Product vision for Brand Score Analytics

Context

In a competitive and constantly changing market, it’s important for a brand to stand out and be easily recognized. This can’t be achieved by marketing alone - it requires high-quality products that deliver real value and build strong and emotional connection with consumers. Unilever tracks brand performance in many ways across its portfolio. They built a proof of concept designed to give people from different departments and markets quick access to the information they need, so that metrics related to brands performance could translate into clear priorities and concrete actions without unnecessary complexity. To help brands stay ahead, the solution monitored key factors and made it easier to improve and stay competitive. It covered over 100 brands (Dove, Rexona, Ariel, Persil and more…) across business categories (Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Ice Cream and Nutrition) in multiple global markets. Although the platform offered a lot of analytical capabilities and was designed to deliver significant value, its adoption wasn’t strong enough within the organization. Many features were not fully used and the solution didn’t get the engagement needed to show its true potential.

The challenge & expectations

The initial solution aimed to provide a unified view on brand performance as a single source of truth. However, its setup and workflows often created confusion and friction rather than making collaboration easier. For many users the data felt too granular and complex, making it difficult to see the bigger picture or quickly identify priorities. Others struggled with navigation and interpretation - the numbers were there, but the meaning and next steps weren’t always clear. As a result, teams reverted to manual workarounds in Excel or PowerPoint, slowing collaboration and disconnecting insights from action. The real challenge wasn’t a lack of information, but a lack of clarity and simplicity. The product needed to evolve from a data-heavy dashboard into a solution that guides users toward the most important opportunities and helps them act with speed and confidence. The goal was to deliver a clear and innovative product vision that lets users analyze brand performance quickly, spot weak points and act on them.

The role of studio2wx

Studio2wx played a central role in transforming Unilever’s tool from an ambitious concept into a business-ready product. Our journey began with an extensive research and discovery phase, engaging stakeholders across different sectors and countries to understand pain points, problem statements and expectations. We complemented these insights with market benchmarking to learn how others approached similar tools and to gather best practices and inspiration. With this foundation, we explored how the new product should look and function, translating complex requirements into clear concepts and simple prototypes. Through in-depth workshops and validation sessions with senior leaders and analysts, we refined these ideas to ensure the product serves both decision-makers and data specialists.

Our recommendations

Based on user feedback, we were able to move into summarizing and defining strategic directions for the new product vision. For each consolidated input area, we proposed a set of initiatives with recommended features. To reflect the diversity of inputs, we mapped every initiative onto a prioritization matrix, illustrating which functionalities were most critical and offered the greatest potential impact on future product development. The matrix served a structured and transparent framework for organizing and prioritizing initiatives. As a result, we designed a modern product development roadmap supported by ready-to-implement designs, enabling the next phase of delivery.

Outcomes of the collaboration

• Successful product vision: we completed a clear and comprehensive product vision for the Brand Score Analytics solution
• Inspiration for product expansion: we encouraged the client to think beyond the usual scope and explore product expansion on a much larger scale, unlocking new possibilities for future development
• Key opportunities and roadmap prioritization: we identified 5 key opportunity areas and translated them into 21 concrete initiatives. To make these opportunities tangible, we used cards as a tool to present and explore concepts with the team. After review, validation and prioritization the opportunities were formed into a clear and actionable product roadmap
• Community activation: by involving participants throughout the discovery process, we built an active community around the product. This helped keep people engaged and excited about its ongoing development
• Quick wins catalog: as a side-product, we delivered a catalog of potential improvements and ran a rapid audit to highlight short-term actions for the client’s solution