Mead Project - WillowTree
Author: Sydney Cushing
On March 15, 2024, Professor Cynthia Tong and six of her students visited the headquarters of WillowTree, an international digital product consultant group located in Charlottesville, Virginia. The visit included a tour through the WillowTree building, located inside Charlottesville’s Wool Factory. During the tour, several professionals guided us through the building, while answering questions and sharing their occupational experiences with the group. The space included open areas for creativity, smaller rooms for meetings and collaborative work, and artwork strategically presented throughout the building. Most memorable was the library, gameroom, and large stairway located in the center of the building. Students inquired about what the space does to allow for a productive work environment. The openness of the building allows for unity between the various teams as well as breaks from working, allowing for greater productivity. Following the guided walk-through, the group came together in one of WillowTree’s conference rooms for a discussion with Jill Heinze, Conner Brew, Michael Freenor, and Bobby Nguyen. Finally, we ended the visit by sharing a meal with the team in WillowTree’s cafe.
WillowTree is a digital services company that serves mid-market and fortune 500 companies. With a focus on innovation and quality, WillowTree crafts mobile and web applications, voice and chatbots, digital platforms, and more, helping businesses connect with their customers in meaningful ways. Although its headquarters are in our university town, they have built a global footprint with more than 1000 employees located at 7 different offices, with 5 in the US, 1 in Canada, and 1 in Brazil. During our tour, we saw flat screens in the hallway streaming real-time footage of an open space from each of their offices.
Within the company, there are 5 branches: strategy consulting, creatives, product delivery, digital marketing, and data and generative artificial intelligence (AI). The process of launching AI powered products includes 4 stages: basic strategy, data infrastructure and foundation, data science and model development, and finally releasing AI powered products. We also discussed the 4 stages of team development: forming, storming, and norming, surface expectations, definitive expectations, and public communal problem solving.
The team talked to us about their experiences working for WillowTree as well as their other professional experiences that led them to the company.
Jill Heinze, a Research Director and a Lead of the Data and AI Research Team (DART), shared her experiences and background. Heinze began her career as a historian, working in library science and marketing, and has translated the experiences into a career of leading cross-functional digital product teams. She has recently focused on assisting teams at large companies with AI risk management. Her diverse range of expertise and research skills have allowed her to excel as a leader with WillowTree. Notably, Jill mentioned the importance of the interdisciplinary aspects of the company. As a consulting group, WillowTree incorporates both the sciences and the humanities to best assist its clients.
The Delivery Lead for DART, Conner Brew, led a group discussion with Heinze, Freenor, and Nguyen. Conner's work as both a project and product manager is critical to WillowTree’s success. As a Marine Corps veteran, Brew adds unique expertise to the group. His work for the military focused on special operations and intelligence as well as defense contracting. Brew continued his career as a data scientist with Elder Research. In 2022, Brew began his work with WillowTree. Despite Brew’s unique path leading him to the company, the skills he acquired along the way allowed him exceptional knowledge on a wide range of topics related to his work. Connor talked about the different kinds of clients WillowTree works with. One of his favorites was “Electrify America,” due to their openness to accept digital assistance and his ability to be creative. He also thought the social impact of the company was a positive component.
Michael Freenor, the Director of Applied AI, accompanied the group on our tour with both Jill and Conner. Freenor’s work as a data scientist intrigued several members of our group and generated great conversations. In 2017, Freenor began conducting AI and Machine Learning research for WillowTree. His involvement in research methods goes beyond the basics; Freenors focus on large language models and AI systems has allowed for the development of new methods and research within the company. Freenor shared valuable tips with our group on how to better prepare for applying to an internship within his team. Among them, he emphasized the importance of demonstrating curiosity and actively seeking to learn and understand the field.
Bobby Nguyen, another Research Director at WillowTree, researches a variety of topics. He virtually joined our meeting from their Columbus, OH office. For instance, one of Nguyen’s projects involved studying the role of vision in car-driving performance, focusing on elderly drivers. For the last decade, Nguyen has worked as a consultant attempting to better understand user needs and experiences while incorporating Psychology theory into his work. Nguyen’s experience ranges greatly. He has worked in several industries, including the automotive, retail, food, service, medical, financial, and industrial industries. His main focus is identifying ways to improve the user experience. It’s fascinating that he shared an experience of applying structural equation modeling (SEM) in his work, especially considering that several of us had just completed an SEM class last semester.
The leaders put emphasis on the importance of responsibility, accountability, consultablity, and being informed. While these traits allow for a smooth operation of a company like WillowTree, the leaders also encouraged us to not put too much pressure on ourselves about the journey. Each of the leaders had a different path that led them to WillowTree, and these paths allowed them to gain a wide range of skills, creating an environment of people with diverse knowledge and experiences.
