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Canvas
The Intelligence Platform for Global Marketing
OVERVIEW:
Architecting a Unified Workflow for a Multi-Brand Powerhouse
Empowering its North American portfolio, PepsiCo is known as a global leader in the food and beverage industry, managing an iconic portfolio that includes Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Quaker Oats, and Tropicana.
To maintain its competitive edge, PepsiCo partnered with IBM iX to solve a critical internal crisis: a fragmented marketing landscape. The result was Canvas, a first-of-its-kind virtual intelligence platform designed to centralize marketing workflows, power cross-brand collaboration, and drive data-backed decision-making for over $2B in annual media investments.
ROLES:
Lead UX/UI Design
Product Branding & Identity
Multi-Tenant Design System Lead
Data Visualization Strategy
TOOLS & RESOURCES:
INSIGHT:
The Friction of Fragmentation
Before Canvas, PepsiCo’s marketing teams were hindered by an "endless array of useless tools." Processes were siloed, data was inaccessible, and roles were often redundant, leading to deep-seated frustration and muddied efficiencies.
Marketers needed more than just another tool; they needed a singular "Source of Truth" that could translate raw data into real-time ROI insights across several device formats, allowing them to pivot from "planning" to "action" instantly.
STRATEGY:
The Themeable Shell
We approached the design of Canvas with a "Platform-First" mindset, ensuring the tool felt as premium and innovative as the brands it supported.
Semantic Branding:
We began by developing a product identity for Canvas that leveraged PepsiCo’s core hallmarks, ensuring the tool felt like a proprietary asset from day one.
The Multi-Brand Shell:
I engineered a robust, "themeable" dashboard shell. This allowed the UI to dynamically adapt its visual language (color, typography, iconography) to the specific brand being managed—whether it was the high-energy aesthetic of Mountain Dew or the heritage-driven look of Quaker Oats.
Dashboard Logic:
We moved away from dense spreadsheets to an intuitive, widget-based dashboard. This provided real-time access to media investments, marketing briefs, and campaign optimization metrics.
Responsive Portability:
Recognizing that marketing leaders are often on the move, we prioritized a mobile and tablet-first philosophy, ensuring ROI data was as accessible in a boardroom as it was in a home office.
OBJECTIVE:
Streamlining Global Productivity
The mission was to revitalize PepsiCo’s marketing agility by building a scalable, adaptable design system that increased speed-to-market, improved media planning accuracy, and fostered a consumer-centric approach across the entire North American portfolio.
PROCESS + WORKFLOW:
Agile Co-Creation
Canvas was built using a high-velocity, iterative squad model:
Interdisciplinary Squads:
I worked within a tightly integrated team of architects, engineers, and strategists. Our Agile workflow allowed us to prototype new features and validate them with brand leads in two-week sprints.
Design-to-Dev Synergy:
To manage the "themeable" nature of the shell, we utilized a robust set of design tokens. This ensured that when a developer pulled a component for the Doritos account, the red primary actions and specific grid logic were applied automatically, reducing front-end errors.
Iterative Feedback Loops:
We conducted "User Advocacy" sessions with PepsiCo marketers, using their real-world pain points to refine the "Brief-to-Execution" workflow within the app.
RESULTS:
Award-Winning Operational Excellence
The launch of Canvas transformed PepsiCo’s internal culture and delivered immediate financial impact:
Operational Savings:
The platform successfully produced $5 million in annual operational savings by eliminating redundant tools and streamlining internal processes.
Marketing ROI:
Within the first year of implementation, PepsiCo saw a 7% increase in marketing ROI, driven by the platform's ability to provide real-time data for better media investment decisions.
Speed-to-Market:
Canvas fueled a staggering 250% increase in spend-to-market efficiency, allowing brands to launch campaigns faster than ever before.
Industry Recognition:
For its innovative approach to marketing technology and intelligence, Canvas was honored with the 2020 SAMMY Technology Award for "Product of the Year."
Portfolio Adoption:
The platform reached 100% adoption across all PepsiCo North American brands, serving as the benchmark for how global enterprises can leverage design to solve "Big Data" confusion.
