IQOS
Designing a smoke-free future
Scope of work:
Portfolio Strategy
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
User Experience
User Interface
Product Design
Package Design
Environment/Retail Design
Challenge
As the account & project lead, I was responsible for overseeing multiple multidisciplinary and integrated teams, driving an experience-led approach that considered the full product ecosystem—spanning hardware, software, services, and physical environments. I guided the strategic vision across all touchpoints, ensuring every product experience was unified, user-centric, and grounded in real consumer value.
Phillip Morris was at a crossroads, continue producing a product that was definitively harmful to humans or to invest in healthier, more sustainable alternatives as part of a new vision: a reduced risk, smoke free future. The journey would be a long one but hopefully culminates in the complete removal of tobacco based products from the portfolio by 2030.
Idea & Scope
Simple isn’t always best, but the best is always simple
Iconic brands create the right amount of choice. Too few SKUs and users don’t think they have a choice, too many and they feel overwhelmed. IQOS, as a premium lifestyle brand needed to continually push the needle on product and design.
The IQOS product portfolio was shaped by a foundational set of experience principles and a cohesive design language system that served as the creative and strategic backbone for every device evolution. These principles ensured that each new product delivered a consistently intuitive, premium, and emotionally resonant experience. The design language codified core visual elements such as materiality, form factors, interaction cues, enabling us to build a unified aesthetic that was instantly recognizable and uniquely ownable.
This system extended beyond the physical devices to inform packaging, accessories, UI elements, and digital touchpoints, creating a seamless, end-to-end experience across the entire IQOS ecosystem. As the portfolio matured, from the 2nd generation devices to advanced multi-product families, these design foundations ensured that each evolution felt fresh yet unmistakably IQOS, driving brand iconicity at a global scale.
Impact
Under my leadership, the IQOS portfolio grew from three to seven product lines, each with multiple generations, contributing to over $20B in revenue and earning six Red Dot Awards for design excellence.
