About
Getting attention is the easy part.
Hi, I'm Arlene.
I build and run communications functions, and I grow the audiences they serve. That has meant brand and creative direction, campaign strategy, channel ownership, budgets, vendors, and teams, across the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, the State Department, and private-sector consulting.
What changed over more than 20 years is not the craft. It is how I decide what to make.
Arlene Goyette
Communications, marketing, and digital engagement
Connect on LinkedIn for consulting, speaking, and partnership opportunities.
View LinkedIn profile →59%
Registered-user growth in a single year, more than four times the previous record
View case studies →100K+
Service members, civilians, and families reached by the U.S. Navy's first emergency preparedness campaign
View case studies →$370K
In combined annual cost savings and cost avoidance across two federal digital modernization projects
View case studies →14 to 9 days
Faster process cycle time during a three-command DoD reorganization, recognized with the Department of the Army Commander's Award for Civilian Service
How I got here
I started in traditional marcomm. Print, collateral, events, media relations, brand. The discipline of saying one clear thing to a specific group of people. That foundation still does most of the work, and I would not trade it.
Then the channels multiplied, and so did the noise. Attention got shorter and the competition for it got harder. Cutting through stopped being a question of volume and became a question of knowing exactly who you were talking to and what they needed to do next.
At GSA, I sharpened the craft. I honed digital engagement and journey strategy through content design, user experience, and human-centered design. I also learned something I did not expect from the developers I worked with: they would rather build one thing people actually need than ship a list of features someone assumed would be adopted. That changed what I ask for, and when I ask for it.
Then I stopped designing only the visible part. Service design closed the loop. What happens backstage, the workflows, the handoffs, the people delivering the service, shapes how customers experience a brand just as much as anything they can see. Leave it unaccounted for and it shows up in the experience anyway.
The through-line had a name I did not know yet. I practiced systems thinking for years before I learned the term for it. I kept finding that the content problem was never only a content problem. It was the workflow behind the page, the policy behind the workflow, and the team that owned neither.
What sets me apart
Three things. Each one is documented.
1. I find the obvious problem everyone has stopped seeing.
At DTIC, leadership had accepted flat growth as a fact of a niche market. The real problem was that users could not tell where the free content ended and the far more valuable gated content began. Everyone knew. It had become furniture. One email changed the trajectory, and registered users grew 59% that year. Read the case study.
2. I prove it before I scale it.
At DTIC, one free email tested the theory before a dollar of budget moved, and it earned the funding for everything after it: segmentation, reactivation, the redesign, the events program. At GSA, I verified an 87% lift in task completion through usability testing rather than asserting it in a deck. I would rather be proven wrong in a week for free than in a year for six figures.
3. I build the thing that does not exist yet.
Six employers have handed me something with no precedent and no template.
- Two federal emergency preparedness campaigns. The Navy's Operation Prepare, which still runs today as Ready Navy, and the Army's own Ready Army, which Battelle won as an expanded follow-on contract on the strength of the Navy work. I led creative direction for both.
- A communications department built from nothing. JPM-TMT had no communications function. I built the brand, the digital presence, the message architecture, a team of six, and ran a $3M budget.
- DoD's first mobile classified reading room. Piloted in 2020 with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command after a six-month negotiation. It is still a fixture at that command's annual science and technology conference.
- DTIC's first customer journey marketing strategy. The one that produced the 59%.
- DTIC's first campaign measurement system. The metrics team adopted it as their own reporting template.
- Arlington County's first large-scale career fair. JobFest, connecting 400+ job seekers with 25 employers. The pattern started early.
I did not plan this. I noticed it looking back. What it means practically: if the thing does not exist yet, and nobody is sure what it should be, that is the work I am best at.
What I'm like on a team
I ask what problem we are actually solving, and who we are solving it for. Both halves matter. A real problem for an imagined user is still the wrong build.
Most of my results came from teams I did not manage. I have spent my career in organizations where cooperation had to be earned rather than assigned, across directorates, agencies, contractors, and policy offices. I run the meeting, write the plan, share the credit, and leave behind templates, standards, and workflows so the work does not fall over after I move on.
I am direct about what the numbers say, including when they say my idea did not work.
Where I do my best work
Organizations going through modernization, consolidation, or major operational change, where the complexity is real and the goal is adoption rather than output.
I also take on select consulting projects through Clarifi Lab, LLC.
Selected experience
Where I've led this work, and what it delivered.
Clarifi Lab, LLC
Founder and Principal
Communications strategy, marketing, content strategy, and digital engagement consulting for complex organizations.
U.S. Department of State
Customer Experience Strategist
Service blueprinting, journey mapping, stakeholder facilitation, and modernization recommendations across a global enterprise, built on 50+ stakeholder interviews and co-creation sessions.
U.S. General Services Administration
Digital Content Designer
Digital modernization, content strategy, information architecture, and accessibility, delivering $370K in combined annual savings and cost avoidance and an 87% increase in task completion on a high-traffic credentialing service.
U.S. Department of Defense MULTIPLE AGENCIES
Communications Team Lead, Chief Communications Officer, and Communications Director
Led communications consolidation during a three-command reorganization, cutting process cycle time from 14 to 9 business days and earning the Army Commander's Award for Civilian Service. Grew registered users 59% in a single year and originated the concept and 2020 pilot for DoD's first mobile classified reading room, now a fixture at the annual INDOPACOM Science and Technology Conference.
Arlington County Government, Arlington Employment Center
Business Developer
Workforce development and community engagement programs across B2B, B2C, and B2G audiences, including founding JobFest, Arlington County's first large-scale career fair (400+ job seekers, 25 employers, 10+ sponsors).
Battelle and MCI
Marketing and communications leadership (B2G, B2C)
Integrated campaigns, technical storytelling, product communications, and customer education across scientific, government-facing, and consumer audiences, contributing to a $10M+ federal contract award.
Explore selected case studies, or contact me to discuss communications leadership, marketing strategy, digital engagement, or consulting support.