Pet Nutrition Cascade

Case Study: Cascade Platform for Mars Petcare

Client: Mars Petcare (via Fractal Analytics) Project: Cascade – Brand, Ecom, and Innovation Performance Tool Role: Lead Product Designer (UX/UI) Duration: Dec 2021 – Dec 2023 Team: Researchers, Designers (Sooraj Nair, Syed Rameez, Nikita, Rutuparna), Engineers, PMs Tools Used: Figma, Miro, Excel, Power BI, Mural

1. Overview

Cascade is a multi-phase enterprise intelligence tool designed to help brand, e-commerce, innovation, media, and finance teams at Mars Petcare monitor performance KPIs, detect anomalies, and take strategic action across the value chain. The platform evolved into a single source of truth across 5 use cases, scaling to serve global stakeholders.

2. Problem Statement

Mars teams were juggling siloed reports across formats and tools, with low visibility into performance drains and drivers. Decision-making was reactive, disconnected, and lacked actionable synthesis. Users wanted real-time access to performance, innovation tracking, eCommerce signals, forecast models, and media benchmarks.

3. My Role

• Led end-to-end design for all 5 use cases from discovery to delivery

• Collaborated with research and analytics for discovery synthesis

• Owned wireframes, hi-fi prototypes, and design systems

• Worked closely with engineers to deliver scalable UI components

• Built scalable IA across evolving business modules

4. Project Timeline

• Phase 1 (Dec '21 – Mar '22): Defined blueprint, IA; designed Performance, Competition, Distribution dashboards

• Phase 2 (Apr '22 – Jun '22): Designed Innovation Scorecard & integrated improvements

• Phase 3 (Jul '22 – Jan '23): Designed Ecom availability/visibility modules

• Phase 4 (Oct '23 – Dec '23): Forecast tool with scenario modelling

• Phase 5 (Oct '23 – Dec '23): Media & SOV planning and spend comparison

5. Discovery & Research

For each phase:

• Conducted stakeholder interviews across departments

• Audited 50+ legacy reports

• Defined personas: Brand Managers, Analysts, Ecom Insights, Finance, Media

• Consolidated wishlists, pain points, and user journeys

• Used these to shape solution blueprints and screen-level goals

Key Themes Across Use Cases:

• Unified access and modular navigation

• Prescriptive, real-time nudges

• Personalization of reports and dashboards

• Alerts and drill-downs across performance drivers

6. Solution & Design Strategy

IA Foundation:

• Core Modules: Alerts, Trackboards, Profiles, Data Sources

• Nested navigation with tailored workflows per use case

UX Strategy:

• Self-serve board creation with widget modularity

• Nudges and deep-dives as core interaction flows

• Page-level filters and personalization retained on revisit

Design System:

• Built consistent visual hierarchy across all use cases

• Created shared component libraries for reuse

7. Use Cases

1. Performance & Competition:

• KPI comparison vs. competition, nudges for deviation

• Trend views, retailer splits, manufacturer vs. brand slices

2. Innovation Tracker:

• Launch performance: GSV, velocity, distribution, media spends

• Actual vs. forecast, driver-drainer analysis

• Reviews and volume contribution comparisons

3. Ecom Tool:

• In-stock rates, traffic by keyword/category

• Selectability indicators: ratings, reviews, search rankings

• Strategy mapping by visibility quadrant

4. Forecast Tool:

• YOY/5Y forecast by category, tier, channel

• Dynamic visualizations with drill-downs

• Headwinds & tailwinds benchmarking

5. Media & SOV:

• Platform/channel spend vs. share of voice

• Trendlines for brand vs. competition

• Filterable views for A\&CP, couponing, organic/promo media

8. UI Design Highlights

• Multi-tab dashboards with persistent filters

• Scroll-light grids with collapsible sections

• Responsive layouts with data-dense components

• Visual summaries integrated with text annotations

9. Client Feedback

“Fractal brings best-in-class data visual recommendations... the transparency and partnership is remarkable.” – Amanda Greene, Sr. Insights Manager, Mars Pet Nutrition

NPS: Consistently high across 3-year lifecycle (exact scores under NDA)

10. Impact

• Cascade became the unified performance tool for 5+ Mars teams

• Design patterns adopted for future analytics platforms

• Enabled faster report delivery and reduced reliance on Excel workflows

11. Learnings

• Strategic scoping in discovery prevents downstream rework

• Visual nudges outperform static KPIs for actionability

• Component reusability is key to managing long-term design ops

• Cohesive IA allows teams to scale insights, not just data

12. Visual Gallery (placeholders only)

• Cascade Home: Modules Overview

• Performance Comparison Grid

• Innovation Tracker: Launch Trend Card

• Ecom Keyword Performance Heatmap

• Forecast Category Split View

• Media Spend vs SOV Trendline