Dozens of products, no single front door
Over decades, CDK had built dozens of products, each with its own login, portal and look. A dealership employee could need three or four logins just to get through the morning. Leadership brought the design team three questions and no brief: how do we get every app behind one sign-on, how do we share data across them, and how do we become a true SaaS company?
From blank slate to executive approval in three weeks
We treated it as an internal hackathon and kept the stakes low on purpose. It would either fade quietly or earn a second look.
- Week 1Workshop and shared system. I ran an ideation workshop with designers and engineers, then we built in Figma on a shared, just-in-time design system.
- Week 2First leadership review. The feedback was "too many ideas." We cut to the core features, fast, because everything shared one system.
- Week 3Executive approval. The refined prototype went to CDK's Chief Product and Technology Officer and became a real project.
- NADA 2022Public debut. Unify was introduced to dealers at the largest auto retail show in the US, and their feedback fed straight back into the design.
A home screen built around the job, not the product
I was lead designer from the first workshop through launch, and the platform's primary designer for years after. The biggest decision I made was a role-based home.
Role-based home
Before, everyone landed on the same generic portal and had to hunt for their tools. In Unify, a service advisor, a finance manager and a general manager each see a different set of apps, data and workflows, tailored to how they actually work.
Why it mattered: it turned a login screen into a workspace, and gave every new app that joined Unify a clear place to live.
Led the cross-functional workshop that set the feature set and personas.
Defined the role model, navigation and core patterns the platform still runs on.
Onboarded product teams and evolved the platform for years after launch.
Where it got hard
Many apps, one shell
Once every product lived in the same frame, their inconsistencies were impossible to ignore. That kicked off CDK's UI harmonization effort, which I also led, with Radial as the shared foundation.
Old and new tech side by side
Apps ran on everything from modern frameworks to legacy systems. Each onboarding was its own negotiation, and the shell had to flex without sinking to the lowest common denominator.
Years of muscle memory
Dealership staff knew their old portals by heart. A new way of getting around had to feel like an upgrade, not a disruption.
Where Unify is today
Unify is now a core part of CDK's market strategy, and much of the company's move to SaaS is credited to it. It's used by 150,000+ dealership employees, every new and modernized app is required to live inside it, and Unify 2.0 is in development.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Dozens of separate logins and portals | One sign-on for every CDK product |
| One generic portal for everyone | A home built around each role |
| No search or alerts across apps | Global search and notifications across all apps |
| A fragmented legacy experience | A modern SaaS platform |