Taylor Blake

Degreed

Helping lead an initiative called Degreed Experiments where we evaluate emerging technologies through prototyping and research.

SVP New Initiatives

Degreed acquired Learn In and I became SVP of Product for Degreed Academies and Content Marketplace.

SVP Product

Learn In

Attract, develop, and retain your talent with a Talent Academy that: 
1) gives employees access to best external skill-building courses and programs through stipends, education benefits, or scholarships 
2) allows you to build your own programs that are cohort-based, hands-on, and collaborative

Easily meet every key learning moment and drive business performance.

Co-founder and Chief Product Officer

University Impact

University Impact sprung out of a desire to embrace a more sustainable way of creating large-scale, positive, social impact (while generating a financial return at the same time). Our mission is to find and fund ventures and businesses that are solving complex, vexing social problems with strong management teams, passion for change, and innovative business models.

Product Advisor

•  Researched, validated, and launched a suite of skill measurement products (Skill Rating, Skill Review, and Skill Certification) to measure any skill at any level. Skill measurement allows individuals and companies to identify gaps, measure progress, and get matched to career opportunities.

Product, Skills

•  Started when team was < 5 people chasing a crazy dream
•  Researched, prototyped, and built product offerings for consumers and enterprise clients
•  Oversaw client success, email marketing, content marketing, user acquisition, customer support

Founding Team / Product Manager

Kaplan EdTech Accelerator powered by TechStars

The Kaplan/TechStars Accelerator is a three month intensive, mentor-driven, deep immersion program for startups.  TechStars was ranked by Forbes as the #2 tech incubator in the world.

TechStars

The RBL Group

The RBL Group is a leadership and strategic HR consulting firm co-founded by Dave Ulrich.

Product Manager

Various

Microsoft - User experience design and research
LinkedIn - Product management for learning products
Innosight - Innovation and strategy consulting
Bloomreach - Market research

Student Intern

I help lead Degreed Experiments to explore how emerging technology (AI) can be leveraged in workplace learning. Feel free to connect or message me.

We’re here to make sure education and skills stay the key to economic opportunity in an AI-driven world—because the future shouldn’t just work for those who own all the capital or compute.

We aim to do this by:
- Helping people handle the changes AI brings to work and life.
- Teaching people how to use and get the most out of AI tools.
- Finding ways to use AI for more than just cutting costs—so we can invest back into people.

Our AI-related experiments help position L&D be at the forefront of navigating this change. Follow along, and let’s ensure human expertise continues to drive progress and opportunity.

Why Degreed? We started Degreed with a passion for lifelong learning and have since seen what works (and what doesn’t) across hundreds of the most innovative learning organizations. After we established the category of Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) at Degreed, I left to tackle a new set of ambitious challenges and cofounded Learn In.  In 2022, through acquisition, we combined the latest innovations from Learn In with Degreed’s market-leading platform to build the next chapter of products to support lifelong learning.

Qualtrics

My focus is on empowering and enabling our leaders as well as growing our next generation of leaders to drive engagement and improve results across the manager and employee lifecycle.

In this role I:
*Oversee continuous growth, development & leadership capability at scale by driving a
high-performance culture through enablement, coaching, feedback, and assessment to
accelerate business outcomes and unlock the full potential of our diverse, global workforce
*Identify and implement learning solutions & programming that enable the company to scale leadership capability-building across a quickly growing 6,000-person organization 
*Design a suite of leadership development programs and implement in-person & digital learning
initiatives focused on skill development for new managers & leadership bench
*Codify the Qualtrics leadership standard into a full leadership lifecycle curriculum

Manager Learning & Leadership Development Programming

I led talent development strategy & initiatives for global teams to accelerate skill acquisition, productivity, and business outcomes. 

