In high school, I remember sitting at the back of the refectory at Lakeside during lunch—what we all quietly called the “minority table.” There wasn’t a sign, and no one assigned us seats. But still, somehow, we ended up there. Black, Asian, Latino—it didn’t matter where exactly you came from, just that you weren’t part of the majority. It wasn’t enforced. It was inherited.

In a recent interview, I was asked about my experience managing Profit and Loss (P&L) statements. It was a familiar question from my time in the private sector—but it made me pause. Not because I lacked the experience, but because the P&L isn’t a standard tool in the Department of Defense. That got me thinking: How can a leader from industry transition into the DoD and still apply the same drivers that a P&L would sharpen in a commercial context?

At the Federal News Network’s DoD Modernization Exchange 2025, I had the opportunity to reflect on one of the most challenging and rewarding chapters of my career—standing up the Pentagon’s first-ever Customer Experience Office from the ground up.

When then-DoD CIO John Sherman asked me to lead this brand-new effort, there was no playbook. His guidance? “We don’t yet know, but we’ll figure it out as we go.” Nearly 18 months later, that vision has evolved into an office driving real, enterprisewide impact across one of the largest and most complex organizations in the world.