Case Study: B2B CMS for Smart Recipes

Overview

As the embedded Product Designer for our Smart Recipe CMS, I led the design of a CMS that empowers partners to create, manage, localise, and publish smart recipes compatible with their connected appliances. Our CMS allows global appliance manufacturers to scale their recipe catalogs, support international growth, and deliver engaging smart cooking experiences to their customers through our consumer-facing mobile app.

CMS for Smart Recipe

The Challenge

When I joined the CMS team, they had just shipped a minimum viable product for the new CMS.

However, all partners were still relying on our legacy Creator CMS—a tool they had grown familiar with, but which was limiting their efficiency and scalability. The challenge was twofold:

  1. Partner Transition: Migrate partners to the new CMS without disrupting their workflow.

  2. Scalable, Intuitive Tools: Build powerful yet user-friendly tooling that supports complex content needs, localization, and smart device compatibility.

The Legacy CMS Interface

CMS MVP

My Role

As the sole Product Designer embedded on the CMS team from its earliest stages, I played a central role in evolving the product from an early MVP into the robust, partner-focused platform it is today.

I was responsible for designing every core feature—from foundational systems like search, roles, and publishing flows to advanced tooling for localisation, dual unit support, and mobile app integration. Working closely with engineering, product, and our partners, I continuously shaped the user experience to balance powerful functionality with intuitive usability.

This end-to-end ownership allowed me to build a deep understanding of both our technical constraints and user needs, enabling me to drive design decisions that delivered long-term value.

Partner-Centric Design Approach

Step by Step Video Guides

Partners had deeply ingrained workflows in the legacy CMS. Many of these were inefficient but had become habitual. Rather than force a top-down shift, I:

  • Ran discovery interviews to understand partner workflows, frustrations, and goals.

  • Conducted user testing during early prototyping stages.

  • Advocated for incremental, collaborative change, ensuring partners felt ownership in the transition.

  • Facilitated a smooth migration to the new CMS, improving adoption and satisfaction.

  • Created comprehensive partner documentation and step-by-step Loom videos for each feature release, helping users quickly understand and adopt new tools with confidence.

Key Contributions

Transition from Legacy to Modern CMS

  • Designed and supported the migration experience.

Advanced Search, Filtering & Sorting

  • Delivered intuitive tools to help partners manage large recipe catalogs efficiently.

  • Created a faceted filtering system tailored to recipe metadata and smart appliance compatibility.

Recipe Translation & Locale Management

  • Translation features and built a side-by-side translation view, allowing editors to compare original and translated versions.

  • Integrated automatic unit conversion (Dual Unit Feature) for Metric ↔ US Customary, removing manual effort and reducing errors.

Home Feed Curation Tool

  • Designed a tool for partners to curate seasonal or interest-based collections for the consumer-facing app.

  • Enabled easy duplication of collections across locales, streamlining global content rollout.

Roles, Permissions, and Publishing Flows

  • Delivered a flexible permission model for complex partner organizations.

  • Designed clear content status indicators and publishing workflows to reduce errors and increase transparency.

Error Management System

  • Designed a framework for surfacing and resolving content issues.

  • Helped partners maintain high content quality and troubleshoot integration problems.

Core Reference Data Viewer

  • Created a multilingual data viewer to help partners understand and maintain consistent reference data across locales.

Outcomes

  • Successfully migrated multiple partners from the legacy CMS to the new platform.

  • Significantly reduced recipe setup time and localization effort.

  • Improved partner satisfaction and engagement, with increased usage of advanced CMS features.

  • Contributed to faster international market entry for our partners.

Smart Recipe CMS

Personal Growth

This project has been one of the most fulfilling of my career. Not only did I grow as a product designer, but I also had the opportunity to expand into product strategy and stakeholder management. It taught me the value of deeply understanding user context, balancing technical feasibility, and designing with scalability in mind.