Skip to main content
Brendan Kelly UX Site Logo
Back to top

Scroll to Top

icon
icon

Visit more pages:

Go to the Work page for brendankelly:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/work

Go to the About page for brendankelly:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/about

Read Brendan’s Cisco Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/cisco-case-study

Read Brendan’s ExxonMobil Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/exxonmobil-case-study

Read Brendan’s Panasonic Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/panasonic-case-study

Read Brendan’s Verizon Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/verizon-case-study

Read Brendan’s RWJF Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/rwjf-case-study

Client

verizon logo

Turning three fragmented B2B ecosystems into one acquisition engine

$11.4B

business supported

14k

new leads within two weeks of launch

1,500+

legacy URLs consolidated

20+

modular templates created

What I contributed:

STRATEGY

Enterprise UX strategy & platform vision

Defined a unified acquisition framework consolidating 1,500+ legacy URLs into one cohesive digital experience.

GOVERNANCE

Cross-functional content governance

Built and led agile governance teams spanning UX, content, SEO, and engineering across business units.

ARCHITECTURE

A system built to scale

Created 20+ modular AEM templates to consolidate more than 1,500 legacy URLs.

IMPACT

Measurable acquisition growth

Helped drive 760% SEO growth, 64% greater Page 1 visibility, and 49% growth in quality visits and leads.

The Enterprise Challenge

Following corporate restructuring, Verizon Business Group consolidated its operational divisions into one unit. However, its web presence remained deeply fragmented across autonomous legacy domains, disparate component libraries, and disconnected tech stacks. Commercial customers attempting to evaluate solutions were forced to navigate a labyrinth of over 1,500 unconsolidated web pages.

Navigating ecosystem friction

The 'Verizon 2.0' organizational restructuring merged multiple business units under one umbrella, but the digital properties lagged behind. Each legacy domain carried its own navigation patterns, content taxonomies, and conversion funnels — creating a disjointed experience that undermined customer confidence.

Fragmented architecture was eroding business outcomes

1,500+ URLs across siloed domains meant customers couldn't find what they needed. Competing shopping carts, conflicting visual styles, and forced segmentation created friction at every touchpoint. Search engines couldn't consolidate authority, and organic traffic was stagnant.

The coordination problem had become a customer problem

Internal teams were operating in silos — enterprise, SMB, and public sector each managing separate experiences. High content duplication was cannibalizing organic search keywords, and the lack of a unified platform meant every improvement required navigating complex organizational dependencies.

Timeline

2020 Q1 - 2022 Q4

Stakeholders

Agency: MRM

Client: Verizon Business Group

VP Digital Experience, Director of Content Strategy, SEO Lead

Cross-functional Partners

Engineering, SEO, Content, Analytics, and Product teams across 3 business segments

Process

Auditing the system to reveal the scale of fragmentation

Proposal for research and testing

During an intensive executive workshop in New York, the client leadership demanded a forced self-segmentation gateway. I challenged this corporate assumption using user research and SEO data, reframing the navigation around user intent rather than organizational structure.

Why this approach

The executive team was anchored to the legacy segmentation model. Rather than presenting abstract UX principles, I built an interactive decision playground that let stakeholders compare the corporate-first approach against a needs-based navigation model — using their own analytics data to demonstrate the impact.

Building a modular template hierarchy and content governance framework

templates

Modular template approach and an example template guide document

The architecture phase required designing an AEM 6.4 modular template hierarchy that could serve enterprise, SMB, and public sector audiences from a single scalable framework. Each template level — from the global business gateway down to individual product specs — was purpose-built to consolidate authority while preserving segment-specific content needs.

Why this approach

A modular architecture was the only way to serve three distinct business segments from one platform without losing relevance. By building governance into the system itself — rather than relying on process documents — we ensured consistency scaled automatically as new pages and segments were added.

I designed and led the agile governance timeline for cross-segment execution

Building a timeline for the project

Unifying over 1,500 legacy pages across distinct business units required an organizational delivery framework that maintained design system consistency while executing at speed across 2-week production batches.

Why this approach

Traditional waterfall governance would have been too slow for 1,500+ pages. The dual-team model — strategic oversight (Unity Unit) plus rapid execution (Tiger Teams) — let us maintain design system integrity while shipping content at the pace the business demanded. This structure made consistency a byproduct of the process, not a tax on it.

I built the impact measurement framework and tracked multi-year compound growth

Defining the measurement framework

Measuring immediate launch success and 3-year compound business growth required a comprehensive analytics framework that tied UX decisions directly to commercial outcomes — SEO visibility, qualified traffic, and lead conversion.

