Stephen Herko

Fusion

My role

  • Lead UX Designer
  • Product strategy
  • Research

Team

  • 7 Engineers
  • 3 UX designers
  • 1 Product owner
  • 2 Data scientists
  • 1 Content designer

Goal

Our goal is to create a tool that enhances the lives of Sam's Club's merchant teams. By automating tedious and repetitive tasks, the tool frees up their time to focus on creating more delightful experiences for customers. With this tool, we hope to improve the productivity and job satisfaction of the merchant teams, ultimately leading to better outcomes for both the teams and the customers they serve.

Duration

7 months

Introduction

This UX case study will focus on a project aimed at creating an interface for Sam's Club's merchant teams. The goal of the project was to help merchants with their day-to-day work, which was burdened by a lack of robust item data and disconnected systems.

Problem Statement

Today's members view Sam's Club as an efficient place to purchase basic affordable items. However, they want more than just the basics. They want to be delighted and surprised with inspirational products at the best value, regardless of the way they shop. Unfortunately, the merchant teams at Sam's Club are not empowered to go beyond the core needs of the members. This is because they lack robust item data and are burdened with tactical execution work due to the company's legacy infrastructure of disconnected systems. The problem statement is to create an interface that will empower the merchant teams to better serve the members.

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Workshops

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Success metrics

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Research

To gain insight into the merchant team's daily workflow and challenges, a research team conducted interviews with different merchants and stakeholders. The research team also analyzed the company's legacy infrastructure and data management systems to identify the pain points that need to be addressed.

The research revealed that merchants face several challenges, including:

  • Lack of easy access to data on member preferences and behaviors.
  • Tedious and time-consuming manual tasks that distract them from strategic work.
  • Limited visibility into product performance and member trends.
  • Inefficient communication between different teams and systems.
  • Based on this research, the team identified three main areas to focus on in the design of the new interface: data access, task management, and collaboration.

Our users

Vision

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Competitive research

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Design

We started by creating a user journey map to understand how merchants interact with different systems and teams. I then created wireframes and prototypes of the new interface, which went through several iterations based on feedback from the merchants and stakeholders. The new interface is designed to provide easy access to data on member preferences and behaviors, allowing merchants to make more informed decisions. It also includes a task management system that helps merchants prioritize their work and automate some of the more tedious manual tasks. Finally, the new interface includes collaboration tools that enable better communication and visibility between different teams and systems.


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Testing

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Handling an Influx of Ideas: Prioritization Strategies

We had no shortage of ideas and feature requests. These came from our research, UX, product managers, and business partners. The influx of ideas were exciting and user-centered, but we knew we couldn't handle everything. To manage this, we prioritized the features through an exercise.

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Design

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Outcome

The new interface has been implemented and has had a significant positive impact on the merchant team's daily work. They now have easy access to data on member preferences and behaviors, allowing them to make more informed decisions. The task management system has also enabled them to automate some of the more tedious manual tasks, freeing up time for more strategic work. Finally, the collaboration tools have improved communication and visibility between different teams and systems, leading to better decision-making and more successful outcomes.

Conclusion

The new interface has been a significant success in empowering the merchant team at Sam's Club. The user-centered design process has led to a solution that addresses the pain points identified in the research phase. The new interface has made it easier for merchants to serve members in a more personalized and strategic way, ultimately leading to more successful outcomes for the company.