Chewy Claus

Chewy Claus is Chewy’s annual holiday giving campaign that combines customer engagement with charitable impact. Inspired by the tradition of writing letters to Santa, pet parents are invited to submit holiday wish lists on behalf of their pets, sharing heartfelt stories, favorite treats, toys, and wishes for the season.

What began as a small “WOW” initiative evolved into one of Chewy’s most beloved seasonal experiences, creating an emotional connection between pet parents, their pets, and the Chewy brand. For every wish submitted, Chewy donates meals to animal shelters and rescue organizations, turning customer participation into real-world impact for pets in need.

The experience goes beyond a simple form submission by encouraging storytelling, personalization, and community participation. Customers can share their pets’ personalities, holiday wishes, and special moments, while contributing to a larger mission of helping shelter animals across the country.

By 2025, Chewy Claus had grown into a major annual campaign generating hundreds of thousands of wish submissions and representing hundreds of thousands of pets. The initiative ultimately helped drive the donation of millions of meals to shelters and rescues nationwide, with the 2025 campaign contributing to more than 16 million meals donated.

EMPLOYER: Chewy

TIMELINE: 8 weeks

TOOLS USED: Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma, and After Effects

MY ROLE: Lead Product Designer responsible for defining the experience vision, aligning cross-functional teams, creating scalable design solutions, and driving the successful delivery of Chewy Claus 2025 from concept through launch.

TEAM: Product Owner, Technical Project Manager, Marketing Manager, Marketing Team, Engineers, Analytics, Leadership Stakeholders

Note: Due to confidentiality agreements, specific details and assets in this portfolio have been omitted or modified.
The work showcased is designed to highlight my process without disclosing proprietary information.

Where the journey began…

Chewy Claus began as a seasonal “WOW” initiative designed to bring joy to pet parents during the holidays. By its fourth year, the program had become one of Chewy’s most beloved customer experiences, generating millions of wishlist submissions while supporting shelter pets through meal donations.

As the program continued to grow, leadership saw an opportunity to evolve the experience and raise the bar for what Chewy Claus could become. I was brought in to help lead the initiative, establish a clear vision, and elevate the experience into a more memorable, engaging, and scalable holiday moment for customers.

My role was to step in as Lead Product Designer, driving experience strategy, cross-functional alignment, rapid design exploration, and execution to deliver an enhanced Chewy Claus experience on an accelerated timeline.

The Challenge

The project faced several obstacles:

  • The experience was already in development but lacked a cohesive vision.
  • Design exploration had stalled, creating uncertainty among stakeholders.
  • Marketing assets and content requirements were not clearly defined.
  • The timeline was compressed with little room for iteration.
  • Existing designs were not optimized for scalability or future reuse.
  • Multiple teams needed alignment to move forward efficiently.

At the same time, expectations were high. Chewy Claus had become a highly visible initiative that would be promoted externally by influencers and showcased internally across the organization at the town hall before launching to the public.

Above: Previous Chewy Claus in 2024

My Approach

Above: Original state of the project

Step 1: Establish Ownership & Create a Recovery Plan

My first priority was understanding the current state of the project.

I evaluated the work completed by the previous contractor, audited the experience end-to-end, identified gaps, and created a detailed workback plan that aligned design, engineering, and marketing efforts.

Rather than simply contributing designs, I acted as a design owner—creating clarity, defining priorities, and driving execution.

Step 2: Research & Future-State Thinking

To elevate the experience, I conducted rapid domain research across:

  • Holiday campaign experiences
  • Gamified engagement patterns
  • Seasonal storytelling interactions
  • Delight-focused ecommerce experiences
  • Customer-generated content platforms

The goal wasn’t just to redesign screens—it was to create an experience customers would remember and share.

I quickly translated research into concepts and iterative prototypes that allowed stakeholders to react to tangible experiences instead of abstract discussions.

Step 3: Create a Scalable Design System

Given the timeline, designing every screen from scratch wasn’t sustainable.

I focused on creating:

  • Reusable UI patterns
  • Modular page structures
  • Scalable interaction models
  • Flexible content containers
  • Reusable illustration and animation frameworks

This allowed engineering teams to move faster while ensuring consistency throughout the experience.

My background in development helped bridge the gap between design ambition and technical feasibility, enabling faster tradeoff discussions and reducing implementation risk.

Designing the Experience

The vision was simple:

Make every pet parent feel like their pet was personally participating in the magic of Chewy Claus.

To accomplish this, I designed experiences that focused on:

Delight

Creating emotional moments throughout the journey through storytelling, personalization, and character-driven interactions.

Participation

Making customers feel connected to a larger mission by contributing meals to shelter pets with every submission.

Shareability

Building an experience worthy of influencer promotion and social engagement.

Memorability

Transforming a simple form submission into an experience that customers wanted to revisit and remember.

Cross-Functional Leadership

A significant portion of the project’s success came from stakeholder alignment.

I collaborated closely with:

  • Product leadership
  • Marketing leadership
  • Content strategists
  • Engineers
  • Technical project management
  • Analytics teams

To keep the project moving, I:

  • Documented content requirements for marketing
  • Defined illustration needs early
  • Created detailed design specifications
  • Facilitated rapid feedback cycles
  • Shared fully interactive prototypes with leadership
  • Used prototypes as alignment tools rather than static presentations

This reduced ambiguity and helped stakeholders make decisions quickly.

The first iteration of a low-fidelity mock-up to start the conversation and brainstorming.

Beyond Product Design

Because of aggressive timelines, I contributed beyond traditional product design responsibilities.

Illustration

To keep the project on schedule, I illustrated several pet characters that became part of the final experience.

Animation Direction

I created animation concepts and interaction guidance that engineering teams could implement efficiently while maintaining the intended experience.

Technical Collaboration

My development background enabled me to:

  • Evaluate implementation complexity
  • Identify risks early
  • Propose alternative solutions
  • Balance customer experience with engineering constraints

This partnership helped the team stay on track while maintaining quality.

Launch & Impact

The final experience launched successfully and became one of Chewy’s most visible seasonal initiatives.

The campaign generated extraordinary engagement, helping drive participation while supporting shelters nationwide.

Key outcomes included:

  • Millions of customer interactions throughout the holiday season
  • Strong influencer engagement prior to launch
  • Executive visibility and support
  • Featured presentation during a company town hall
  • Significant charitable impact through meal donations

Following the campaign, Chewy Claus reported:

  • 180,000+ wishlist submissions
  • 271,000+ pets represented
  • Millions of meals donated to shelters
  • Strong engagement across web and mobile experiences

The post-campaign celebration highlighted that customer wishes helped donate 16 million meals to shelters and rescues nationwide, demonstrating the scale of the initiative’s impact.

Results

Business Impact

  • Increased visibility and engagement for a flagship holiday campaign
  • Supported customer loyalty through an emotionally resonant experience
  • Enabled cross-functional teams to deliver successfully under tight deadlines

Team Impact

  • Re-established momentum on a delayed project
  • Created scalable patterns that accelerated development
  • Improved collaboration between design, marketing, and engineering

Customer Impact

  • Delivered a more memorable and delightful holiday experience
  • Strengthened emotional connection between pet parents and the Chewy brand
  • Helped generate millions of meals for shelter pets through participation

Reflection

This project reinforced that strong product design is often about creating clarity as much as creating screens.

By stepping into an ownership role, establishing direction, building scalable solutions, and aligning cross-functional teams, I helped transform a delayed project into a celebrated customer experience.

Chewy Claus demonstrates my ability to lead through ambiguity, move quickly without sacrificing quality, and create experiences that drive both business outcomes and emotional connection.