Project Overview
As part of Diageo's global Website Transformation programme, I contributed to the product strategy, development, and delivery of a scalable headless technology platform powering flagship brands such as Guinness and Baileys. My primary focus was the design and implementation of a comprehensive age verification system and legal document platform, used across all Diageo brand websites to ensure legal compliance and provide a seamless user experience. The system uses geolocation to determine local drinking age requirements and verifies user age through date of birth entry, whilst serving as a central hub for all legal documentation at legal.diageo.com.
The Challenge
Diageo's existing compliance infrastructure was fragmented across multiple brand websites, leading to inconsistent user experiences and maintenance overhead. The legacy system, built on outdated technologies, was causing performance issues with mobile Time-to-Interactive reaching 12+ seconds. Managing legal documentation across different jurisdictions and languages had become increasingly complex. While these migrations and the rollout of the global headless CMS platform were happening simultaneously, I was actively contributing as part of the platform team—building the design system and component library, and managing CI/CD and Azure Artifact releases using Changesets to support rapid, reliable delivery across all brands.
The Solution
Within this broader initiative, I built a modern age gate and compliance solution using Next.js and React, published as npm packages for easy integration across brand sites. The platform includes geolocation-based age verification, GDPR compliance through OneTrust, and a centralised legal document hub at legal.diageo.com. Using Contentful CMS for content management, the system supports both generic and brand-specific legal documentation across 30+ languages. I contributed to defining a reusable white-label architecture used across teams and agencies, and supported cross-functional delivery teams and onboarding for agencies and system integrators as a trusted SME for the programme.
Results & Impact
The first implementation on yeniraki.com delivered significant improvements: achieving perfect CRUX scores (100), improving LAB performance (mobile: 60→90, desktop: 80→100), and reducing Time-to-Interactive from 12 seconds to 2 seconds. By removing legacy dependencies like jQuery, the solution enables all Diageo brand sites to achieve perfect Lighthouse scores whilst maintaining compliance. The centralised legal document platform has simplified content management, whilst the npm distribution model ensures consistent deployment across the brand portfolio. The age gate project stands as a key example of the impact and scalability achieved through Diageo's global headless technology platform.