Well, hello!

I’m Kayla, technically a designer turned PMP-certfied project manager but I’ve never really stuck to just one role. Right out of college I was thrown into a startup as Creative Director and Brand manager and given a small team of young designers to bring the Founder and Investors vision to life. After that I was a State Program Manager for an organization focusing on getting more girls in STEM through mentorship. In that role I did everything from organize cross country calls to creating campaigns and toolkits, to designing and writing a mentorship guide. From there I went to a small design agency where I went from Project Coordinator, to Project Manager, to Director of Delivery over the 9 years I was there.

The one through-line in all of my professional career has been my love for helping folks solve problems. That could have been my small design team, my clients, or even the co-worker having a hard day. I like being at the frontlines of the mess and helping everyone see a path foward - and execute on it.

A girl’s got to stay creative though because even though I’m not design for work anymore, I still LOVE creative outlets. Some days that’s photography, interior decorating, playing in my closet, pattern making, coloring, or trying to recreate the best bolognese I’ve ever had. It just depends on the mood for the day.

I’m working on updating this website a bit to reflect who I’ve become over the last 9 years, but in the meantime I’ve got a brief overview of my work below.

I’d love to connect!

Project Experience

  • For Lensrentals, we were tasked with defining the core customers and personas, creating the voice and tone, and supporting the redesign. Through weekly and monthly touchpoints, I managed the client's budget and project progress as well as identified gaps in the project scope with the client, resulting in additional work.

    The project was delivered on time and on budget.

  • The Daily Memphian is a large paid online news publication focused on Memphis. I lead the project team through the redesign and worked with another company’s development team to coordinate an on-time and on-budget delivery.

  • Chattanooga commissioned a memorial to honor Ed Johnson, who was tragically lynched. We were brought on to create informational bronze plaques with The Ed Johnson Project Group that surround the main art piece of the memorial. We also created the print materials that supported the unveiling. I coordinated with several entities including city representatives to get this project done and even designed the print materials myself.

    The project launched on time and on budget.

  • Kin came to us to help with a complext platform migration and a tight turn-around time. It involved coordination from the platform team who was also handling migration, weekly QA cadence from the client, and a strict sprint/agile plan with our team.

    We launched on time and on budget and went on to work with them for the next 3 years.

  • The Seam is a software and commodities trading solution for agribusinesses. We were tasked with rearchitecting and redesigning their website. I was brought on to this project specifically to get it back on track as the timeline was critical.

    We launched on the client’s accelerated timeline.

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Work Snapshot

Don’t just take my word for it…

“I can’t recommend Kayla Brown, highly enough.

We partnered on a major rebrand and website refresh that was delivered on time despite significant complexity. Kayla has a rare ability to bring structure to ambiguity, surface what others miss, and keep teams aligned and moving forward.

She gets things done. Consistently. Any organization would be lucky to have her.”

— Rebecca Wyatt,  Former Client

“Kayla is hands down one of the best project managers and best people I know.

When she joined Simple Focus, our project management improved immediately and for the better. And, because that improved, our work did.

She's fantastic at planning projects from beginning to end and making sure they get delivered on time and on budget. That's impressive. What's more impressive is her ability to adapt to change and communicate in way that somehow magically makes everyone - the people doing the work, our bosses, our clients - feel informed, considered and cared for.

She's organized. She's thorough. She's hilarious. She's got a gift for getting stakeholders and project teams to trust her. She'd be an incredible asset to any team.”

— Kerry Crawford,  Former Coworker

I had the good fortune of working Kayla Brown at Simple Focus. She is a fantastic project manager, who keeps things moving, balances multiple priorities and agendas, and listens carefully to the client.

Definitely hope our paths cross again and recommend her without reservation to any organization hiring for a project manager, project delivery manager, or product manager.

— MC Navarro,  Former Client

“I had the pleasure of working with Kayla, and she's the kind of project manager who makes everyone's job easier. She's an exceptional communicator, always keeping people aligned, informed, and moving in the same direction. She has a natural ability to light up a room, bringing energy and warmth that lifts the whole team. Beyond that, she has a gift for smoothing out the bumps, anticipating what people need, and making even the most complex projects feel manageable. Working with her is genuinely a joy, and any team would be lucky to have her. She's one of the best co-workers I ever had!”

— Vilmar Fonseca, Former Coworker

Kayla is the best. The only comparison I’d make is to our grant contractors, from a “level of service from a contractor,” who also go above and beyond regularly for us—but it’s like working with someone on your own team. Proactive problem solving, feels like always has time to help, incredible people skills. How many other project managers show up with a camera to help get a project out the door?

I have heard other people on our team say, “I’ll just ask Kayla” because they know, too.

-Geoff Millner, Former Client

While I know Kayla as a friend, I've also had the privilege of also working with her.

As a project-manager, she's professional, detail-oriented, and always the most well-organized person on the team. Clients love working with her because she's so communicative and on top of future communication needs. I loved working with her because I've never seen a more efficient project board and never had to worry about which task I needed to work on next, she was always on top of it.

She's also a great designer and marketing strategist. When she's behind a project she's passionate about, she'll focus her design and strategic thinking to lively and incredible outcomes. Her work is always bold, energetic, and thoughtful.

Kayla is a true triple threat of a project manager, designer, and strategic thinker.

— Summer Kohlhorst,  Former Coworker