In this role, I:

*Created effective training programs and launched an early talent development program (Qualtrics University) to enhance our internal talent pool and accelerate employee performance enablement, professional skill growth, and career development for ~1,200 employees across offices worldwide

*Redesigned a training program experiencing a significant decline in performance, satisfaction, and
engagement of new hires, which then drove program feedback from “frustrating, disjointed, and inadequate” to “phenomenal program – the best training I have ever received” and rapidly propelled engagement scores up by 11%

*Managed the onboarding of hundreds of new hires and pivoted the entire training program to a fully remote format in all 3 regions within 48 hours of a Covid-related work from home mandate - while simultaneously improving onboarding satisfaction scores for remote trainees by 3.6%

*Actively partnered with all employee resource groups to lead strategic diversity and inclusion initiatives in the US, EMEA, and APJ and drive the awareness and actions needed to improve equity and belonging at Qualtrics

Learning & Development Program Manager

Purdue University

•Collaborated with team members to re-design and refine the academic component of the university’s multidisciplinary undergraduate internship program
•Discovered best practices for developing relevant and transferable professional skills
•Identified existing resources and gaps in vital career-skill development prior to graduation for students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and 
•Created and delivered course content intentionally designed to enhance professional readiness and employability in students of all majors preparing to work with employers in a variety of fields
*Collaborated on a funded project with Purdue Digital Education to transform course into an online class

Instructor and Course Coordinator

•Conducted funded research examining transferable skills training for graduate students to make PhD programs more relevant for contemporary economic and workforce trends
•Created and oversaw interdisciplinary research projects that combine theories and findings from the fields of Technology, Communication, Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Entrepreneurship Education to investigate on-going barriers to entrepreneurial identity construction and career intent for females
•Synthesized and communicated existing literature and original research findings to interdisciplinary audiences

Graduate Researcher

Purdue University & University of Michigan

•Coordinated and led assessment and evaluation for a large, multi-site professional training program (the Midwest node of the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program) managing multiple projects while tracking progress across dynamic goals and outcomes.
•Designed and implemented mixed-method research and analysis tools, including focus groups, surveys, contextual studies, and interviews to investigate impact of current training initiatives.
•Analyzed data to identify organizational gaps, strengths, opportunities, and obstacles to change.
•Adapted training materials, coaching strategies, and assessment tools in response to outcomes, obstacles, and feedback.
•Generated reports and present data-driven recommendations of change strategies to a diverse range of cross-sector stakeholders.

Research Fellow - National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps), Midwest Node

Catalyst Fitness | Britespot Design

Before entering academia, I was an entrepreneur and started two small businesses.  As the head of Britespot Design, I provided graphic design services that included marketing and promotional materials for local businesses, custom event invitations, and artistic prints.  I also leveraged my accreditation with the National Association of Sports Medicine (NASM) as a Certified Personal Trainer to start Catalyst Fitness, where I provided both local and online fitness and nutrition consultations to clients across the country.

Entrepreneur

Wasatch Behavioral Health

•	Created an environment where positive reinforcement was used to promote behavior change, 
        mitigate the impact of behavior disorders, and teach social skills.
•	Designed a youth day treatment program for at-risk adolescents involved in the state's foster 
        care program.
•	Organized meetings of client mental health teams to assess progress and create treatment 
        plans.
•	Co-facilitated group therapy sessions, organized treatment activities, and taught skills lessons.

Case Manager for Youth Day Treatment, Program Developer for Ascend School & Treatment Group

I have an interdisciplinary PhD in Technology Leadership & Innovation (aka Organizational Leadership) + a minor in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies - combined with almost 20 years of practical experience designing programs focused on people development and sustainable behavior change across a variety of industries, including tech, healthcare, and education. My areas of expertise include behavioral design, learning & leadership development, DEIB, program design, and change management. 

Overview:
• Expertise in the cognitive and contextual factors that create and perpetuate barriers to diversity, belonging, equity, and inclusion across the employee life cycle. 
• Professional background in behavioral design and developing data-driven strategies for sustainable change management.
• In-depth experience conducting quantitative and qualitative research, analyzing data to identify actionable insights, and communicating results to a variety of audiences.
• Extensive experience creating and delivering high-impact workshops and trainings.
• 15+ years of experience managing relationships with cross-sector clients across multiple fast-paced projects.

taplio

The Battle

Taylor Blake

Mandy Wheadon, Ph.D.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?