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Universal Music Group is one of the most iconic entertainment companies in the world and the digital infrastructure behind its artist and brand storefronts is a program at a scale most PMs never get close to. Since joining UMG, I've led front-end development delivery for a shared Shopify Plus theme that powers 1,000+ artist and brand storefronts globally, managing a distributed cross-functional team across a continuous cycle of enterprise-level programs, platform improvements, and high-visibility feature launches.
Below is a closer look at the programs and projects I've owned during my time here.
Role Spotlight: Universal Music Group
Platform Migration: Shopify 1.0 to 2.0
This was one of the biggest programs of my tenure and one of the most operationally complex migrations I've had the pleasure of being involved in.
The shared theme that powers UMG's global storefront ecosystem was built on Shopify's 1.0 architecture. Moving 1,000+ stores to Shopify 2.0 wasn't just a technical upgrade it was a live, phased migration across an active global platform where any disruption had direct impact on artist storefronts, fan experiences, and ongoing commercial activity.
I managed a dedicated workstream focused on feature parity identifying capabilities that existed in 1.0 but weren't native to 2.0, scoping the development required to rebuild them, and sequencing that work alongside the migration itself so stores weren't left without critical functionality mid-transition.
Additionally, I supported the migration of UMG's highest-tier enterprise stores many of which required my team to manage custom development work to account for architectural differences between 1.0 and 2.0 and to preserve functionality that didn't transfer automatically.
Throughout the migration I coordinated directly with store managers to ensure smooth store-by-store rollouts, managed my team’s portion of the weekly launch process, and maintained a live backlog of fixes, requests, and updates that kept the program moving without losing quality or momentum.
Scope: 1,000+ store migration · Custom enterprise development · Feature parity workstream · Weekly launch cadence · Live platform management
1.0 Platform Close-Down Support
Before the 2.0 migration could fully complete, the 1.0 platform needed to be managed responsibly through its wind-down. Stores don't migrate overnight and during the phased transition, stores still running on 1.0 needed active support to keep operating without disruption.
I owned the close-down program: managing open projects on the 1.0 platform, handling ongoing bug fixes, supporting continued feature requests from stores mid-migration, and maintaining release and testing cycles until each store successfully crossed over to 2.0.
It's the kind of work that doesn't get a lot of attention but doing it poorly creates real problems. Keeping 1.0 stable while simultaneously driving the 2.0 migration required careful workstream separation, clear prioritization, and a team that understood exactly where each store was in the process at any given time.
Scope: Parallel platform management · Bug resolution · Continued release support · Phased close-down coordination
ADA Accessibility Program
Accessibility isn't a checkbox. It's a standard that directly affects how fans experience an artist's storefront and for a platform powering 1,000+ stores across the US, UK, and Germany, getting it right had real reach.
I managed a full ADA and accessibility audit across the shared theme, overseeing both front-end and back-end improvements across all supported territories. The results were significant: the baseline theme accessibility score moved from the mid-50s to the high 90s. Large tier-one enterprise stores, which started in the low 60s, climbed to the low 90s — a transformation that reflects both the depth of the audit and the quality of the development work that followed it.
Beyond the score improvements, this program established a new accessibility baseline for the entire platform meaning every store built on the shared theme going forward starts from a place of compliance rather than needing to retrofit it later.
Scope: Multi-territory accessibility audit · Front-end and back-end improvements · US, UK, and German territories · Baseline score: mid-50s to high 90s
Site Speed Performance Program
A slow storefront costs sales. For enterprise artist stores with active fan bases and time-sensitive product drops, performance isn't just a technical metric it's a commercial one.
I kicked off and scoped UMG's site speed performance improvement program, leading a team of technical engineers through a comprehensive audit of the shared theme and a broad cross-section of enterprise and lower-tier stores. The audit produced a finalized improvement roadmap covering CSS reduction, DOM whitespace cleanup, carousel optimization, critical CSS management, webfont improvements, script loading optimization, lazy loading, image rendering, and text compression as well as deep-dive investigations into the performance impact of third-party apps including Yotpo, SWYM, and privacy and consent tools.
The results were measurable: stores that started in the low 40s to 50s moved to the high 80s and 90s across performance benchmarks.
What made this program particularly satisfying was what came next. The performance work revealed the need for an ongoing monitoring solution so I designed one. I developed a full breakdown of metrics, KPIs, and performance targets tied to industry best practices for both site speed and accessibility, then worked with my senior engineering lead to scope and build an internal reporting metrics dashboard. Using a combination of AI tooling and our development team's expertise, we built a full-scale dashboard that tracks real-time performance data for every store within the theme.
The result: external auditing costs are completely removed. The team has live visibility into performance across the entire storefront ecosystem, and stakeholders can monitor their store's health without waiting on a third-party report.
Scope: Full platform performance audit · Multi-layer front-end optimization · Improved from low 40-50s to high 80s-90s · Internal performance dashboard build · Real-time monitoring across 1,000+ stores
Virtual Reality Store: The Beatles x Obsess360
This one was something different.
