Q+A with Jaydee Devine
With over 14 years of experience with URBN, Jaydee Devine is the ultimate storyteller for the brands. As the voice behind URBN Community, there is no typical day for Jaydee—from interviewing employees for feature stories, brainstorming employee events, to designing emails—every day is different but all centerpiece around Jaydee’s goal of connecting the people of URBN.
From URBN’s people to its dogs, Jaydee is prepared to share anyone’s story.
What’s a typical day in the life look like?
I can honestly say that every single day is exciting. Somedays I’m running from building to building meeting new people (or dogs) and interviewing them for the blog. Some days I spend hours in front of my computer coding. That’s what keeps me energized and excited about coming in, everyday is exciting. Today I shot some #URBNatWork photos in Anthro, stamped notebooks for tomorrow’s Coffee Chat, before coding the next issue of This Week at The Yard. and then of course there was meetings and emails, but I’m sure that’s part of everyone’s day-to-day.
What are some ways we can get involved?
My job is to connect people and to share their stories, so I’m a big fan of grabbing coffee to get to know people and feature their story on the blog. Also, if you haven’t checked out a Coffee Chat or Brown Bag event yet be sure to join the next one!
Tell us what you do at URBN?
I’m sure you’ve all seen me around either getting my 7 cup of coffee at Jharoka or wandering buildings with my camera but never knew who I was. I’m the voice behind all things URBN Community. It’s my job to talk about all the amazing things with our brands and our campus while I support the people that are making it happen (you guys are rockstars!). I love my job because I work with an incredibly diverse group of brand partners to help tell stories in an compelling way. I started my career with URBN back in 2006. I continued to grow with the company over the next few years after working at eight stores, I joined the UO Store Operations team in 2014. Working in Store Ops, now renamed Omni-Ops, was transformative experience. Employees were at the center of everything we did which helped us continue to evolve and refine our communication channels. After two amazing years with the Omni-Ops team, I decided to apply for the URBN Community position, and the rest is history.
What's your favorite building/spot on campus? Why?
Well, our outdoor spots are my definitely my favorite! Rather than planning out our social media calendar in front of a computer, I prefer to venture out and enjoy the weather. One of my favorite nooks is the enclave behind building 18. If you haven’t ventured over to have lunch there, it is a MUST!
What has been your favorite project to work on?
Well it’s a long story. When the idea was pitched to me of starting a weekly communication channel for Home Office employees similar to UO field teams, I was reluctant. The SLANT was a huge undertaking each week and I didn’t see how adding another email to everyone’s plate would be a benefit. But, after a few weeks on the job, I was noticing a lot of piecemeal communication. In a given week, I would send out a Brown Bag email Monday, Monthly Perks on Tuesday, a Silent Auction email Wednesday, a reminder for URBN Market Thursday, and a parking notice Friday; each of which had a different look and feel. So, while working through a brand identity project, I also worked on an email consolidation project. After presenting to our Shared Service partners, we decided to move forward with This Week at The Yard last October. It’s crazy to see how much it has evolved! We’re always looking for ways to incorporate new ideas and employee events, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you have something to add!
Do you have a favorite URBN Community feature?
There are so many good features out there! It’s really hard to pick a favorite feature but I would have to pick A Few Things With. There’s thousands of us—URBN employees. Very few of us know each other, yet all of us share a passion and dedication to this killer brand. A Few Things With introduces members of the community through an exploration of projects and initiatives they are excited about.
