NorthStar Ideation Tool - American Airlines
American Airlines lacked a structured, enterprise-wide way to capture, evaluate, and advance employee-driven innovation. While employees across departments were eager to contribute ideas, insights were frequently lost in email threads, informal conversations, or isolated team efforts. Ongoing organizational change further reinforced siloed innovation, limiting visibility, reuse, and scale.
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This fragmentation reduced the airline’s ability to harness collective creativity and translate promising ideas into enterprise-level improvements.
My Role
As a Senior Product Manager, I independently conceived and led the development of NorthStar, an internal ideation platform designed to capture, evaluate, and accelerate employee-driven innovation. This initiative extended beyond my core product responsibilities and demonstrated my ability to operate as an intrapreneur: building alignment across teams, inspiring cross-functional collaboration, and mobilizing a grassroots movement around a shared vision for innovation.
Idea Conception
Conceived and developed NorthStar as a centralized innovation hub to enable employee idea submission, structured evaluation, and cross-functional collaboration across the enterprise.
Pilot
Piloted the platform with the Loyalty department (30 employees) over two weeks, achieving 130% engagement and generating eight actionable innovation ideas. The pilot validated strong employee demand and demonstrated the platform’s ability to surface relevant, high-quality ideas quickly.
Executive Pitch
Presented the concept and pilot outcomes to the CIO and her leadership team. While there was strong enthusiasm for the idea, the discussion revealed a broader gap: the organization lacked a defined governance model for enterprise innovation.
Approach
My approach focused on validating demand, proving value quickly, and building credibility through action rather than formal mandate. I prioritized speed, visibility, and participation to demonstrate both employee appetite and organizational readiness before seeking long-term investment or ownership.
Invite to Scale
Rather than waiting for formal executive sponsorship, I proactively secured approval from the Managing Director of the Integrated Operations Center (IOC) to expand adoption. This allowed the platform to be tested in a high-impact, real-world environment and increased cross-functional engagement.
Continued Growth
Partnered with Emerging Technology and other internal teams to assess feasibility and scalability. Over time, the initiative attracted 10 employees who voluntarily contributed time to further development, underscoring strong user demand despite the absence of formal funding.
Impact
Achieved 130% pilot engagement in two weeks, with participation from 19 departments and eight actionable ideas generated.
Launched a working prototype at the IOC with sustained usage and organic growth.
Gained positive executive visibility and broad organizational enthusiasm, validating the need for a structured innovation pipeline.
Demonstrated grassroots leadership by advancing an enterprise-level initiative without formal funding or ownership.
Ultimately paused before scaling due to the absence of defined governance, surfacing critical insights into how innovation initiatives must be structured to succeed within large enterprises.
Reflection
NorthStar was a defining experience in building something from nothing. It demonstrated that when employees are given both a voice and a clear platform, innovation becomes intrinsic rather than forced.
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Leading this initiative taught me how to balance inspiration with structure: harnessing grassroots energy while navigating enterprise systems not designed for innovation. The experience reinforced that innovation success depends as much on organizational readiness and governance as it does on passion and creativity.