SYSTEM // ACTIVE v3.2 / 2026 SF · LV · REMOTE

CASE 01 // LIFETIME LOYALTY ECOSYSTEM

Case 01 · Ecosystem · 2023 → present

20+ premium membership programs, running on one design and operations system.

Led design and architecture across brand, member experience, member-facing products, and the operational backbone that connects them. Built and scaled at AnyRoad, now powering 20+ premium membership programs.

Programs scaled

20+

Active premium membership programs across spirits, hospitality, and lifestyle.

Renewal rate

>90%

Annual member renewal across active programs.

Time to scale

<2y

From single pilot to 20-program operational ecosystem.

Revenue / member

$1-3K

Average annual revenue per member across the ecosystem.

Context

The opportunity, in one sentence: connection beats discount.

Most loyalty programs are transactional, cookie-cutter, and easily forgotten. Stamps. Points. Tier badges that nobody cares about. Meanwhile, the brands that earn the deepest customer relationships are the ones that treat membership like a story their fans want to be part of, with tactile artifacts, real access, and a sense of belonging that punches above the price.

The opportunity at AnyRoad was to build the design and operational layer that makes premium, story-driven membership repeatable. Not a templated SaaS feature, but a system flexible enough to launch a national heritage spirits program one quarter and a boutique craft society the next, without losing the soul of either.

"Loyalty isn't bought, it's felt. The system has to make that feeling repeatable."

My role

What I owned, what the team owned, what AnyRoad delivered.

— I owned

Strategy, system, and direction.

Design strategy across product, brand, and experience
System architecture and modular design framework
Brand experience direction for each new launch
Multidisciplinary team leadership
Hands-on production and code when needed
Stakeholder alignment with AnyRoad and clients

— Team owned

Disciplinary depth.

Creative Director on brand identity
Senior UX Designer on flows and member dashboards
Principal Brand Designer on visual systems
Senior Design Researcher on insight and validation
Webflow Developer on production
Copywriter / Digital Strategist on voice
Marketing / Acquisition Manager on launch

— AnyRoad delivered

Platform and partnership.

The underlying experiential platform
Business strategy and program economics
Direct client relationships
Operations, fulfillment, and member support
Data infrastructure and reporting

The strategic shift

From one-off launches to one repeatable system.

Year one was custom builds, every program rebuilt from scratch. By year two, we'd separated the brand layer from the operational backbone. The result was faster launches, premium individuality preserved, and an actual design system instead of a library of one-offs.

— BEFORE / 2023

Custom builds. Every time.

Each program rebuilt the wheel: bespoke flows, ad-hoc components, isolated brand expressions, redundant ops. Slow, expensive, inconsistent.

Custom flow

One-off ID

Ad-hoc ops

Bespoke email

New stack

Manual fulfill

— AFTER / 2024 →

One backbone. Many brands.

A modular system underneath, with the brand layer customized on top. Repeatable launches. Consistent member experience. Operational leverage.

Brand layer (per program)

Identity · Voice · Storytelling · Visual System

Shared system layer

Member Journeys · UX Patterns

Enrollment · Stripe · Memberstack

PassKit IDs · Klaviyo · Airtable

Fulfillment · Concierge · Ops

The single most important design decision was deciding what stays brand-specific (identity, voice, the tactile welcome kit) and what becomes system-shared (enrollment, dashboards, member IDs, ops). That separation is the entire reason 20+ programs run on a coherent backbone instead of 20+ separate codebases and design files.

Growth · 2023 → 2026

From pilot to ecosystem in three years.

2023Pilot

First custom program launched

20246 brands

System emerges. Modular framework in place

202510 brands

Operational maturity. Pace accelerates

202620+ brands

Ecosystem footprint. Cross-category proof

The ecosystem

Eight components, one system.

Every program runs on these eight surfaces. The brand layer sits on top; the operational backbone runs underneath. Each component is designed to be reusable, themeable, and operationally lean.

— Lifetime Loyalty Platform The shared backbone

— 01

Brand Identity

Naming, brand mark, positioning, visual identity, voice, and copy for each membership.

— 02

Digital Enrollment

Custom Webflow + Memberstack + Prefinery logic for forms, plans, invites, and automation.

— 03

Gifting & Fulfillment

Design and vendor ops for premium welcome kits, quarterly bottle shipments, and ongoing benefits.