I led the development, and integration of a virtual reality shopping experience for The Beatles storefront built in partnership with Obsess360, a leading immersive commerce platform. The goal was to create a fully embedded 360° shopping experience that let fans explore a virtual Beatles store without ever leaving the Shopify storefront, and crucially add products from both the VR experience and the standard storefront into a single unified cart and check out in one transaction.
The technical and experiential complexity of this project was real. Unifying a cart across two entirely different commerce environments, embedding the VR experience natively within the storefront rather than redirecting fans to a separate URL, and building in store manager tracking to measure which experience drove product adds all of it required precise scoping, close coordination with the Obsess360 team, and careful acceptance criteria development to make sure the fan experience was seamless end to end.
The result was a first-of-its-kind shopping experience for one of the most iconic music catalogs in history and a genuinely exciting program to lead.
Scope: VR commerce integration · Unified cart across Obsess360 and Shopify · Embedded storefront experience · US market · The Beatles storefront
Virtual Reality Store: The Beatles x Obsess360
This one was something different.
I led the development, and integration of a virtual reality shopping experience for The Beatles storefront built in partnership with Obsess360, a leading immersive commerce platform. The goal was to create a fully embedded 360° shopping experience that let fans explore a virtual Beatles store without ever leaving the Shopify storefront, and crucially add products from both the VR experience and the standard storefront into a single unified cart and check out in one transaction.
The technical and experiential complexity of this project was real. Unifying a cart across two entirely different commerce environments, embedding the VR experience natively within the storefront rather than redirecting fans to a separate URL, and building in store manager tracking to measure which experience drove product adds all of it required precise scoping, close coordination with the Obsess360 team, and careful acceptance criteria development to make sure the fan experience was seamless end to end.
The result was a first-of-its-kind shopping experience for one of the most iconic music catalogs in history and a genuinely exciting program to lead.
Scope: VR commerce integration · Unified cart across Obsess360 and Shopify · Embedded storefront experience · US market · The Beatles storefront
Buy Now Pay Later: Multi-Provider Integration
As BNPL options became standard expectations for online shoppers, UMG needed to offer a seamless, multi-provider experience across its storefronts. I owned the full program from discovery and design through development to integrate Affirm, Shop Pay Installments, and PayPal across the PDP and mini-cart/cart experience on the shared theme.
This wasn't a simple plug-and-play integration. Each provider had its own technical requirements, display logic, and placement considerations, and the solution needed to work consistently across a theme serving stores at very different scales and with different product types. I managed the discovery process, defined the requirements, and drove the build to a clean, consistent implementation that expanded purchasing flexibility for fans across the entire platform.
Scope: Three-provider BNPL integration · PDP and cart/mini-cart · Full discovery, design, and development ownership
Custom Mega Menu & Promotional Tile Development
As UMG's larger enterprise stores grew in catalog size and content complexity, the existing navigation structure wasn't keeping up. I managed the full rebuild of the shared theme's navigation system replacing the standard menu with a multi-tier mega menu designed to support stores with larger product ranges, more categories, and more content to surface at once.
The impact was immediate: category viewability improved by 40% across stores that implemented the new menu.
Following the mega menu launch, I owned a follow-on deliverable: promotional tile development. This added promotional content blocks directly into the mega menu structure giving store managers the ability to combine navigation with brand storytelling, surfacing featured products, collections, or campaign content alongside standard navigation links. It turned a functional menu into a merchandising tool.
Scope: Multi-tier mega menu build · 40% improvement in category viewability · Promotional tile integration · Cross-store rollout
SWYM Wishlist Custom Integration
When enterprise stores began migrating to Shopify 2.0, a compatibility issue emerged with the SWYM Wishlist app a tool stores relied on for fan engagement and product saves. The 2.0 permission architecture changed how apps could interact with the theme, making a standard plug-and-play installation no longer viable for newly migrated enterprise stores.
I owned the solution. I managed the custom development of app blocks specifically designed to integrate SWYM Wishlist into the 2.0 theme architecture, restoring full wishlist functionality for enterprise stores without requiring them to compromise on the 2.0 upgrade or work around the limitation manually.
Scope: Custom app block development · SWYM Wishlist 2.0 compatibility · Enterprise store rollout
Product & Collection Gating
Exclusivity is a powerful tool for fan engagement and artist stores regularly run campaigns around limited access products, exclusive drops, and gated collections that create a sense of scarcity and reward. I led a pilot for a product and collection gating solution built on Shopify's metaobject infrastructure.
The system allowed store managers to configure gated pages for specific products or collections tied to a campaign accessible only via a shared password or code. A checkout validation function was also built in to prevent bad actors from bypassing the gate by directly accessing product IDs, ensuring gated products couldn't be purchased at checkout without the correct access credentials.
The result was a flexible, low-overhead gating solution that gave stores the ability to deliver exclusive fan experiences without custom development for every campaign.
Scope: Metaobject-based gating system · Checkout validation security layer · Password/code access control · Campaign-based exclusivity