Kerel Fryar
Empathetic Leader
As a creative professional disciplined in bringing innovative ideas to life, for the past 15 years, I have been highly successful in spearheading various product innovation programs for a combination of well-known conglomerates such as Delta Air Line, The Home Depot, Hilton Worldwide, and currently Truist Bank. Blending my technical and business acumen, I am well-versed in:➜ Negotiating and securing complex multimillion-dollar deals in large tech enterprises.
➜ Presenting proposals, case studies, verifiable data, and end-to-end strategies and execution.
➜ Developing talent and leading cross-functional teams towards achieving organizational goals.I am best known for connecting people and helping others achieve their goals. Among others in my industry, one thing that sets me apart is that I am an empathetic leader who takes a genuine interest in the people around me. I discern what makes them tick, what inspires them, and how they feel. Throughout my career and as a leader, I have learned to seek to understand and not just respond.Regarding customer engagement, I enjoy getting close to customers and engaging with their goals, needs, objectives, and strategies. This is the surest means to achieving and maintaining IT relevance. I also identify projects with strong commercial potential and allocate budgets to test them in the market.
© Kerel Fryar. All rights reserved.
Portfolio
Fueling Innovation at Delta Air Lines
I partnered with Pilot Lab while at Delta Air Lines to develop a tool for capturing ideas and fostering innovation. The digital tool allows employees to be ready at the moment of inspiration, thus allowing them to publish their ideas to the community - to share, discuss and collaborate.
Hilton Innovation Gallery
I led the project to produce the Hilton Innovation Gallery. The Innovation Gallery is a living, transformable space—a platform from which Hilton showcases their leadership in hospitality and tells its story of innovation as it redefines the brands within the Hilton portfolio. I provided the hospitality narratives and insights and advised Rockwell and Pilot Lab in the creative direction. I sourced Senovva to provide technical expertise and help bring the creative concepts to life.
Shrink MitigationI led a technology consulting engagement with Home Depot to create a high-tech theft deterrent that enables the open selling of products and a seamless customer experience.
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Professional Background
Strategic visionary leader with an impeccable list of accomplishments spanning over 15 years for large global corporations as well as fast-growth startup organizations. Hold an MBA with vast experience in leading various product innovation programs. Renowned for ideation and creating robust plans that bring ideas to life. Highly organized with a thirst for resolving challenges. I have expertise in spearheading teams through all aspects of the creative product life cycle—including design, development, evolution, and completion. I am an empathic change agent who is motivated to understand, disrupt/innovate, and then tackle the next challenge.
Innovation Leader Roles
Truist Bank - VP, Innovation Communities
BlueFletch Mobile - Human EX Stragetist
Hilton Worldwide - Director Creative Product Innovation
Deloitte - Manager, CX Stragety & Design
Delta Air Lines - Innovation Solutions Consultant
Consulting Engagements
AT&T - Supply Chain Consulting, Innovation Strategy
Burt’s Bees - Supply Chain Optimization, Warehousing Process Improvement
The Coca-Cola Company - Executive Compensation, STI / LTI Reporting Automation, Warehouse Optimization
Dow Chemical Company - Business Process Reengineering
Floor & Decor - Digital Innovation Strategy, Service Design
Home Depot - Digital Innovation Strategy, Service Design
Honda of America Mfg. - Six Sigma Strategy, Workforce Optimization
Intuit - Six Sigma Strategy, Workforce Optimization
Marriott Vacation Club - Digital Innovation Strategy, Service Design
Motorola - Process Improvement, Global Triage Service Design
Verizon - Quote-to-Cash Strategy, Portfolio Management
US Department of Defense - Business Process reengineering, Service Design, Process Improvement
Education
Marylhurst University, MBA – Sustainable Business
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, BS – Computer Engineering
Cornell University – Change Management
Georgia Tech - Scheller College of Business – Innovation Management
Thank you
I'll get back to you very soon. Take care.
idea.X Sprints provide teams with the tools they need to inquire customer centric questions, determine the data needed to answer those questions, evaluate that data to generate insights, and aim on those insights to unlock new opportunities for business growth. Experience experiments are then conducted to validate an idea.
What is a Design Sprint?
The Design Sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping and testing ideas with customers.Design Sprints are a powerful process for orienting teams with customer problems and rapidly coming up with new solutions. The Sprint’s ability to rapidly shift organisational thinking and promote innovation have made it one of the most compelling frameworks for solving problems of existential or transformative importance to a business.Think of a Design Sprint as an expensive multicourse meal, consisting of a menu developed by top chefs. The way you approach the meal is linear: one course after another. Definitely something reserved for special occasions.What is the idea.X approach?
The idea.X is an alternative approach to the GV Design Sprint, think of it as a shared tasting menu. Following a more creative loose order, we pick and choose which courses suit your appetite for the design challenge. Like dining at a friendly neighborhood restaurant, this way of approaching the Design Sprint materials is more suited to regular use than an exhaustive full 5-day Design Sprint.The idea.X approach is guided largely by the problem you’re trying to solve and the level of progress you’ve made as a company towards exploring the problem. The way we choose the applicable exercises is completely dependent on the type of problem you’re attempting to solve. During the dessert course we focus on rapidly validate your ideas with prototyping to ensure your end-user's experience expectations are met.If you would like to discuss setting up an idea.X session please use form below to contact me.
Fueling Innovation at Delta Air Lines
I partnered with Pilot Labs while at Delta Air Lines to help reimagine the approach to concept generation and harness the potential of its people to improve the experience of flying.
Our research uncovered relentlessly dedicated employees with great ideas. But there was no means to capture and consolidate those ideas and turn them into initiatives with the potential to accelerate innovation across the industry. To bridge the gap, we designed a framework mapped to touchpoints along the customer journey that fostered greater communication and collaboration.
As part of a joint venture, we built Delta Ideas, a web-based app that enabled our Innovation Team to easily collect, review, and take forward insights and ideas.
While we explored wide-scale adoption within Delta, we began to investigate the potential of the app as a commercially viable product in our innovation lab.
Hilton Innovation Gallery
We were faced with the challenge of creating a space that flexibly supports and seamlessly embeds cutting-edge technology, while also delivering a high-end space that sets a new standard for hospitality interiors. A fully-realized embodiment of the future of Hilton’s world-class hotel products, the Gallery balances buzz-worthy experiences with strategic thinking, inviting owners, operators, and partners to join in the innovation conversation.Six interconnected adaptable spaces within the gallery can be programmed individually or linked together as part of a choreographed experience, leveraging both technology and modular design elements to respond to guests’ needs. Display canvases in every area fill the space with content while also disappearing when not needed; some behind wood veneer or mirrored glass, others tucking into the ceiling or fading into architectural finishes. A custom-built Virtual Reality system reinvents the experience of touring design concepts, turning an elevated wing of the space into an immersive model room with full-scale floor plans and responsive information overlays.
Shrink Mitigation
Portable power tools are the highest shrinking group of products at The Home Depot. These products are especially attractive for theft due to their high price point and ease of liquidation.My team helped Home Depot plan, test, and scale a creative, tech-savvy way to thwart organized criminals from stealing tools off of their shelves. The power tools that will not function without first being activated via Bluetooth at checkout.
