Overview
Pandora
Pandora already offered engraving, but customers often discovered it too late in the shopping journey. Even when they did, there was little guidance to help them decide what to engrave.
Over the summer, I explored how Pandora could introduce engraving earlier and make personalization easier to imagine.
Challenge
Engraving entered the journey too late.
Pandora already offered in-store engraving, but the experience was often discovered late in the customer journey. Customers had limited inspiration for what to engrave, making personalization feel more like an add-on than a meaningful reason to purchase.
Solution
A journey built around discovery, inspiration, and storytelling.
I translated insights from 14+ competitor audits and 5+ Pandora store visits into a new engraving journey that met customers well before they reached the engraving machine.
- Discover Build awareness through mall media, social, CRM, and clearer in-store messaging.
- Inspire Use finished examples, customer stories, occasions, and culturally relevant ideas to give customers a reason to personalize.
- Create Make personalization easier through associate prompts, digital inspiration tools, seasonal experiences, and elevated gifting moments.
Impact
- Built a working AI-assisted engraving prototype in ~2 weeks, turning a few customer inputs into personalized recommendations and showing how AI could scale guided discovery.
- Designed a personalization strategy across 5+ touchpoints, connecting merchandising, in-mall media, CRM and social, experiential, and associate-led discovery into one journey.
- Presented the prototype and roadmap to VP-level leadership, with 3+ recommendations advancing toward development.
Reflection
What I learned.
Store visits and conversations with associates reinforced the value of observing the experience before designing for it. The biggest opportunity wasn't creating a new service. Engraving already existed. It was changing when and how customers discovered its value.
