Cana

Cana built the universe's first molecular beverage printer—to reduce waste while giving folks radically more choice and personalization in their beverage experience.

Hundreds of beverages at the tap of a button feels like the future—like something out of Star Trek. We aimed to disrupt the beverage industry responsible for an incredible amount of waste and emissions.

We defined problems, identified users, and decided on key features. We worked through branding and identity. We launched a website and produced videos. We taste tested a lot of beverages from the lab — It was fun.

Early on, we determined our key differentiators. We believed them to be variety, personalization, and sustainability. All together, they contribute to a feeling of amazement.

To impress massive variety on our customer, we developed a content strategy to group our many recipes under brands. We worked to bring existing brands, like Hella Cocktail Co., onto our platform. We also partnered with creators, like Emily Sears and Simone Giertz, to make new beverage brands.

Traditional beverage brands are stuck in two dimensions (printed on cans). So, to further differentiate and amaze, we brought our brands to life with motion.

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In addition to my duty over UX Product Design, I acted as creative director on a huge set of artwork. I hired artists from around the globe to develop unique looks across the catalog. I also did some of this art myself with the help of AI.

Sample of brands:

We crafted a familiar interface on the device and designed a companion mobile app. Priority was comprehension over novelty. We built for families, adding profiles and parental controls. We developed a simple system for beverage customization. We explored gamification to encourage discovery and celebrate sustainability.

I structured my team's work under five pillars: Core Experience, Management, Loyalty, Tools, and Design Platform. Below is a preview of some of the work:

Get rewarded when you take advantage of your flavor cart's massive variety.

Ask me about our business goal to have customers drawdown the flavor cartridge evenly.

To scale our catalog, we made a tool that would allow anyone to create beverages on the spot (versus bespoke and expensive recipe creation in the lab). The tool was a showpiece, designed for a large touchscreen display. We planned to fold this concept into our consumer app so everyone could play.

Cana Studio Tool

Over $30M later and a heroic effort, Cana shut down. The team sought more funding, but many hurdles remained to bring the product to market. In 2023's challenging funding environment, we proved to be too risky a bet.