Platform Modernization: Reimagining 30 Years of Media Planning

My Role: Design Lead | Timeline: 4 weeks | Team: 2 designers, 2 technologists, 1 SME

Leading discovery for one of Canada's largest media companies, I directed strategy for a competitive pitch to modernize their 30-year-old media planning tool into an AI-powered platform. By leading intensive workshopping sessions that uncovered complex promotion rules across multiple regions, languages, and workflows—from sales to execution—I created a strategic vision leveraging AI to streamline planning while respecting industry sophistication. The result: we won the engagement, and the MVP and discovery work now serve as the process blueprint guiding full platform development.

  • Value Delivered
  • Won competitive pitch securing development engagement
  • Created process blueprint guiding platform development
  • Unified workflows across sales, strategy, and execution
  • AI-powered optimization strategy for complex promotion rules

My Approach: Discovery as Strategic Design


Rather than present assumptions, I built credibility through understanding.
Workshop facilitation to reveal hidden complexity: I led multi-day sessions across regions, asking "walk me through your worst planning nightmare" instead of "what features do you need." This uncovered edge cases and dependencies competitors missed—promotion blackout dates, regulatory constraints, competitive separation rules.

Industry immersion as differentiation: I positioned myself as a student of media planning, demonstrating I understood why current workarounds existed before proposing alternatives. This honesty built trust where competitors projected false expertise.

AI framed as augmentation: I positioned AI as enhancing planner expertise, not replacing it. The system would suggest optimal schedules based on historical data, but planners retained final control. This approach addressed adoption concerns while solving real problems.

Systems thinking for connected value: I identified where integration unlocked new capabilities—real-time availability for sales, instant scenario modeling for strategists, contextual plans for execution.

The pitch won because discovery proved we understood their complexity. Those sessions now serve as the blueprint guiding development.

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