I’m Lizzy and I like to make things.
I’m Lizzy and I like to make things.
Photographer: Jason Varney
honeygrow is fast casual startup specializing in stir-fry and salad. As the in-house design and brand manager, I was tasked with considering a guest’s experience from all touch points. From compelling marketing campaigns to photoshoots, or the in-store chalkboards to how the ordering kiosk pages were organized, I worked to carve out our own space in the crowded fast casual landscape.
An exciting part of my role was the partnership with the Tech Team and Lead Developer to strengthen the UI/UX of the mobile app, touchscreen ordering kiosks, and our website. Using user research and data, we were constantly looking for pain points and edge cases, as well as new features that could enhance an experience. Through the creation of mockups, wireframes, motion transitions, prototypes, and QA, we were able to improve our payment and customization pages, and implement an exciting secret menu feature.
Outside of our products, I managed key players on the Brand & Marketing team, pushing our vision, tone, and style to be competitive and relevant, but still true to our brand. I art directed seasonal photoshoots with our incredible photographers, coordinated regional chalkboard artists to update chalkboards, and identified local artists to design custom in-store murals and packaging illustrations.
A tech forward company, I worked closely with honeygrow’s in-house developer, VP of Tech, and CBO to continually iterate on our primary products. The menu featured seasonal and limited time dishes, resulting in a quarterly refresh of menu and ingredient photos, page flows, up-sell screens, and badges.
We were constantly looking to enhance a user’s experience, and relied on heat maps and the time spent on pages to identify pain points. I regularly created wireframes to showcase the visual and interaction design for easy collaboration between our team and stakeholders.
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Fast casual is a saturated and highly competitive market. With great Philadelphia recognition and awareness, we knew that gaining traction in emerging markets would pivotal for expansion. Loyalty and referrals were key components to our growth roadmap, and I was laser-focused on creating a unique and memorable experience from they moment a customer arrived to the moment they left.
A honeygrow restaurant features many cold, hard materials, like the cooking woks and stainless steel appliances. We knew we needed to pour color and texture into the restaurants, and identified key areas such as seasonal packaging and print assets, wall murals, evergreen signage, and chalkboards to add warmth. I used these elements to tell stories about who honeygrow is and what it stands for, and found ways to inject humor with Easter-egg-like nods to the company’s love of sci-fi.
honeygrow’s tagline “honest eating + growing local” was core to the brand. We took pride in offering high quality and sustainably sourced ingredients, and sought out local farmers and purveyors. But the food was only one part of the brand, and we wanted our customers to feel as good about what they were eating as the company they were supporting.
I was deliberate in developing email and social media campaigns that highlighted our social contributions, creating assets featuring our tech, and establishing partnerships with brands we could align with. The team worked hard to tell these stories, constantly finding new ways to narrate our ethos—but never at odds with our established brand. I art directed photoshoots to beautifully capture our wholesome ingredients, and encouraged our social media team to have fun and surprise our followers with lighter and engaging content.
