About Tanzen
Organizations have invested heavily in digital without building the operational foundation to support it — and AI is making that gap impossible to ignore. Tanzen helps mission-driven organizations close that gap: diagnosing what's actually broken, building the systems and capacity to fix it, and making sure the work continues after we're gone.
Meet our founder
Hi! I’m Carrie Hane
For over 20 years, I've watched organizations use technology to try to solve people and process problems. They implement new technology products while ignoring the operational foundations that make them work. The difference now? The stakes are higher, the pace is faster, and there's no time for transformation theater.
How I work
I don't implement technology — I help you build the people, process, and content foundations that make technology work. That means diagnosing what's actually broken (not just what feels broken), building systems that align people and processes with outcomes, and developing your team's capacity to sustain the work after I'm gone.
My approach is collaborative, not prescriptive. I've led transformation from the inside as Director, Program Lead, and Evangelist. I've guided it from the outside as a consultant designing sustainable systems and operations. I know what works because I've built things that endure: organizations still using frameworks I created 5–10 years ago, 70+ agency stakeholder alignments that held, and teams where successors came from within.
Why this work matters to me
Mission-driven organizations don't have the luxury of failing forward with expensive technology experiments. You're accountable to communities, stakeholders, and causes that matter. You need transformation that actually delivers on your mission — not impressive demos or consultant decks that gather dust.
I wrote Designing Connected Content: Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow in 2017 because I saw organizations struggling with the same fundamental challenge: how to build systems that could evolve with technology rather than be replaced by it. Since then, it's helped organizations from the Central Park Conservancy to the National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute at NIH, from small foundations to global brands. The principles haven't changed — AI just makes them more urgent.
Track record
I've spent two decades making digital transformation actually work — first at the intersection of web, mobile, and social, then through digital-first operations, and now as AI reshapes everything. I've worked with mission-driven organizations, major brands, and complex institutions to build foundations that last, including Advisory Board, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, American Society of Civil Engineers, National Geographic Society, and dozens more through Designing Connected Content and direct consulting engagements.
Working with us
Our values
Why the Name Tanzen?
We bring strategic clarity without the jargon, operational expertise without the overhead, and accountability without the micromanagement. Engagements are collaborative and time-boxed. We'll identify quick wins while building sustainable capacity. And when our work is done, your team will be equipped to continue without us — that's the whole point.
Through personal interactions, client relationships, and professional groups, we seek to live by these beliefs:
Share your passion
Try new things
Support others
Create trust
Nurture community
Why are we called Tanzen? Tanzen is German for "to dance." The name is inspired by the LeAnn Womack song "I Hope You Dance," which is about living life to its fullest, even when it might seem difficult. When you get the choice to sit it out or dance...dance.