Problem Overview
Merchants play a pivotal role in retail strategy, but the disorganized landscape of analytical tools left them struggling to identify problems and make data-driven decisions. This led to wasted time, increased costs, and missed growth opportunities. They needed a solution that put data in context, allowing them to focus on products, pricing, and promotions that matched customer needs.
Recognizing this challenge, I collaborated with a team of 450 merchants to address the stagnation in legacy reporting systems and improve collaborative problem-solving during their business reviews. Our goal was clear: to create a tool that empowered merchants with actionable insights.
Don't Turn that Laptop Off, It Makes My Daily Report
The existing analytical tools were fragmented and inconsistent, making it difficult for merchants to extract meaningful insights or explain inventory problems to leadership and peers. Each business sub-unit had unique challenges, but all shared the pain of inefficient processes and data overload.
Some merchants even had computers running under their desk politely requesting no one touch the power button. Why? It was their reporting engine. Not kidding. The worlds largest retailer was creating daily reports from laptops under people's desks.
The challenge was to develop a solution that not only met diverse needs but also streamlined complex workflows, enabling merchants to quickly identify and act on the most critical issues.
Understanding Merchants
I led research efforts, working closely with my design team to conduct in-depth ethnographic studies. We identified that merchandising was highly ritualistic, with daily tasks revolving around the "pulse" of the business (e.g., weekend shopping trends).
Refining Complex Business Needs
Summarizing user needs became a project of its own. We used the following methods:
- Journey Maps: Showed common workflows across different business units.
- Flow Diagrams: Captured how merchants identified and solved problems
- Affinity Clusters: Grouped user needs and tasks into clear themes.
Focusing Approach with Design Sprints:
Armed with these insights, I led multiple design sprints, working alongside merchants to co-create solutions. We tackled key questions like:
- How might we help merchants plan and execute their 30, 60, and 90-day strategies with leadership review?
- How might we limit insights to help merchants focus on current, actionable trends?
- How might we show how their performance compares with peers?
- How might we put performance in context with past, present, and future forecasts?
We recruited a diverse group of merchants for co-design sessions, where they shared workflow patterns and validated our concepts. This collaborative approach allowed us to build prototypes that addressed real merchant pain points:
- Performance overviews compared to previous years
- Data summaries using simple language
- Weather comparisons
- Visualizations of sales, profit, and inventory highlighting problem areas
- The ability to share findings with their team and create reports for leadership
These insights were captured in testable prototypes for further refinement, and merchants actively validated and challenged our ideas.
A Clear Solution Emerged
With validation complete, merchants wanted an experience that let them tell clear stories about their data. They were experts without the right tools to communicate their insights.
Key features included:
- Alerts for potential problems impacting profit and loss
- A guided approach to data analysis, suggesting visualizations based on past data
- Messaging capabilities for sharing key findings with peers and leadership
- Completed reports published to the platform
- In-context data analysis, allowing merchants to see products alongside raw data and spot patterns
- The ability to dig deeper into issues to get a complete view of their business
Impact
The results were substantial:
- Engaged over 110 users in the process
- Analyzed 315 reports, leading to the elimination of redundant reports
- Created a vision that guided the development of a multi-product platform with 5 distinct tools serving the merchant organization
Two years later, our product, design, and tech teams continue to reference our findings. The solution not only transformed how merchants interacted with their data but also paved the way for more efficient decision-making across the organization.
As the lead product designer, I ensured that we didn’t just build a tool—we created a platform that empowered merchants to make informed decisions, collaborate effectively, and drive business growth.