134 Modernizing a Legend: Catherine Dubut Builds the Future at Ford Pro

Jun 13, 2025

Catherine Dubut, Director of Global UX Strategy at Ford Pro, brings a wealth of experience in reshaping digital ecosystems. She discusses the monumental task of unifying over 80 legacy sites into a cohesive design system. Catherine highlights the nuances of designing for diverse fleet users and the importance of cross-team collaboration. She shares insights on using micro frontends to tackle technological challenges and emphasizes how modernizing Ford Pro not only enhances design efficiency but also aligns development across global markets.

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ANECDOTE

Complex Fleet Customer Landscape

Ford Pro's fleet customers range from a few vehicles to thousands, spanning multiple industries.
Different user roles within a company complicate the customer journey beyond typical consumer experiences.

INSIGHT

Legacy System Fragmentation

Ford Pro inherited over 80 fragmented legacy websites with inconsistent technology and content.
Consolidating these into a unified platform was essential for scalability and coherence.

ADVICE

Governance and Pilot Testing

Implement a clear governance model and build strong relationships between design, product, and development teams.
Conduct pilot tests early to uncover issues and validate the usefulness of a design system.

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What does it take to transform 121 years of automotive legacy into a modern digital ecosystem? Catherine Dubut, Director of Global UX Strategy at Ford Pro, joins Chris Strahl to share how her team is reengineering the organization’s fragmented product landscape into a scalable, unified digital assembly line.

With over 80 legacy sites, 20+ global markets, and deeply siloed teams, the scale and complexity of Ford Pro’s challenge was immense. Catherine explains how her team brought structure to chaos—combining elements from outdated systems, building new foundations where needed, and stitching them together into a single, coherent design system. From establishing governance and cross-functional collaboration to introducing micro frontends and scaling adoption, this episode offers a playbook for modernizing UX at enterprise scale.

Key themes:

Designing for fleets, not just drivers—multiple users, journeys, and roles per customer
Replatforming 80+ tools across legacy systems and international business units
Building a design system through consolidation, extension, and future-proofing
Using micro frontends to bridge disparate tech stacks across Ford Pro
Measuring success through design efficiency, team adoption, and developer alignment

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Guest

Catherine Dubut is Director of Global UX Strategy at Ford Pro, the commercial business of Ford Motor Company. She oversees a global team of individual contributors and managers across design, user research, information architecture, and content strategy. Catherine is a seasoned UX leader with a track record of designing impactful experiences, driving UX practice maturity, and digital transformation at dynamic brands at places like Samsung Electronics, REI, and Intuit. Based in Seattle, Catherine’s been involved in design community activities including organizing local events, mentoring underrepresented UX professionals, public speaking, and writing. She enjoys exploring cities, outdoors, architecture, and other adventures with her husband, daughter, and terrier mix rescue.

Host

Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.

Sponsor

Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.