Work Life Tarot
Even with a wealth of articles and knowledge, Atlassian’s blog subscriptions were starting to slow down. We decided to generate greater awareness of the blog by debuting it at Team ‘25 in Anaheim,.
I designed Work Life Tarot as the primary attraction to showcase all the great content that we were sitting on. My aim was to encouraged repeated participation and thoughtful interaction, parallel the behavior I wanted from the blog readers.
📘 2,000 new subscribers to the blog
with 1,100 acquired in Anaheim and 900 in Barcelona, it was the largest subscription spike in the blog’s history.
📚 72% engagement for deeper dives
into the instructions and meaning of the Tarot deck, from Team ‘25 attendees in Anaheim.
Debuting with a splash
I was approached by Lauren Parker while I was facilitating the Teamwork Collection activation at Team ‘24 Europe. She was the Managing Editor of Work Life, Atlassian's teamwork-focused publication. It covers the themes that touch every knowledge worker: career growth, team dynamics, creative blocks, leadership challenges, and finding work-life balance. It had a wealth of content built over years which was read by thousands of people every quarter, but no one had ever experienced it. By the end of our conversation, we were inspired to bring Work Life to life at our next flagship event, Team ‘25.
Role
Creative direction
Project management
Content strategy
Package design
Insight to design
Not fortune-telling or mysticism, just career insights through a familiar, and playful lens.
We decided to use Tarot as a framework because it invited self-reflection, paralleling the majority of the topics featured on Work Life. The Tarot reading would give our audience a new medium to experience the content on Atlassian’s blog.
We created a custom 40 card Work Life Tarot deck, or the Career Insights Deck, beautifully illustrated by Sari Jack. The instructions and meaning behind how the deck worked was written in collaborations with Lisa Raphael, which materialized as a script for our facilitators to help them engage with attendees as they explored questions around their career.
Design
The design of the tarot cards are based on traditional tarot motifs, in Atlassian’s illustration style and color palette. We started with identifying visual metaphors, and had the entire deck of cards sketched out before diving into the design.
The introvert card with matching nails by Shophouse Nails
Revealing truths
On April 8th – 10th 2025 Work Life Tarot was debuted, reception was more positive than expected. There was constantly a line of attendees waiting to have their career insights revealed by our facilitators, which in turn generated curiosity and attracted even more attendees to participate.
We had the attendees think about something they were dealing with at work, pull cards, and have a genuine conversation with our team of facilitators about the themes that emerged. We also paired the readings with a Rovo-powered chatbot — a "confessional booth" where attendees could get AI-driven teamwork advice seeded with Work Life articles.
Trust in the cards
With the success of the Work Life Tarot on the event show floor, it caught the attention of the social media team and was featured on Atlassian’s Instagram allowing virtual attendees to participate in the activity. Atlassian’s C-suite also took turns to visit the booth for personal readings.
Atlassian Community also featured Work Life Tarot in a webinar after the conference, furthering the reach and awareness of the activation and the blog itself.
Work Life Tarot was featured on Atlassian’s Instagram, allowing virtual attendees participate in the activity.
Lauren performing a reading for Amy Glancey
Back to Barcelona
There was something poetic about bringing Work Life Tarot to Barcelona, the very city where the idea was born. For Team Europe '25, we brought the activation to a new audience and learned that European attendees were initially more skeptical of Tarot as a concept, but the readings yielded deeper, more transformation-focused conversations.
We also created a geographically accurate "The Offsite" card as a nod to the Barcelona setting. It allowed the second print of the Tarot deck to be subtly different from the original, and reflected the idea that new locations inspire new thinking.
“The Offsite” card for Team ‘25 in Anaheim.
“The Offsite” card for Team ‘25 Europe in Barcelona.
Why this worked
We designed the activation to invites self-reflection, which resonates far more than one that broadcasts information. Work Life Tarot gave attendees permission to pause, ponder their careers, and have a real conversation.
I believe the strong aesthetic point of view really allowed Work Life Tarot to really stand out on the event expo floor. Our attendees noticed, took selfies in our booth, shared photos and extended Work Life’s reach.
Connect the activation to something lasting. Every card, every reading, every conversation pointed back to the blog. The deck itself includes a QR code sharing the instructions and meanings of the deck, and how the arcana maps to topics and articles. The experience shouldn’t end at the booth, we were trying to establish an ongoing content relationship.
