↓ Problem
↓ Insight
↓ Idea
↓ Implement
↓ Impact
[ 2 ]
01x User Researchers
02x Business Analysts
Hands-on Execution & Product Delivery
User-Centered Research & Insights
Team Management & Mentorship
Cross-Functional Processes
$8 million reduction in operational cost achieved
90% less time to onboard new team members
I led the design strategy for Frito-Lay’s multi-year transformation, shaping the product vision, influencing cross-functional priorities, and driving alignment between frontline needs and business goals.
Alongside these strategic efforts, I balanced hands-on execution with design leadership—owning experiences like Snack Score, Smart Swaps, and merchandising workflows, while mentoring teams on features spanning SalesHub, task verification, and small-format ordering.
The Problem: Outdated Tools & Lost Revenue
Frito-Lay’s salesforce of over 25,000 reps services hundreds of thousands of retail locations every week. But the tools supporting them and the storeowners they served were outdated and inconsistent. Legacy handhelds were being sunset, frontline teams had little real-time data, and retailers lacked the confidence to stock the right mix of products.
Stockouts, inefficient routes, and operational blind spots eroded both revenue and trust.
“Some days I’d be rushing between stores, calling dispatch just to figure out where I was supposed to be next. If a shelf was missing something, I’d find out way too late. We need something to help us stay ahead.”
Anonymous Frontline Sales Rep, Frito-Lay
challenges faced by frontline workers and storeowners alike.
Insight: Confidence & Stocking Gaps
My team and I conducted nearly 1,500 hours of user research and created roughly 40 personas to represent different stakeholders within the Frito-Lay ecosystem. This included frontline sales reps, store owners, merchandisers, and management.
Our research methods included field interviews, observational studies, and journey mapping exercises with sales reps and store owners to uncover pain points and workflow inefficiencies.
Ride-Alongs and Store Visits
To go beyond assumptions, we embedded ourselves in the field:
- Ride-alongs with sales reps surfaced pain points in delivery routes, stocking routines, and daily task flows.
- On-site interviews with storeowners exposed inventory stress, missed sales due to stockouts, and anxiety around ordering wrong products.
A pain point tracker documented recurring frustrations and inefficiencies, informing design priorities and creating a shared backlog for product, business, and engineering.
- Reps lacked real-time tools, which made it difficult to adapt on the fly, optimize delivery routes, or respond to in-store issues. They relied on memory or outdated paperwork.
- Retailers relied heavily on guesswork, unsure of which products to reorder or when. This led to frequent out-of-stock scenarios or excess inventory that didn’t sell.
- Training new employees was time-consuming, often taking 20+ hours due to the need to navigate multiple disconnected systems and undocumented processes.
- Communication gaps between field teams and central operations created delays, confusion, and redundant tasks. No shared view of performance or product needs.
- Legacy tech limited visibility, leaving frontline workers and storeowners flying blind on stocking decisions and inventory levels.
Frito-Lay needed a system that could bring clarity, coordination, and confidence to every step of the operation from the warehouse to the shelf.
Framing Strategy & Aligning Teams
To ensure our design work was grounded in both business outcomes and user needs, I partnered with program leadership, product owners, and engineering leads to establish a structured, repeatable approach to strategic alignment.
We began by conducting working sessions with business stakeholders to define clear objectives, translating them into SMART goals, measurable change metrics, and research directives.
From there, we engaged in root cause research, mapping the behavioral and operational barriers impacting things like ordering confidence, product mix accuracy, and time between orders.
Idea
Mapping Narratives to Navigate Change
To drive alignment across a complex, multi-track program, we created a series of strategic design artifacts that clarified both the long-term vision and near-term execution.
At the core was the Golden Thread: a future-state narrative that outlined how key products like SalesHub, Handheld Ordering for large-format stores, and the B2B Snacks to You platform could deliver cohesive, user-centered experiences.
Updated each program increment and reviewed during planning, the Golden Thread became a North Star for both design and product teams.
Illustrative Golden Thread – full artifact available under NDA.
Illustrative Slice of the Golden Thread – full artifact available under NDA.
These were finalized 1–2 sprints ahead of planned delivery, helping stakeholders visualize upcoming work and confidently approve solutions before development began.
Golden Nuggets prioritized user experience feature flows and wireframes derived from the larger narrative.
Accessible across the organization, it became a shared resource for teams to understand where we were headed and how our design efforts fit into the bigger picture.