Outcomes

The old Verizon Business sites made customers sort themselves into Verizon's internal segments before they could even look for a solution. I used search and behavior data to show how much that was getting in their way, then helped reorganize the experience around what they were actually trying to find. That shift made common journeys easier for customers and gave Verizon a faster way to build and improve them.

Solutions-finding success rate

63%

arrow

88%

Steps to a relevant product

6

arrow

3

Entry-path abandonment

34%

arrow

18%

Page production time

10 days

arrow

4 days

25-point higher task success helped more customers find an appropriate Verizon solution.

50% fewer steps reduced friction between arrival and product consideration.

A 16-point drop in abandonment kept more buyers moving past the site's front door.

60% faster page production helped three business groups launch updates with less repeated work.

The same platform later supported significant growth in organic traffic and qualified leads.

The retrospective chair

Retrospective

This was the longest project of my career and easily the largest. I spent almost three years helping rethink the digital front door for an $11.4 billion business, bringing three divisions and more than 1,500 legacy pages into one experience. It was a huge amount of work, and it was wildly successful.

​

One of the moments I remember most was being in New York with Verizon's leadership and having a real voice in the direction of the work. We had the data to show that customers did not want to sort themselves into Verizon's internal business categories. They just wanted to find the right solution. Being able to make that case, get people behind it, and then carry the idea all the way into the design was a big step for me.

​

This project taught me how different systems work is from designing individual pages. The hard part is not any one screen or template. It is creating enough structure that hundreds of pages, decisions, and people can move in the same direction without everything becoming rigid. I learned how to think across research, navigation, templates, governance, production, and measurement as parts of one connected problem.

Ready to talk?

Let’s get connected

Contact Brendan

View more work

See another project

Let’s connect

LinkedIn
mail icon

Visit more pages:

Go to the Work page for brendankelly:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/work

Go to the About page for brendankelly:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/about

Read Brendan’s Cisco Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/cisco-case-study

Read Brendan’s ExxonMobil Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/exxonmobil-case-study

Read Brendan’s Panasonic Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/panasonic-case-study

Read Brendan’s Verizon Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/verizon-case-study

Read Brendan’s RWJF Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/rwjf-case-study
Brendan Kelly UX Site Logo

Let’s Connect

Client

verizon logo

Turning three fragmented B2B ecosystems into one acquisition engine

$11.4B

business supported

20+

modular templates created

1,500+

legacy URLs consolidated

14k

new leads within two weeks of launch

What I contributed:

STRATEGY

Enterprise UX strategy & platform vision

Defined a unified acquisition framework consolidating 1,500+ legacy URLs into one cohesive digital experience.

GOVERNANCE

Cross-functional content governance

Built and led agile governance teams spanning UX, content, SEO, and engineering across business units.

ARCHITECTURE

A system built to scale

Created 20+ modular AEM templates to consolidate more than 1,500 legacy URLs.

IMPACT

Measurable acquisition growth

Helped drive 760% SEO growth, 64% greater Page 1 visibility, and 49% growth in quality visits and leads.

The Enterprise Challenge

Following corporate restructuring, Verizon Business Group consolidated its operational divisions into one unit. However, its web presence remained deeply fragmented across autonomous legacy domains, disparate component libraries, and disconnected tech stacks. Commercial customers attempting to evaluate solutions were forced to navigate a labyrinth of over 1,500 unconsolidated web pages.

Navigating ecosystem friction

The 'Verizon 2.0' organizational restructuring merged multiple business units under one umbrella, but the digital properties lagged behind. Each legacy domain carried its own navigation patterns, content taxonomies, and conversion funnels — creating a disjointed experience that undermined customer confidence.

Fragmented architecture was eroding business outcomes

1,500+ URLs across siloed domains meant customers couldn't find what they needed. Competing shopping carts, conflicting visual styles, and forced segmentation created friction at every touchpoint. Search engines couldn't consolidate authority, and organic traffic was stagnant.

The coordination problem had become a customer problem

Internal teams were operating in silos — enterprise, SMB, and public sector each managing separate experiences. High content duplication was cannibalizing organic search keywords, and the lack of a unified platform meant every improvement required navigating complex organizational dependencies.

Stakeholders

Agency: MRM

Client: Verizon Business Group

VP Digital Experience, Director of Content Strategy, SEO Lead

Cross-functional Partners

Engineering, SEO, Content, Analytics, and Product teams across 3 business segments

Timeline

2020 Q1 - 2022 Q4

Process

Proposal for research and testing

Auditing the system to reveal the scale of fragmentation

During an intensive executive workshop in New York, the client leadership demanded a forced self-segmentation gateway. I challenged this corporate assumption using user research and SEO data, reframing the navigation around user intent rather than organizational structure.

Why this approach

The executive team was anchored to the legacy segmentation model. Rather than presenting abstract UX principles, I built an interactive decision playground that let stakeholders compare the corporate-first approach against a needs-based navigation model — using their own analytics data to demonstrate the impact.

