April 2026 Bonfire Marketer of the Month: DSW’s Natalia Moncanut

Each month, Braze selects one individual as our Marketer of the Month in order to celebrate the exceptional work being done by members of our Braze Bonfire community. Whether it's providing support for their fellow marketers or going above and beyond by sharing their innovative ideas and strategies, these individuals are making essential contributions to their companies, their users, and the customer engagement space as a whole.

This month, we’re recognizing Natalia Moncanut, Manager of Lifecycle CRM at DSW. Focused on delivering value, style, and a seamless shopping experience, DSW is a leading footwear and accessories retailer offering a wide assortment of styles and brands for women, men, and kids across its stores and digital channels. We spoke to Natalia about her experience and what she’s been up to. Let’s dive in.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m currently the Manager of Lifecycle CRM at DSW, where I work on CRM strategy across SMS, push, and email to build thoughtful, scalable customer engagement programs.

My career has largely been rooted in the retail industry, and I’ve always been drawn to fashion and consumer‑focused brands. Early on, I worked closely on campaign execution and performance, finding myself gravitating toward roles where I could dig into data, ask questions, and improve how we were connecting with customers. What started as hands‑on execution naturally grew into a deeper interest in strategy, particularly in understanding the full customer journey: How channels work together, and how the right message at the right moment can completely change the experience.

What is your favorite part of your job?

What I love most about my job is the mix of experimentation and creative problem‑solving. I get really excited about asking “what if,” challenging assumptions, and finding smarter ways to optimize how we engage with customers. There’s something really satisfying about taking an idea or insight and figuring out how to make it better in practice.

I also really love the testing mindset. Running experiments, seeing what works, learning from what doesn’t, and then applying those learnings over time is a big part of what keeps the work interesting. A lot of the best ideas come out of brainstorm sessions, whether that’s with internal teams or external partners. Being able to bounce ideas around, hear different perspectives, and build on each other’s thinking is often what unlocks the strongest ideas. That’s the part I enjoy most!

What has your experience working with the Braze team been like?

My experience working with the Braze team and community has been really great. The team we work with is thoughtful, innovative, and easy to collaborate with, which is great for sharing ideas and learning along the way. I’ve also gotten a lot of value from the Braze Learning courses. Additionally, the Bonfire community has been an awesome resource for asking questions, picking up new ideas, and seeing how other marketers are approaching their work.

Have you taken any Braze certification exams?

Yes! I have the Braze Practitioner Certification, Customer Engagement Skills Badge, and BrazeAI™ Skills Badge.

What campaign are you most proud of?

One initiative I’m most proud of recently is moving our push campaign builds fully in-house with Braze. This was a big process shift and a meaningful step forward for our team. Not only did it create efficiencies in how we plan and execute campaigns, but it also gave the team more ownership and confidence in using Braze directly. Bringing push in-house has really supported our goal of continuing to learn, grow, and level up how we use the platform.

As part of that work, we also launched our first dynamic push campaign using Liquid. This was an exciting milestone for us and opened the door to much more personalized, flexible messaging. It’s been great to see how these changes are helping us think more strategically about push overall, and we’re excited to keep expanding the program by leaning further into Braze capabilities, including cross‑channel optimization through Canvas.

Interested in collaborating to build the future of customer engagement? Join a collective of experts to forge connections, share ideas, and accelerate your career at the Braze Bonfire Community.