CASE STUDY:  TechSoup Catalog Taxonomy

View as slides

Transforming a Global Catalog Experience to Unlock Product Discovery

Unblocking systems, aligning stakeholders, and designing for scale

  • Role: Lead UX Strategist

  • Focus: Product UX, content strategy, and systems integration

  • Note: Supplementary visuals available on request due to NDA

About TechSoup

Overview:

  • Global network spanning 60+ countries

  • About 700 employees with HQ in San Francisco and regional hubs in Corinth, London, Warsaw

  • TechSoup’s priority service is its network of e-commerce sites offering nonprofit technology distribution.

Project Brief

UX efforts kept hitting the same wall — an untouchable, outdated catalog

Key points:

  • No ownership, no updates, and no flexibility

  • Fragmented taxonomy couldn’t support growth

  • Product discovery was failing users and departments

  • Devs refused changes without exec mandates

My Impact

Role: Lead UX Strategist, reporting to Senior VP

  • Owned, initiated, and led the project from concept to delivery

  • Created and tested new taxonomy, UI, navigation, and content strategies

  • Designed and facilitated cross-functional workshops and user testing

  • Directed visual execution with junior and senior design collaborators

  • Partnered with execs, devs, and international teams to align systems and scale

  • Future-proofed the entire UX architecture and documentation for handoff

My Intention

Reframe the catalog as a UX and business risk — and unblock the org.

Key points:

  • Unify and modernize product discovery

  • Empower marketing, services, and product teams

  • Build trust with a scalable, user-centered system

Strategic Framing to Gain Budget

Sold user testing as a business diagnostic — not research.

Key points:

  • Framed catalog friction as a revenue and brand risk

  • Tied effort to exec trends in data-driven decisions

  • Won budget to run high-impact user testing

Testing & Exec Buy-In

No testing infrastructure? I built one from scratch.

Key points:

  • Created click-through prototypes of new UX flows

  • Tested navigation, layout, copy, and category logic

  • Recruited/mentored junior resource to build UX capacity

  • Execs watched users struggle — and greenlit the work

Planning for Action

With no formal backing, I built momentum piece by piece.

Key points:

  • Broke work into parallel streams to reduce friction

  • Earned dev trust through strategic check-ins

  • Planned around system constraints and org bandwidth

Taxonomy Redesign

Designed a user-centered taxonomy for now — and the future

Key points:

  • Facilitated cross-team alignment and workshops

  • Balanced donor, user, and business needs

  • Created wireframes, mockups, and future-proof naming

  • Gained visual design sign-off for concept

Iterative Testing Without a Budget

Tested layout, navigation, and taxonomy — at no cost.

Key points:

  • Unify and modernize product discovery

  • Empower marketing, services, and product teams

  • Build trust with a scalable, user-centered system

System & Workflow Redesign

If the backend didn’t change, the catalog couldn’t grow.

Key points:

  • Interviewed internal teams

  • Designed new workflows to empower content owners

  • Reduced long-term dev reliance

Search & Discoverability UX

Integrated new taxonomy into search systems across platforms.

Key points:

  • Designed for multiple front-ends

  • Created UI wireframes and interaction logic

  • Wrote microcopy and tested discoverability

  • Ensured design consistency across systems

Global Scale

Designed for 60+ countries — without fracturing the UX.

Key points:

  • Built a core taxonomy layer with flexible localization

  • Collaborated with US and international devs

  • Designed for scalability in varied systems

Roadmapping

Future-proofed everything — even when priorities shifted.

Key points:

  • Prepped Agile stories and final assets

  • Broke work into independent components

  • Translated UX into business terms for execs

  • Advocated for UX in competing roadmaps

Defining the Win

Even without a launch, the impact was real.

Key points:

  • Designed a scalable, executive-approved solution

  • Secured implementation of multiple UX wins

  • Laid the foundation for global transformation

  • Left the system stronger and ready to scale

Final Reflection

Sometimes the biggest impact is what you make possible.

Appendix — Visual Assets

  • Before & After visuals

  • Selected user quotes from testing

  • Taxonomy logic breakdown

  • Wireframe samples

  • Implementation roadmap visual

  • Testimonials or quotes from leadership