PRACTICE
Where strategy gets its shape
The thinking and approach behind every Forme Coda engagement.
Most marketing problems aren't marketing problems. They're clarity problems, alignment problems, or structural problems that show up in marketing first.
I approach every engagement by looking at the full system—how strategy, teams, communication, and customer experience are actually functioning, not just how they're supposed to. That means understanding what's producing the problem before deciding how to solve it.
Two things drive every engagement—systems thinking that identifies where breakdowns actually occur and how one change ripples through everything else, and creative thinking that shapes strategy into narrative, positioning, and experience that moves people and drives results.
Approach
Clarity Before Action
The process is designed so the answer feels inevitable. Whether the work is brand strategy, a team reorganization, or a cultural shift around performance, each step builds on evidence and participation so people don't just accept the outcome. They own it. Ownership is what moves people from compliance to commitment.
Customers + Team, Together
What customers experience is a direct reflection of how teams are organized, communicated with, and equipped to deliver. Change one and you have to address the other. This is where systems thinking drives the work: understanding how every internal decision has an external outcome, and building strategy that accounts for both sides of that equation.
Structure That Sticks
The goal of every partnership is a system a team can run and grow without constant support. That means building frameworks that are repeatable, adaptable, and designed to function confidently after the engagement ends. Whether it's a narrative that scales or a team structure that adapts as conditions change, the work is built to last.
The right engagement starts with understanding where you are.
Background
20+ years of senior marketing leadership spanning brand strategy, organizational design, customer experience, and investor communications. Built and led teams across complex, multi-market organizations, from building functions from the ground up to reshaping existing teams around clearer roles, better output, and stronger performance. A significant part of that work has been developing marketing talent: creating the conditions where people grow into stronger leaders and teams operate with confidence and ownership long after the engagement ends.
Experience is grounded in real estate, though the thinking is systems-based, creative, and execution-focused, and transfers across sectors. Current clients include companies in proptech, retail, and professional services.
Experience |
|---|
20+ years senior marketing leadership |
Budgets up to $42M |
Teams up to 30 people |
300+ locations nationally |
B2B + B2C experience |
Real estate, proptech, professional services |
Selected Work
On Working Together
I'm Deanna Schmidt, founder of Forme Coda.
I think in systems. That means I'm always oriented toward the whole—the goal, the people involved, and what has to hold after the work is done. It's how I'm wired, and it's what I enjoy most about the work.
I don't waste airtime. When I speak it's because something needs to be said. When I'm quiet it's because I'm listening, which is usually more useful anyway.
I'm shockingly calm under pressure—or so I've been told. I respond rather than react, keep the full system in view, and stay oriented toward the end goal even when the details get complicated. Especially then.
Outside of work I'm a voracious reader, a design obsessive across every medium, an enthusiastic pickleball player, and the very willing chauffeur of two teenage boys in Alexandria, Virginia.
