Stellar Pizza
loyalty and rewards program made from scratch
This project was carried out for the Business Technology Group at USC as part of my journey to becoming a Project Manager (PM). To become a PM, I needed to secure a client. As fate would have it, I was already a regular at Stellar Pizza, a robotic pizza truck parked near campus known for its affordable and delicious slices. Determined to land the partnership, I made it my mission to visit multiple times a week, strategically building connections. Before long, I was in discussions with the CMO and Head of Business Development, eventually landing a meeting with the CEO.
With the partnership secured, I assembled my team, and we got to work. We followed the Design Thinking process, which includes empathizing with the client, consumer research, creative brainstorming, and iterative prototyping.
Scroll down for a slice of the details!
Empathize with Client
"Think like an engineer."
— Benson Tsai, CEO of Stellar Pizza
Before diving into solutions, we took a step back to truly understand what Stellar Pizza envisioned for their loyalty and rewards system. Was their goal to create a standard, reliable program or something more playful and unconventional? What kind of experience did they want customers to have?
Through deep conversations with the Stellar Pizza team, we uncovered key insights about their priorities, past experiments, and appetite for innovation. Most importantly, we aligned on their target audience—college students—and explored how to create a system that would keep them engaged, excited, and coming back for more.
By embracing an engineer’s mindset—analyzing the challenge from every angle before building—we ensured that the final solution wasn’t just effective but also uniquely tailored to Stellar Pizza’s brand and customers.
This approach turned a simple rewards program into a dynamic, student-focused experience that felt fresh, engaging, and built for long-term success.
2. Consumer Research
To design a rewards system that resonated, we needed to understand what students actually wanted. We conducted
60+ surveys & 25+ in-depth interviews
focusing on their perceptions of existing loyalty programs. Which brands had systems they loved? What specific features made them fun and engaging? What creative ideas would they love to see in a pizza rewards program? By asking open-ended, non-leading questions, we uncovered patterns in consumer behavior, preferences, and untapped opportunities.
3. Creative Brainstorming
Before diving into solutions, we took a step back to truly understand what Stellar Pizza envisioned for their loyalty and rewards system. Was their goal to create a standard, reliable program or something more playful and unconventional? What kind of experience did they want customers to have? Through deep conversations with the Stellar Pizza team, we uncovered key insights about their priorities, past experiments, and appetite for innovation. Most importantly, we aligned on their target audience—college students—and explored how to create a system that would keep them engaged, excited, and coming back for more.
4. Iterative Prototyping and Presenting
With initial concepts in place, we brought them back to Stellar Pizza for feedback, refining and reshaping ideas based on their input. This iterative approach allowed us to balance fundamental loyalty mechanics (earning stars, redeeming rewards) with next-level gamification that made the experience truly engaging. Each round of testing led to smarter, more refined ideas—ensuring the final product wasn’t just fun but also strategic and effective.
We then presented to the client and they loved it. They wanted to incorporate it as soon as possible