Building a modular template hierarchy and content governance framework

The architecture phase required designing an AEM 6.4 modular template hierarchy that could serve enterprise, SMB, and public sector audiences from a single scalable framework. Each template level — from the global business gateway down to individual product specs — was purpose-built to consolidate authority while preserving segment-specific content needs.

Why this approach

A modular architecture was the only way to serve three distinct business segments from one platform without losing relevance. By building governance into the system itself — rather than relying on process documents — we ensured consistency scaled automatically as new pages and segments were added.

templates

Modular template approach and an example template guide document

Building a timeline for the project

I designed and led the agile governance timeline for cross-segment execution

Unifying over 1,500 legacy pages across distinct business units required an organizational delivery framework that maintained design system consistency while executing at speed across 2-week production batches.

Why this approach

Traditional waterfall governance would have been too slow for 1,500+ pages. The dual-team model — strategic oversight (Unity Unit) plus rapid execution (Tiger Teams) — let us maintain design system integrity while shipping content at the pace the business demanded. This structure made consistency a byproduct of the process, not a tax on it.

I built the impact measurement framework and tracked multi-year compound growth

Measuring immediate launch success and 3-year compound business growth required a comprehensive analytics framework that tied UX decisions directly to commercial outcomes — SEO visibility, qualified traffic, and lead conversion.

Defining the measurement framework

Outcomes

The old Verizon Business sites made customers sort themselves into Verizon's internal segments before they could even look for a solution. I used search and behavior data to show how much that was getting in their way, then helped reorganize the experience around what they were actually trying to find. That shift made common journeys easier for customers and gave Verizon a faster way to build and improve them.

Solutions-finding success rate

63%

arrow

88%

Steps to a relevant product

6

arrow

3

Entry-path abandonment

34%

arrow

18%

Page production time

10 days

arrow

4 days

25-point higher task success helped more customers find an appropriate Verizon solution.

50% fewer steps reduced friction between arrival and product consideration.

A 16-point drop in abandonment kept more buyers moving past the site's front door.

60% faster page production helped three business groups launch updates with less repeated work.

The same platform later supported significant growth in organic traffic and qualified leads.

The retrospective chair

Retrospective

This was the longest project of my career and easily the largest. I spent almost three years helping rethink the digital front door for an $11.4 billion business, bringing three divisions and more than 1,500 legacy pages into one experience. It was a huge amount of work, and it was wildly successful.

​

One of the moments I remember most was being in New York with Verizon's leadership and having a real voice in the direction of the work. We had the data to show that customers did not want to sort themselves into Verizon's internal business categories. They just wanted to find the right solution. Being able to make that case, get people behind it, and then carry the idea all the way into the design was a big step for me.

​

This project taught me how different systems work is from designing individual pages. The hard part is not any one screen or template. It is creating enough structure that hundreds of pages, decisions, and people can move in the same direction without everything becoming rigid. I learned how to think across research, navigation, templates, governance, production, and measurement as parts of one connected problem.

Ready to talk?

Let’s get connected

Contact Brendan

View more work

See another project

Let’s connect

LinkedIn
mail icon

Visit more pages:

Go to the Work page for brendankelly:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/work

Go to the About page for brendankelly:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/about

Read Brendan’s Cisco Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/cisco-case-study

Read Brendan’s ExxonMobil Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/exxonmobil-case-study

Read Brendan’s Panasonic Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/panasonic-case-study

Read Brendan’s Verizon Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/verizon-case-study

Read Brendan’s RWJF Case Study:

http://www.brendankellyux.com/rwjf-case-study
Brendan Kelly UX Site Logo

Let’s Connect

Client

verizon logo

Turning three fragmented B2B ecosystems into one acquisition engine

$11.4B

business supported

20+

modular templates created

1,500+

legacy URLs consolidated

14k

new leads within two weeks of launch

What I contributed:

STRATEGY

Enterprise UX strategy & platform vision

Defined a unified acquisition framework consolidating 1,500+ legacy URLs into one cohesive digital experience.

GOVERNANCE

Cross-functional content governance

Built and led agile governance teams spanning UX, content, SEO, and engineering across business units.

ARCHITECTURE

A system built to scale

Created 20+ modular AEM templates to consolidate more than 1,500 legacy URLs.

IMPACT

Measurable acquisition growth

Helped drive 760% SEO growth, 64% greater Page 1 visibility, and 49% growth in quality visits and leads.

The Enterprise Challenge

Following corporate restructuring, Verizon Business Group consolidated its operational divisions into one unit. However, its web presence remained deeply fragmented across autonomous legacy domains, disparate component libraries, and disconnected tech stacks. Commercial customers attempting to evaluate solutions were forced to navigate a labyrinth of over 1,500 unconsolidated web pages.

