Retail Business Services
Local Ordering System
In grocery retail, there was a need for improvement in the process of store produce managers ordering fresh produce from local farmers and vendors.
Project Duration: ~4 months
Role: User Researcher, UX Designer
Tools: Mural, Figma, Jira
Collaborators: Product Owner, Corporate, Developers
Background
The corporate team at Ahold Delhaize requested assistance to improve the current system of produce managers ordering fresh produce from local farmers. I was put in contact with produce managers to (1) understand their daily routine of ordering produce, (2) the tools and software currently being used, (3) how local farmers operate to fulfill orders, and (4) what information the corporate team needs.
01
User Personas
I began by interviewing produce managers 1:1 from each grocery retail branch (e.g., Hannafords, Stop & Shop, Food Lion) in 1 hour informational sessions. I compiled the following information to build User Personas.
-
General demographics
-
Daily tasks - AM opening routine, PM closing routine
-
Tools & software - R/F Handheld Unit, DSD2 System, Phone (SMS & Call)
-
Organization methods - paper filing
-
Pain points
Workshops
02
Produce Managers
Based on the daily routines I collected, I mapped out a journey map to capture the story I was told surrounding the work day of a produce manager. I created a workshop on Mural to hold an activity with a focus group of produce managers.
The workshop included a walkthrough of the journey map, where at each step of the map, I provided time for participants to make edits to information that was missing or inaccurate, list pain points in that step, and ideate ways to improve.
What I want to learn
Does this journey map accurately reflect the ordering process?
What are the pain points in each step of the journey map?
What can be improved at each step?
Learning this will allow us to
Clarify any discrepancies
Make sure the solution aids as many pain points in each step
Ideate with produce managers of how they imagine the solution
Corporate
To understand how orders are relayed back to the corporate and finance team, I also held 1:1 interviews and focus groups with the business.
What I want to learn
How does the business receive order information from stores?
How does the finance team process payments from orders?
How much visibility exists between business, stores, and vendors?
Learning this will allow us to
Understand where backend order information needs to go
Understand how the business knows when to release payment
Pinpoint where there is a loss of communication
03
Identifying Top 3 Pain Points
1. Produce managers place orders with local vendors using text or phone call.
There is no digital trail of what is being place, the quantity ordered, or an invoice immediately after placing an order.
2. Lack of visibility between corporate and store. The business needs to keep track of their seasonal vendors.
With no digital invoice, the corporate team does not know what produce stores are ordering at any given time and the finance team wants to release payments with more confidence.
3. R/F handheld units and desktop system are terribly outdated and leads to more human error.
The UI is difficult to use and users have difficulty updating the system. This leads to inventory loss due to inaccurate forecasting.
Example of outdated UI screens.
Due to COVID, I had to push hard to receive pictures of the current system.
04
User Flows
Following the ideation sessions, the product owner, business team, and I aligned on what would be the best solution to tackle our top priority pain points. We decided to move forward with an iPad ordering app that allows produce managers to order produce from local vendors and sends order information to both the local vendor and the corporate team. The iPads were already provided at each store and we wanted to utilize devices the stores already had.
There would also be a web application for the corporate team to track store level orders, manage vendors, and update cost of products on a mass-scale.
Store Level Produce Manager App
User flow of the store produce manager app.
Corporate Level Web App
User flow of the corporate level web application.
05
Mid-Fi Designs
Due to the innovation lab environment, I designed mid-fidelity visuals for quick feedback and collaborated with the product owner closely to refine the concept. I ran a few usability studies using the prototyped designs with store operators to validate the usability of the designs - if it was intuitive, areas in which users were confused to improve upon, and if features were navigable and easily understood.
Once the team was aligned, I updated designs in a bi-weekly sprint with developers to reflect sad paths and organize Figma components.
