PANERA DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Role: Director, UX
Duration: 3 years (2021-2024)
Type: Enterprise digital transformation and team building

Challenge

When I joined Panera Bread in 2021, the company needed a dedicated UX practice to elevate their digital experiences. Despite being a robust and high-functioning organization, Panera lacked the UX infrastructure, team, and processes necessary to meet evolving customer expectations and support an upcoming digital rebrand.

Approach

I was charged with building a UX team and practice from the ground up. Over three years, I set and accomplished an ambitious roadmap:

Team Building & Development:

  • Scaled the team from 2 to 10 designers

  • Trained junior UX designers to level up Panera's digital experiences

  • Created a team culture of trust and feedback

  • Established org structure and career paths for designers

  • Ensured team efficiency through clear roles and management structure at all levels

Practice & Process:

  • Defined and executed a full-cycle, design-thinking-based UX practice

  • Built and implemented a UX research practice throughout the organization

  • Evangelized for UX while revamping relationships and processes with product, brand, analytics, customer insights, and tech teams

Digital Rebrand & Design System: As part of Panera's digital rebrand, I led the development and implementation of a comprehensive design system within Agile SAFe. I partnered closely with product and tech leads to seamlessly integrate design system development into quarterly sprint planning, ensuring alignment across teams and consistent execution.

Impact

  • Award Recognition: The team won UserTesting's Digital Impact Award, recognizing excellence in customer experience and UX innovation

  • Business Growth: Contributed to multimillion dollar gains in revenue

  • Team Excellence: Built an award-winning, well-rounded UX team capable of rejuvenating the Panera digital experience

  • Organizational Transformation: Established UX as a critical function within the organization, delivered a scalable design system, and created the foundation for continued digital innovation