The International Partner Plex- an Executive Experience Center designed for enterprise partners, diplomatic delegations, and regional leadership across regional markets. Self-produced conceptual rendering - does not depict proprietary project artwork.
Overview
Planned as an expansion of Google's global network of executive experience centers, the Partner Plex was designed to host enterprise clients, diplomatic delegations, and regional leadership. The center aimed to support high-value engagements through culturally attuned storytelling, integrated technology showcases, and premium hospitality standards—strengthening relationships and positioning Google as a strategic business partner.
I led the full design delivery as project manager, coordinating teams across continents and disciplines to align creative, technical, and operational goals. Responsibilities included vendor oversight, stakeholder alignment, and maintaining program objectives through scheduled design milestones, culminating in final design approval.
My Contribution
- Managed overall project health by monitoring vendor deliverables, schedule performance, risk exposure, technical feasibility with engineering, and alignment with executive approvals and creative intent.
- Moderated global alignment sessions to break down silos between cross-disciplinary teams including architectural design, AI interactive exhibit design, technical integration, and engineering.
- Led vendor onboarding and training including pre-contract alignment workshops, defining scope, deliverables, dependencies, and feedback guardrails to prevent late-stage rework.
- Directed detailed room-by-room AVCL design intent workshops to define user zones, interaction sequences, show moments, and AI-enabled experience requirements.
Decision-Making Framework
Created guardrails around feedback cycles and approvals, establishing clear decision-making authority at each project phase. This prevented late-stage rework and kept partners aligned across two continents.
The structured approach clarified when stakeholders could give input, what counted as final approval, and which decisions were locked, protecting the schedule while maintaining quality.
Interactive Experience Design
Led "room-by-room" design workshops that broke down show moments, interactive behaviors, and technical constraints for AI-driven experiences throughout the center.
These collaborative sessions bridged creative vision with technical feasibility, ensuring each space delivered a cohesive narrative while meeting the operational requirements of an executive center.
Repeatable Delivery Model
Developed a repeatable design–build framework. Templatizing schedules and workflows that Google could apply to future Partner Plex projects worldwide. This scalable system standardized contracts, vendor onboarding, design reviews, approval gates, and handoff processes, reducing complexity for future international expansions.
My Hero Moment
One of the biggest challenges in APAC was the executive mandate to complete design in under one year and prepare the center for an equally compressed build phase. I established a governance model that clarified when stakeholders could give input, what counted as final approval, and which decisions were locked.
These guardrails prevented late-stage rework and kept partners aligned across two continents. By protecting the schedule and structuring decision-making, the project was able to reach design-complete on time despite its complexity.
What This Project Taught Me
This project showed me that speed without structure costs more than time. A one-year mandate for a full-scale experience center accelerated decisions and, while we delivered, it led to solutions that were feasible but creatively constrained- and pushed the team hard.
I learned that governance models aren't bureaucracy; they're protection. They keep decisions grounded, reduce risk, and give teams space and time to do their best work. Without that structure, even exceptional teams default to execution over innovation. The takeaway: well-defined processes don't limit creativity… they protect it.