The one with the fastest growing loyalty programs in history

Identify opportunities for scalable growth

Chipotle Rewards Program grew faster than anyone anticipated. To keep up with this growth, I joined the team to support the designers by refining the design system to accommodate the expansion and build a more organized framework for managing the increasing number of customer journeys. After going through several cycles of their internal process, I identified key areas that will contribute to the continued success of our already exceptional rewards program.

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Improving team communication

After reviewing their process, Chipotle’s Welcome Journey stood out as a key starting point for successfully onboarding customers into the program. This journey sends over 25 emails to introduce the brand, its products, and various offers to new customers. However, the user journey required restructuring due to a cluttered layout that lacked clear indicators of where each journey was heading. Also the alternate module versions of the journeys were mistakenly laid out to resemble new emails rather than replaceable modules base on user activity, which opened the door for human error. By positioning the modules beside the email with clear annotations of use cases, we could easily guide the developers on which module to swap at each step of the system.

BEFORE/AFTER EXAMPLE

Additionally, the ALT modules were frequently reused throughout the journey. To improve the process and streamline client updates, we made these modules local components specific to the project. This approach made it easier to manage updates within the current journey and allowed the modules to be added to the library if requested for use beyond this particular journey.

Finally, we focused on archiving previous journeys for better reference. Previously, the team would build off the same file, which created confusion when cross-referencing older versions. By archiving each journey, we ensured a clearer and more organized process moving forward.

Support future growth

As their messaging and offers grew, their design system needed to evolve with more components and better searchability. Identifying and prioritizing key reusable elements became crucial for improving searchability and managing siloed products, including renaming and resizing badges for better efficiency.

During the audit, it was noted that elements such as menu items and rewards badges weren't properly componentized in the library, which caused confusion when identifying products. For instance, zoomed-out photos of bowls made it difficult to identify the protein, which was especially important to avoid mistakenly showing meat to vegetarians. By turning these elements into components with clear naming and consistent sizes, designers were able to easily identify the product, including variants of available product angles.

Another key update involved incorporating rewards badges into the design system, as there were consistency issues around whether they had undergone the mandatory optimization process.

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Designing for a client that dislikes dark mode

After the strategy team flagged that most of our customers preferred dark mode, we evaluated the dark mode experience and added resources to the library, along with best practices documentation for navigating emails in dark mode.However, the main challenge arose when the client informed us they didn’t support their dark mode colours. We had to determine which elements could flip, like legal text and body copy, and which needed to be reusable components, such as buttons and headlines, that could support PNG exports to prevent issues in dark mode.