Messaging Strategy
My work in narrative design and strategic communications often begins when a story feels stuck. The mission is solid, the work is important—but the messaging just isn’t landing. That’s where thoughtful framing can change everything.
I specialize in helping teams distill their complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives that move people—whether that’s leadership, partners, funders, or the public. From discovering the story’s “why” to aligning messaging across platforms and messengers, I bring a systems approach to strategic storytelling.
Over the past several years, I’ve helped build and lead multiple efforts to advance messaging strategy at JPL—from co-founding a story-focused team called “StoryLab” to being a key contributor in a newly formalized messaging strategy and editorial group. Below are some examples of this work in action.
I’ve contributed to a variety of high-impact messaging efforts aimed at clarifying and communicating JPL’s unique value — both internally and to stakeholders across NASA and beyond. These have included helping shape the lab’s value proposition for senior leadership, supporting messaging for high-level engagements in Washington, and crafting narrative arcs for strategic briefings and site visits. I’ve also worked closely with executives on positioning the institution’s identity, helping to ensure key ideas are clear and resonate.
Strategic Messaging for Institutional Value
I have routinely supported teams working on visionary missions and emerging technologies — helping them translate their work into messages that inform, inspire, and stick. Recent examples include shaping messaging for a long-range lunar rover mission, advising on internal identity and awareness-building for an initiative focused on in-space manufacturing and assembly, and helping define foundational themes for a start-up office coordinating small satellite activity. I also assist researchers and technologists with tactical storytelling support — from designing compelling lab tours for visiting NASA leaders, to developing visual strategy and event materials that ensure their message lands with impact.
In every case, my focus is on helping smart people communicate big ideas with purpose, clarity, and humanity — and on aligning their messages with the needs, interests, and concerns of specific audiences.
Narrative Framing for Missions and Makers
StoryLab – A Strategic Comms Tiger Team
Together with my colleagues Paul Propster and David Levine, the three of us developed a unique approach to storytelling at JPL. Initially funded to support quality science storytelling for our proposal teams, we soon found an unmet need across the lab for strategic communications support. In the business-to-business and peer-to-peer landscapes, there generally wasn’t a dedicated communications support capability. We stepped into that niche, and the results for our clients were amazing. Most stories we encountered were teams needing help with business development communications or perception management.
Over six years, we took a fearless approach in developing an original storytelling methodology that we called story architecting. We also leaned in hard on the “lab” part of our name. We experimented with a wide variety of innovative storytelling tools and approaches from outside the NASA world, including things like audio mood boards and movie storyboarding, and we even became certified LEGO Serious Play facilitators.
Cassini’s Grand Finale
The bold end that mission designers planned for the Cassini spacecraft had a perception management challenge baked into it. After 13 years at Saturn, and 20 years since its launch, Cassini was running out of fuel. And because the wildly successful mission had discovered evidence for a potentially habitable environment beneath the surface of one of the planet’s moons, no one wanted to take the slightest chance that stowaway microbial spores inside Cassini might someday contaminate that environment thanks to a derelict spacecraft. Thus the responsible decision to plunge Cassini into Saturn’s atmosphere and burn it up like a meteor.
The challenge was that not everyone in the world could immediately see the wisdom of this decision. Some accused NASA of wasting a perfectly good, $3.5 billion discovery machine; a few referred to the end of mission as a “death dive,” even using the term suicide.
To shape this story around the facts as those working on the mission saw them, we developed the story of Cassini’s Grand Finale: A last, thrilling assignment worthy of the celebrated spacecraft explorer. We leaned in hard on the firsts and the never-befores. We pulled on the daring and the adventure of it all – dozens of dives between the planet and its rings, culminating in a final plunge that would see the spacecraft become the first Saturn atmosphere probe. We wrote explainers, hosted social media Q&As, and put our people out there as much as possible to share how they felt about the bittersweet, but necessary, end of their beloved mission.
And judging by the finale’s overall triumphant reception in the media and public – along with our team winning NASA’s first Emmy award for our campaign – I’d say we succeeded.