In leading Accenture's Consumer AR Program, my focus was on collaborating across teams, fostering an environment where innovation thrives, and ensuring our teams have what they need to create impactful AR experiences.

The progam is shaped by the following pillars:

• Building Capability:

  • Talent Pool: Collaborated with our 3D and XR development teams globally, from Costa Rica to Malaysia, cataloging their tech expertise and skills—essential for projects demanding knowledge in JavaScript, Unity, and various AR platforms.

  • Upskilling curriculum: Drove upskilling initiatives by dissecting the technical and design documentation of key platforms like 8th Wall and Snap Lens Studio, as well as advancing our approach to high-fidelity concept videos.

  • Project Critiques and Knowledge Sharing: I championed a bi-weekly XR Design Knowledge college to cultivate a culture of collaboration and learning, sharing project insights and pioneering a repository of best practices to elevate our execution.

• Defining Offerings:

  • Offering Categorization: Streamlined our AR services into four distinct offerings—Augmented Brand Engagement, Augmented Commerce, Augmented Products, and Augmented Venues—clarifying our capabilities for clients and our teams.

  • Sales and Marketing: As the primary contact for our AR offerings, I led the development of compelling sales materials and worked closely with business development to cultivate client relationships and drive engagement.

  • Ecosystem and Vendor Partnerships: Forged vital partnerships with industry leaders like Niantic and innovative platforms like Smart Media Technologies, alongside nurturing white-label vendor relationships to ensure project success.

• Advising Delivery:

  • Resource Strategist: Strategically staffed AR projects, establishing a network of trusted collaborators across different regions, each empowered to navigate and address project challenges proactively.

  • Direct Contributor: Acted as a direct contributor on key AR projects, including the Docomo UX/UI Concept Videos and the Invisible Showroom experience, providing production oversight and creative direction.

  • Stakeholder Management: With a keen eye on program visibility and governance, I maintained a rhythm of executive updates and managed stakeholder communications, ensuring alignment on our vision and progress.

Top insights from the Consumer AR program are below:

• People want to have fun: Snapchat reported 74% of consumers find AR entertaining, and our client projects confirm just that. Our most successful AR projects (WebAR Scavanger Hunts) thrived by introducing low-barrier-to-entry interactive, gamified experiences that provide real-world rewards. Also, while AR is mostly used indoors, there's evident appetite for outdoor experiences.

• Intuitive design: With AR technology still emerging for many, creating intuitive and seamless experiences is crucial. This necessity spans from content-level interactions, such as onboarding flows and text readability, to fundamental device interaction, like input modalities. Achieving an intuitive interface comparable to the mouse, keyboard, or touchscreen is vital for AR's widespread adoption.

• Future of AR: I a strong believer that Augmented Commerce, Context-aware AR, and comfortable all-day AR HMDs will be pivotal in computing's future. Current technologies for virtual try-ons, location-based services, and comfortable hardware are still evolving, yet I'm proud my work is a humble contribution to the advancement of this exciting future.