Driving Digital Transformation: Managing McDonald’s Multi-Market Menu Board Deployments
At the forefront of McDonald’s digital transformation, I led the management of McDonald’s multi-market digital menu board initiatives. Collaborating with content managers, front-end engineers, QA analysts, and external partners, I ensured seamless execution across diverse markets spanning multiple continents. By designing tailored solution architectures and streamlining operations, I helped deliver innovative, scalable menu board experiences that supported key business growth and secured major global contracts.Highlights
The three projects highlighted here were instrumental in securing Coates’ exclusive global partnership with McDonald’s across hardware, software, and content services, unlocking a $50M+ business opportunity
While these case studies represent key milestones, I also supported additional markets including France, Guatemala, Paraguay, Suriname, and more, each presenting unique operational requirements, localization challenges, and cross-cultural considerations
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Supported the end-to-end execution of the world’s largest digital menu board rollout, managing installation logistics, streamlining cross-vendor workflows, and building automated reporting tools to drive operational accuracy and national scale.
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Led content management and deployment for critical U.S. pilot programs, owning scheduling, QA, and in-store testing to validate digital content
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Directed content strategy and deployment for McDonald’s Canada’s nationwide digital signage launch, leading cross-functional teams and complex scheduling workflows across 1,200+ locations, a project instrumental in securing both the U.S. national rollout and exclusive global market launches.
The World’s Largest ODMB Rollout
SKILLS & Subject Matter
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES • DASHBOARDS & REPORTING
LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT • VENDor MANAGEMENT • risk management
My first project with McDonald’s involved playing a key role in supporting the management of the world’s largest outdoor digital menu board (ODMB) deployment, spanning ~12,000 U.S. locations. This work entailed:
Overseeing complex installation logistics and operational execution across thousands of franchise locations, ensuring accuracy, speed, and alignment at scale
Mapping cross-vendor workflows to clarify team handoffs, identify process inefficiencies, and streamline national rollout efforts
Developing automated reporting systems using Google Scripts and Excel Macros to improve data visibility, drive accountability, and support real-time decision-making
Managing issue resolution efforts to overcome hardware challenges and minimize operational disruption
overview
Miami 8 + Romeoville Pilots
SKILLS & SUbject matter
Content Management • CMS • Digital signage • deployment operations
Content development • Data Management • Quality assurance
overview
Following the national hardware rollout, I shifted focus to strategic pilot programs in Miami, FL and Romeoville, IL as key test markets for McDonald’s U.S. digital content and software deployment. These ~10-location pilots served as critical proving grounds ahead of what would later reward the full national launch. My work included:
Managing and configuring screen content across locations, including scheduling logic, dayparting, and promotional alignment tailored to each restaurant’s operations
Owning QA, release management, and end-to-end content deployment workflows to ensure accuracy, consistency, and performance
Building and maintaining content schedules to support dynamic marketing initiatives
Supporting live testing and troubleshooting in-store, working closely with franchise operators and field teams to ensure a seamless customer experience
Rollout: McDonald’s canada
SKILLS & Subject matter
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT • Requirements gathering
global CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT • DATA MODELING • team leadership
overview
Following earlier U.S. pilot programs, I took on the most complex and rewarding project to date: leading content operations for McDonald’s Canada’s full digital transformation across ~1,500 restaurant locations. This national rollout marked our first use of a new System on Chip (SoC) platform and encompassed hardware, software, and content services, executed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. My work included:
Leading a global cross-functional team of ~10, including Campaign Managers, Front-End Engineers, and QA Analysts, to deliver robust and scalable digital signage solutions tailored to McDonald’s Canada’s highly diverse content and data needs
Managing agile ceremonies and sprint cycles across international teams to ensure quality delivery and on-time execution
Building and managing content schedules, deployment logic, and campaign release workflows customized for localized promotions, dynamic dayparting, and bilingual markets
Coordinating the synchronized rollout of content, hardware, and software in partnership with internal teams and field operators, navigating the added complexity of pandemic-era deployment constraints
Why was it so complex?
The McDonald’s Canada rollout was exceptionally complex due to its scale, hyper-specific configurations, rapid-fire promotions, and lack of accessible business logic, requiring deep coordination and custom solutions across 1,500+ stores.
1. Screen Configuration Mapping at Scale
Each of the ~1,500 McDonald’s Canada locations required an intricate matrix of data modeling and content logic to accommodate the operational and linguistic diversity across the country. This included:
6 supported language variations
100% English stores
100% French stores
50/50 English-French stores
50/50 French-English stores
60/40 English-French stores
60/40 French-English stores
Each variation required its own legal regulations and tailored set of menu creative + product assets per brand standards
6 dayparts
breakfast
lunch
dinner
pm snack
late night
overnight
Each daypart required its own tailored set of menu creative and product assets per brand standards
2 screen orientations
Landscape and portrait layouts, each demanding unique design adaptations and content formatting
5 menu types
Indoor, Outdoor, McCafé wall, standalone McCafé (SAM), and McDonald’s in Walmart (MiW) setups, all with distinct creative and display logic
432 unique screen configurations
Including setups for 1–6 indoor screens (both orientations), 1–2 McCafé configurations (both orientations), and 1–3 outdoor configurations (single, double, or presell screens), all requiring unique logic and creative
642 content profile configurations
Reflecting all possible combination of language profiles, screen configurations, and menu types, before layering in any store-level data rules or qualifiers
This breadth of variation made scalable scheduling and accurate deployment a highly complex undertaking, requiring a rigorous discovery phase and complex data modeling + configuration mapping for each store.
2. Dynamic + RObust Promotional Calendar
Rollout occurred in parallel with a highly active promotional calendar, each coming with a 24 week production timeline (per brand standards) with over 10 simultaneous campaigns running at a given time, each shifting up to 5+ times per month.
With each promotional asset requiring multiple variations given language and daypart needs, this was a massive undertaking during the rollout, requiring agile coordination to keep all content timely, compliant, and personalized for local markets throughout deployment.
3. Data Integrations and Logic Reconstruction
Determining accurate content for each store required reverse engineering third-party restaurant data to infer product availability, menu configurations, and promotion eligibility at the individual location level.
With no access to the incumbent vendor’s business rules, deemed proprietary, we rebuilt the logic from the ground up by referencing hundreds of visual menu configurations to form educated assumptions, which were then validated by the McDonald’s marketing team.
Additionally, our content had to integrate with multiple systems, including POS (Point of Sale), COD (Customer Order Display), SS (Suggestive Sell), DY (Dynamic Yield), and LPR (License Plate Recognition), each layering on additional logic to deliver a responsive, personalized digital experience.
This multi-market effort not only elevated McDonald’s digital signage capabilities but also showcased the impact of bespoke content solutions at scale. By architecting detailed configuration logic, orchestrating fast-moving digital marketing campaign operations, and building seamless integrations to support diverse market needs, we supported major global contracts and played a pivotal role in securing a $50M+ opportunity.