Navigating ecosystem friction

The 'Verizon 2.0' organizational restructuring merged multiple business units under one umbrella, but the digital properties lagged behind. Each legacy domain carried its own navigation patterns, content taxonomies, and conversion funnels — creating a disjointed experience that undermined customer confidence.

Fragmented architecture was eroding business outcomes

1,500+ URLs across siloed domains meant customers couldn't find what they needed. Competing shopping carts, conflicting visual styles, and forced segmentation created friction at every touchpoint. Search engines couldn't consolidate authority, and organic traffic was stagnant.

The coordination problem had become a customer problem

Internal teams were operating in silos — enterprise, SMB, and public sector each managing separate experiences. High content duplication was cannibalizing organic search keywords, and the lack of a unified platform meant every improvement required navigating complex organizational dependencies.

Stakeholders

Agency: MRM

Client: Verizon Business Group

VP Digital Experience, Director of Content Strategy, SEO Lead

Cross-functional Partners

Engineering, SEO, Content, Analytics, and Product teams across 3 business segments

Timeline

2020 Q1 - 2022 Q4

Process

Proposal for research and testing

Auditing the system to reveal the scale of fragmentation

During an intensive executive workshop in New York, the client leadership demanded a forced self-segmentation gateway. I challenged this corporate assumption using user research and SEO data, reframing the navigation around user intent rather than organizational structure.

Why this approach

The executive team was anchored to the legacy segmentation model. Rather than presenting abstract UX principles, I built an interactive decision playground that let stakeholders compare the corporate-first approach against a needs-based navigation model — using their own analytics data to demonstrate the impact.

Building a modular template hierarchy and content governance framework

The architecture phase required designing an AEM 6.4 modular template hierarchy that could serve enterprise, SMB, and public sector audiences from a single scalable framework. Each template level — from the global business gateway down to individual product specs — was purpose-built to consolidate authority while preserving segment-specific content needs.

Why this approach

A modular architecture was the only way to serve three distinct business segments from one platform without losing relevance. By building governance into the system itself — rather than relying on process documents — we ensured consistency scaled automatically as new pages and segments were added.

templates

Modular template approach and an example template guide document

Building a timeline for the project

I designed and led the agile governance timeline for cross-segment execution

Unifying over 1,500 legacy pages across distinct business units required an organizational delivery framework that maintained design system consistency while executing at speed across 2-week production batches.

Why this approach

Traditional waterfall governance would have been too slow for 1,500+ pages. The dual-team model — strategic oversight (Unity Unit) plus rapid execution (Tiger Teams) — let us maintain design system integrity while shipping content at the pace the business demanded. This structure made consistency a byproduct of the process, not a tax on it.

I built the impact measurement framework and tracked multi-year compound growth

Measuring immediate launch success and 3-year compound business growth required a comprehensive analytics framework that tied UX decisions directly to commercial outcomes — SEO visibility, qualified traffic, and lead conversion.

Defining the measurement framework

Outcomes

The old Verizon Business sites made customers sort themselves into Verizon's internal segments before they could even look for a solution. I used search and behavior data to show how much that was getting in their way, then helped reorganize the experience around what they were actually trying to find. That shift made common journeys easier for customers and gave Verizon a faster way to build and improve them.

Solutions-finding success rate

63%

arrow

88%

Steps to a relevant product

6

arrow

3

Entry-path abandonment

34%

arrow

18%

Page production time

10 days

arrow

4 days

25-point higher task success helped more customers find an appropriate Verizon solution.

50% fewer steps reduced friction between arrival and product consideration.

A 16-point drop in abandonment kept more buyers moving past the site's front door.

60% faster page production helped three business groups launch updates with less repeated work.

The same platform later supported significant growth in organic traffic and qualified leads.

The retrospective chair

Retrospective

This was the longest project of my career and easily the largest. I spent almost three years helping rethink the digital front door for an $11.4 billion business, bringing three divisions and more than 1,500 legacy pages into one experience. It was a huge amount of work, and it was wildly successful.

​

One of the moments I remember most was being in New York with Verizon's leadership and having a real voice in the direction of the work. We had the data to show that customers did not want to sort themselves into Verizon's internal business categories. They just wanted to find the right solution. Being able to make that case, get people behind it, and then carry the idea all the way into the design was a big step for me.

​

This project taught me how different systems work is from designing individual pages. The hard part is not any one screen or template. It is creating enough structure that hundreds of pages, decisions, and people can move in the same direction without everything becoming rigid. I learned how to think across research, navigation, templates, governance, production, and measurement as parts of one connected problem.

Ready to talk?

Let’s get connected

Contact Brendan

View more work

See another project