CLIENT

McDonald’s

ROLE

Design & Delivery Lead

TEAM

• Account Lead
• Design Director
• 2x UX Designers
• 2 Product Manager
• 4x Business Analysts
• Technical Lead
• 20+ Engineers split between onshore/off-shore

DURATION

28 Weeks

BUDGET

3.2M

PROJECT OVERVIEW

McDonald’s was in the process of a large global standardization initiative focusing on the vast amount of data collected from global McDonald’s locations and the Franchise Business Partners operating them. This initiative was intended to remove inconsistent data collections at the local level and align locations with operational metrics defined at the corporate level.

McDonald’s Data and Analytics team was tasked with building a next-generation reporting and insights platform to improve how McDonald’s Field Operations teams drive restaurant performance and franchisee growth. Built for Field Operations Consultants (FOCs) and Franchise Business Partners (FBPs), this new tool would address long-standing challenges caused by fragmented data, inconsistent KPIs, and tedious, manual reporting processes.

CHALLENGE

The platform needed to improve antiquated processes that currently relied on a patchwork of disconnected tools and inconsistent KPI tracking. Field Operation teams often spent hours compiling reports and reconciling data metrics in preparation of site visits instead of proactively engaging with operators and elevating performance improvements. The new solution needed to replace a slow, reactive model with a centralized, trusted source of truth that delivers real-time, role-based insights.

Additional goals included:

• Streamline processes and tool fragmentation for tracking operational metrics
• Reduce manual data reporting and improve synthesis and insights across operators through enhanced data aggregation, automation and AI
• Improving visit prep and research through refined control over data parameters,  insight exploration, and personalized dashboards
• Support global alignment across markets while enforcing security and data governance
• Sunset tools and processes that no longer aligned with the global standardization initiative

APPROACH

After the Data and Analytics team established the standard metrics across the global markets, platform requirements were defined through comprehensive stakeholder workshops and extensive user interviews. The focus then shifted to replacing fragmented reporting with a unified, insight-driven experience designed around real field workflows. Rather than recreating legacy reports and inefficient processes, the platform was designed to surface personalized data metrics and insights based on role, reporting schedules and targeted franchise visits. Additional value was created by leveraging AI to streamline the location visit preparation, highlight performance trends, summarize and grade location reviews, and identify key areas requiring attention.

Key efforts included:

• Conducted 40+ hours of in-depth discovery and user interviews across global markets to establish key platform requirements and address existing pain-points
• Defined the primary user personas that help establish target functionality and product scalability
• Designed a single, cohesive visual system and component library to be used across all tools
• Integrated AI agents and NLQ functionality into the platform to help accelerate research and identify performance markers across market locations
• Implement dynamic dashboards to quickly highlight metrics across user territories
• Provide the ability to customize research outputs based on user queries and communication targets