— 04

Member Dashboard

CMS-powered member home: RSVP systems, referral tools, benefit tracking, and concierge entry points.

— 05

Referral System

Custom code to generate, store, and validate referral codes, tracked in real time across programs.

— 06

Membership IDs

Brand-themed Apple Wallet and Android passes. Member name, ID, and plan visible at a glance. Auto-issued on enrollment, auto-revoked on cancellation.

— 07

Event Experience

On-site activations, private tastings, custom RSVP flows, and surprise-and-delight moments.

— 08

Operations & Support

Behind-the-scenes systems for member comms, shipping ops, retention workflows, and concierge service.

The system in practice

Three programs. Three tiers. One operational backbone.

Out of 20+ programs, these three show how the same system supports programs at different tiers (different price points, different cadences, different member audiences) without rebuilding the platform underneath. Same scope shipped on each; the brand layer carries the tier-appropriate execution.

— 01 / Heritage tier

Connoisseur Circle, the heritage-tier program.

Heaven Hill is one of the largest independent family-owned distilleries in the country. Connoisseur Circle needed to feel as serious as the brand, with the operational depth to match the scale of national distribution.

The system shipped the full stack: brand identity, member application and onboarding, welcome experience, member portal, allocated quarterly releases, digital ID, event access, and the ops backbone behind it. Same scope as the other two programs; the brand layer carried the heritage execution.

Members

████

Annual fee

$2,000

Allocations

4+ / yr

Notable

Oversubscribed at launch

Heaven Hill · Connoisseur Circle

Member home

Welcome kit

Allocation

— 02 / Craft tier

Key Collective, the craft-tier program.

Castle & Key is one of Kentucky's most beautiful distilleries: a restored historic estate with a craft bourbon program and a clientele that expects hand-finished detail. The membership had to feel boutique, not platform.

Same backbone as Heaven Hill, completely different soul. The brand layer carried the craft execution: wax-sealed welcome letters, embossed coasters, custom packaging, and a member experience that reads as bespoke. The system handled enrollment, dashboard, IDs, and ops; the brand layer handled the feel.

Members

████

Annual fee

$999–$1,499

Allocations

9+ / yr

Notable

Launched into a lapsed audience

Castle & Key · Key Collective

Member home

Wax-sealed letter

Member portal

— 03 / Lifestyle tier

The Gracious Plenty Society, the lifestyle-tier program.

MADE SOUTH is the art of being Southern, a lifestyle brand celebrating the craftsmanship, hospitality, and culture of the American South. The Gracious Plenty Society is their premium membership: exclusive, roving quarterly events connecting discerning Southerners with Southern makers, artists, and creators.

The work started with naming. A brief that called for something distinctively Southern, epicurean, and discerning. "A gracious plenty" emerged as a phrase Southerners instantly recognize. From there: logo and brand identity, a physical invitation program, and a digital customer journey. A different category, a different audience, a different cadence. And the proof that the system isn't a spirits playbook.

Members

████

Annual fee

████

Cadence

Quarterly events

Notable

First lifestyle-tier program

The Gracious Plenty Society · Brand

Member home

Physical invitation

Email journey

System spotlights

Three deep dives into the most distinctive surfaces.

The story above is the why and the what. These are the how. Each spotlight lives on its own page and goes deeper into a single surface where the system has to do real, constrained design work.

Spotlight 01 · Identity & Redemption Live

Society

One identity-and-redemption system. A growing ecosystem of brands.

A digital wallet pass plus a staff-side scanner that turns one QR into check-ins, pour redemptions, and bottle pickups. Auto-issued on enrollment, auto-revoked on cancellation. Replaced manual paper pickup lists across every brand and gave them their first real reporting on member behavior.

PassKit · Webflow · Apps Script · Airtable · Zapier Read →

Spotlight 02 · Acquisition Live

Enrollment, waitlists, and tier-based plan logic.

The application flow that turns interest into paid membership: invite-only mechanics, referral codes, waitlists, and Stripe + Memberstack tier logic working as one acquisition system.

Webflow · Memberstack · Stripe · Prefinery · Klaviyo · Airtable Read →

Spotlight 03 · Habitation Coming soon

The member home, where the program lives.

The CMS-powered member dashboard pattern: RSVPs, referral tools, benefit tracking, allocated releases, and concierge entry points, designed once and themed across 20+ brands.

