired of system transitions. They were skeptical of the next one before it was announced.
UKG delivered a seven-page communications strategy. It was a generic change-comms template, solid in shape but built for any client. Not for this one.
MetroWorkforceRebuilding seven pages into twenty
I rebuilt the strategy into a twenty-page document designed for the agency's actual workforce and the realities of its rollout. What changed:
ADKAR-based campaign sequencing. Five phased campaigns (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) with defined timelines, owners, success metrics, and overlap windows engineered for smooth transitions between phases.
Stakeholder segmentation built for the actual workforce. Separate strategies for Non-Transit Operations, Transit Bus/Rail Non-Operations, Management, Union Employees, the Change Network, and Non-Impacted Groups, with primary and secondary channels matched to each segment's real access patterns and concerns.
Multi-channel architecture for non-digital workers. Print posters at timeclocks, in-person demonstrations, location-specific information boards, and union representative cascades to reach employees without regular email or intranet access. Not an afterthought. A primary design constraint.
Explicit acknowledgment of change fatigue. Built directly into the messaging strategy. The plan didn't pretend the audience was fresh. It met them where they were.
Change Network governance. A four-tier structure (Change Leader Coalition, Change Champions, Subject Matter Experts, Super Users), with onboarding, toolkit development, and a private Viva Engage channel for coordination.
Role-specific messaging libraries for administrative personnel, maintenance staff, management, and union employees.
A measurement framework with defined KPIs tied to behavioral outcomes including signed-off timecards, reduction in time-related errors, and training completion rates.
What I delivered wasn't a comms plan. It was the operating document for the rollout.
Always On VPNSame instincts, executed at campaign scale
WMATA Digital Modernization needed to drive employee adoption of Always On VPN, a security behavior change with a defined launch window in May 2026. Generic security messaging wouldn't move the audience. I designed a tight, multi-channel campaign around a clear theme and a structured cadence.
Theme. Connect First. Work Seamlessly. Built to position the change as enablement rather than restriction.
Three-channel architecture. Digital boards for visibility and awareness. Viva Engage for engagement and clarification. Email for action and reference. Tone calibrated to each channel.
Know → Prepare → Act cadence. Three phases mapped to a two-week deployment timeline, with messaging that escalated from awareness to readiness to action without losing the audience to fatigue.
Tone discipline across surfaces. Confident on digital boards. Conversational on Viva Engage. Clear and actionable in email. Same campaign, three voices.
The infrastructureSharePoint plus Viva Engage, integrated for every project
Strategy and campaign are episodic. People need a home for the project in between. For every Digital Modernization initiative, I designed a dedicated SharePoint site with the project's Viva Engage feed embedded directly into the page. Visitors got the project context in one place: background, milestones, current status, key dates, resources. And without leaving the site, they could join the live conversation: ask questions, read leadership updates, contribute to threads, see what peers were saying.
This solved a specific problem. Project information typically lives in one place, a SharePoint site or document library, and engagement happens in another, Teams or Viva Engage or email. Employees either don't know where to look, or they go to multiple places to get both context and conversation. By embedding Viva Engage into each project's SharePoint, I gave people one place to know what was going on and to participate in it.
The same architecture, with project-specific content, replicated across every Digital Modernization initiative. Same logic as the rest of the change communications: meet people where they are, lower the barrier to participate, and put the answer and the conversation in the same place.
What this provesStrategy, campaign, infrastructure
Strategy designs the long arc. Campaign delivers the focused push. Infrastructure gives people a home for the project between the two. All three require the same underlying discipline: knowing your audience, choosing the right channels, calibrating the tone, and building a sequence that moves people from awareness to action.
The same person built all three, for the same employer, in the same function. That's the point. Technical transformations need someone who can build the architecture and execute inside it.