Combined Efforts for Big Outcomes in Italy
Genius Tree Da Vinci Project
My CX Origin Story
Before my career in customer experience and community-led growth, I was on the front lines of human development—literally.
At a private Italian preschool running an experimental English immersion program, I was asked to support learning outcomes. But I saw something bigger: an opportunity to reimagine how people engage, connect, and co-create meaning across roles, ages, and expectations.
With 3- to 5-year-old learners, limited resources, and no formal budget, I stepped into the role of experience designer, support strategist, and community builder. My "customers" weren't just students, but also parents, faculty, and the school’s broader mission.
Challenge
The curriculum needed to do more than educate, it needed to activate and generate support for an innovative program. The outlier program needed to integrate into the larger school community and be understood on a large scale as successfully driving results for the future.
We faced three major constraints:
Inclusive Onboarding: Students and even teachers were losing focus across the weeks without a cohesive, emotional arc.
Parent Disconnection: Families weren’t integrated into the learning process, limiting visibility into their child’s experience.
Low Budget, High Expectation: We had no money for special tools or materials, but we were expected to create something impactful, memorable, and share-worthy.
This was more than a classroom challenge. It was an early customer success problem: how do we design an experience where everyone involved feels connected, valued, and part of a shared outcome?
Onboarding, Adoption, Engagement… not just for CX!
Some of the most basic tools for Customer Success can be found in teaching and visualizing progress.
Photo: Upon completion of each of the 7 stages, the entire school and parents would see the life size tree taking shape, alongside a journey map to set the expectation and build excitement.
Approach
I architected a 7-week immersive, human-first learning journey based on Leonardo da Vinci’s seven principles of thinking, reimagined through a Customer Success lens:
Human-Centered Curriculum Design: Each week, students explored a principle through tactile, emotional learning (e.g., building, painting, group discovery).
Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Plan: Designed activities that extended beyond the classroom to actively involve parents, spark faculty collaboration, and connect to the school's larger vision.
Progressive Storytelling: Built a visual and emotional arc. Students co-created a growing installation (a life-size tree) that symbolized their journey, culminating in a school-wide unveiling.
Resource-Efficient Execution: Used recycled, classroom-safe materials to maximize creativity while minimizing cost.
Strategic Milestone Mapping: Every week added visible progress, creating a sense of momentum, purpose, and shared ownership - just like a well-paced customer onboarding or success path.
This “GENIUS TREE” inspired by Leonardo Davinci’s 7 Priciples of Thinking, was a layered community experience that included work, story, discovery, and the witnessing of something unfold that only could have been accomplished together.
Results
Drove sustained engagement from students, parents, and faculty, turning a simple curriculum into a community-wide initiative.
Created joyful proof of what collaboration can build something physically larger than life for the children, and metaphorically expansive for the teachers.
Sparked a mindset shift among faculty: realizing that collaborative, cross-classroom experiences were not only feasible but deeply worthwhile.
Generated organic buzz and parent participation - without a single dollar spent on marketing.
Created a replicable model of engagement through storytelling, visual journey mapping, and incremental success milestones.
Built an emotional flywheel: participation led to pride, which led to deeper commitment, creating an environment where culture reinforced itself.
Demonstrated a lifecycle-led approach to experience: from onboarding, to activation, to celebration.
Modeled high-impact customer education and enablement - translating abstract concepts into tangible progress and personal ownership.
Below: Regional News Coverage resulting from this program
Takeaway
Customer Success isn’t just about satisfaction, it’s about designing shared journeys people want to stay part of. The most successful programs align emotional moments with strategic milestones.
Whether in a preschool or a SaaS platform, engagement starts with participation, meaning, and community.
This was the moment I learned to make outcomes feel personal.
And that belief has guided every CX and community program I’ve built since.
Below: 7 Week Project Culmination: creating a unique community celebration, intersecting a cultural moment with learning and empowerment.