CMS · Dashboard · Multi-brand · Concierge Soon

— A moment that defined the work

"When the first program launched, the concierge inbox filled with thank-you notes. Not for the bourbon. For being invited to join the journey."

Outcomes

What the ecosystem actually delivered.

Programs scaled

20+

Premium membership programs running on the shared system.

Renewal rate

>90%

Annual member renewal across active programs.

Time to launch

~50%

Reduction in launch cycle versus pre-system custom builds.

Revenue / member

$1-3K

Average annual revenue per member across the ecosystem.

Created an internal design playbook and system that turned future launches into repeatable operations.
Built trusted design partnerships with brand managers, heads of marketing, and program operators.
Streamlined the technical stack and reduced operational overhead across programs.
Membership programs became a critical driver of AnyRoad account growth, winning and retaining strategic clients in spirits and lifestyle, with recurring revenue stacked on top of the core SaaS subscription.
Helped brands grow owned audiences, build first-party data, and launch DTC spirits sales in regulated markets.
Established a cross-functional team operating model that has been reused on adjacent product lines.

The roster

20+ programs, all on the same operational backbone.

The full roster of brands and societies this work has shipped for. Most run the full membership program; some run a minimized bottle-club framework on the same system underneath.

American
Whiskey Forum

American Whiskey Forum

Membership · Spirits

Bitter Club

Camparino

The Branch

The Cavalier Club

The Compass Club

Connoisseur's Circle

Cornerstone Club

Dragon's Milk

New Holland

The Fifth District

Log Still Distillery

The Fifty-Six Society

The Front Row

The Gracious Plenty Society

The Helix Society

Tennessee Hills

The Hillsboro Society

Key Collective

LL12: The LALIGA Club

Private Stock Society

The Reserve

Bardstown Bourbon

Transformers

Hasbro

Andalusia

Bottle Club · Spirits

Catoctin Creek

Bottle Club · Spirits

Cedar Ridge
Backpack

Cedar Ridge Backpack

Bottle Club · Spirits

One Lux Row

Bottle Club · Spirits

Remus

Bottle Club · Spirits

Rock Town Distillery

Bottle Club · Spirits

Wenzel

Bottle Club · Spirits

On reflection

What I'd scale next.

What I learned.

The hard part of premium loyalty isn't the visual identity or even the product. It's the operational backbone. Members can feel the difference between a program that runs on a system and one that runs on heroics. The design work that mattered most was the work that made operations invisible.

The other lesson was about the brand layer. Premium brands won't accept a templated experience, no matter how efficient it is. The system has to feel custom even when it isn't. That's a design problem, not a product problem, and it lives in the small details: the welcome moment, the voice of the concierge, the texture of the kit.

What I'd scale next.

Three next moves are all on the table. First, productize the Lifetime Loyalty platform itself as a SaaS layer that brand teams can self-serve into, turning what's currently a managed-service offering into a product. Second, expand into adjacent verticals beyond spirits (hospitality, sports, culture) where the same operational backbone applies to entirely new program categories. Third, move members from brand-by-brand portals into a single member-facing app that holds every program they belong to, making the ecosystem visible to the people inside it.

Each of these takes the same backbone that's been built and pushes it in a different direction. The work that's shipped is the foundation; the next stage is what gets built on top.

Next case study

The opportunity, in one sentence: connection beats discount.

What I owned, what the team owned, what AnyRoad delivered.

Strategy, system, and direction.

Disciplinary depth.

Platform and partnership.

From one-off launches to one repeatable system.

Custom builds. Every time.

One backbone. Many brands.

From pilot to ecosystem in three years.

Eight components, one system.

Brand Identity

Digital Enrollment

Gifting & Fulfillment

Member Dashboard

Referral System

Membership IDs

Event Experience

Operations & Support

Three programs. Three tiers. One operational backbone.

Connoisseur Circle, the heritage-tier program.

Key Collective, the craft-tier program.

The Gracious Plenty Society, the lifestyle-tier program.

Three deep dives into the most distinctive surfaces.

One identity-and-redemption system. A growing ecosystem of brands.

Enrollment, waitlists, and tier-based plan logic.

The member home, where the program lives.

What the ecosystem actually delivered.

20+ programs, all on the same operational backbone.

What I'd scale next.

What I learned.

What I'd scale next.

LL12 x LALIGA: turning fan culture into membership pipeline.