Challenge
When I joined PagerDuty, the brand was fragmented, overly technical, and lacked a strong visual identity. As the company grew beyond DevOps and prepared for its IPO, it needed a unified brand that could scale with the business. Without clear guidelines or consistent systems, it was difficult for teams and partners to create cohesive materials. We needed to reposition PagerDuty in a shifting category and build a flexible, recognizable brand that resonated with a broader audience.

Approach
We structured the rebrand in three integrated phases to build a strategic, scalable, and expressive identity.

Phase 1: Positioning
To create alignment and differentiation, I partnered with agency Prophet to lead brand strategy and positioning. This work included customer and analyst research, executive interviews, and competitive analysis. It resulted in a clear brand essence—Empowering everyone in moments of truth—and established our category (Digital Operations Management) with three differentiators:

• Built for real-time

• Fits the way you work

• Trusted and loved by teams
  

Phase 2: Brand Identity
I led an agency search and selected Collins for their systems-driven approach and bold conceptual thinking. Together we developed a flexible, modern design system that could scale across marketing, product, and culture. As the internal creative lead, I ensured the new identity aligned with strategic goals and resonated across audiences.

Key components included:

• A refined logo system and updated PagerDuty green palette

• A distinctive typography and layout system

• A graphic pattern language inspired by the complexity and order of real-time systems

• A photography style focused on “systems” and “moments,” balancing scale and humanity

• A tone and voice framework rooted in brand values for consistent messaging
  

Phase 3: Rollout and Activation
We launched the new brand across all internal and external touchpoints including digital, OOH, web, product, video, and events. My team created toolkits, guidelines, and training to ensure smooth adoption. The rollout culminated in a company-wide launch event featuring the new brand reveal, updated swag, and live storytelling moments that made it a shared cultural milestone.

Impact

• Unified PagerDuty’s identity across all channels and audiences

• Strengthened market position in support of IPO readiness

• Improved brand consistency and design quality across every touchpoint

• Established a scalable foundation for future growth and storytelling