Sophie Zielinskie

LLM-powered manager development simulation running natively in Slack. Managers receive realistic employee scenarios (e.g., burnout, harassment, performance, leave) from an AI-generated persona and respond in their natural workflow. The LLM evaluates responses using full-context behavioral inference — not keyword heuristics. Flags compliance risk and AI-assisted responses automatically. Built solo in one week.

Engineered using Goose and Claude to generate fully branded SCORM 1.2 HTML courses end-to-end — bypassing the manual GUI bottleneck of industry authoring platforms. Includes stakeholder review overlay and automated revision workflow. Exploring xAPI/Snowflake integration to unlock behavioral learning signals at scale.

Operationalized org-level OKR into a sustainable program serving Customer Advocates across CustOps.

Actively shaping how Block approaches AI adoption, AI readiness, and AI governance in parallel with the organization's publicly articulated shift toward intelligence-based structure. See: From Hierarchy to Intelligence. Proprietary to Block.

Redesigned the instructional quality rubric to raise the standard of eLearning development across the team. Built systems-level design architecture that scaled across the LXD pod.

Pitched for an extra month in a move-fast culture to build the foundation right. Created a new brand, framework, and scalable design system — with AI-powered prompts embedded in the architecture. Cut development time by ~30%. Became a flagship program; set consistency standard across 30+ courses regardless of which designer built them.

Challenged cross-org tooling assumptions, interrogated ROI, and centered decisions around learner impact. Flagged WalkMe as low-value — deprecated across all content teams March 2026. Also reframed media specialization as a potential misinvestment given rising AI efficiencies. Not her function on either count. Did it anyway.

Designed the annual global enterprise sales kickoff. Full program design, content, and delivery coordination.

Launched the Enterprise Pulse survey via CultureAmp across the global Revenue organization.

Architected intake processes, content templates, and curriculum standards from scratch — building repeatable L&D infrastructure in a Revenue org that had none. Brought consistency and scalability to a function that was operating without a playbook.

One month to launch. Cancelled vendor contract. Built from scratch: full curriculum, 30+ facilitator onboarding, real-time feedback ecosystem with Slack community and custom HTML emails delivering personalized learner quotes to each facilitator by name after every session. Shipped on time.

Designed COVID Return-to-Office training with no existing playbook, 3 months into her Verizon tenure. Applied behavioral design throughout: color psychology (blue over brand red — calm over coercion), empathy mapping, and image transitions from black and white to color to signal normalcy returning. Rather than multiple choice, she built commitment devices — prompting learners to declare specific actions rather than select abstract answers — because behavior change requires agency, not recall.

Designed to reduce preventable catastrophic outages (CATAs) among unionized field technicians and tradespeople in Verizon's Global Network and Technology (GN&T) organization — 35,000 employees. Built the framework Prepare, Pause, Confirm — adopted by executive leadership into company-wide messaging. Developed extensive APIs that diagnosed the underlying human state driving responses: flagging overconfidence, complacency, being unskilled, or miseducated — and separately recognizing expertise-driven confidence, recognition-motivated high performance, and mastery. The system was built to surface that distinction accurately, enabling tailored remediation strategies for each state.

Contributing role within a larger team effort — not sole ownership. Drove ideation and content for complex branched scenarios built around learner role and geography: compliance that adapts to who you are and where you work, not a one-size-fits-all checkbox. Partnered with the xAPI developer to ensure the assessment architecture captured behavioral signal, not just completion. Translated into 7+ languages. Measurable outcome: a significant, documented increase in reports to the Ethics office post-launch — which was precisely the point. If people feel safe enough to report, the culture has shifted. Earned multiple Brandon Hall and Spotlight awards.

Facilitated exec-only sessions across 10+ functions: HR, Legal, Finance, Technology, Network, Retail. Captured executive interviews for social proof in downstream training. Turned live skepticism from senior leaders into in-room proof of the framework's core principle.

Converted global leadership program to virtual without sacrificing quality or outcomes.