Physical Stores Operational Tooling Platform Strategy

Amazon was new to the physical stores business. They had launched bookstores, Just walk out (JWO) convenience stores, and acquired Whole Foods Market. Next, was launching Fresh Grocery stores and expanding to international.

My challenge was to simplify and optimize tooling while scaling the platform for growth.

 

Problems

  • Duplicative tools were being built across businesses

  • Developers were designing custom UI buttons and patterns for each new tool built

  • Store employees were using so many “hacks” within the tools to do their daily jobs

Goals

  • Reduce and simplify tools to match employees’ physical workflow

  • Promote cohesion and standardization of handheld tools and dashboards through an compatible design system

  • Drive awareness with tech teams on UX process

Solution
Re-use an internal design system designed for shippers, drivers, and employees within Amazon to create cohesive tooling experiences across Physical Stores Platform Tools.

My Impact

  • Store tools were reduced by 1/3 to help employees more efficiently do their job

  • Development time decreased by 30% with reusable code and patterns.

  • Platform adopted initiative to build and migrate all Operational Tooling to one Design system

Role

  • Research

  • Strategy

  • UI Design

  • Usability Testing

Team
Self directed while influencing teams in physical store businesses

  • Engineering

  • Design

  • Product

Duration
2019 - 2020

My Design Process

When I joined the team as the first UX designer, there was a ton of ambiguity and gaps in how businesses were building their store tools and dashboards. I started with writing my design “recipe” of how I could drive clarity in the space.

Research

Workshop Facilitation to understand users of the Platform

I leveraged my team to quickly understand who were all the users and businesses of the Operational Tooling Platform for physical stores Amazon.

Key Takeways:

  • The users of the platform spanned roles across the company and externally

  • In-store Employees and Managers using tools for day-to-day operations

  • Corporate users relying on dashboards to manage workflows

  • Tech Ops teams using platform to setup and troubleshoot store tech

  • Vendors who are bringing in product to stores

  • Developers who are developing business specific tools

  • Businesses using the platform were kitchen, grocery, convenience, devices, books, and expanding.

Taking a walk in employees’ shoes “literally”

I spent time working in each of the store formats as an employees. I bagged groceries at Whole Foods Market. I helped execute a seasonal product Changeover at the bookstore. I restocked shelves during a lunch rush at Amazon Go. I used the tools in context to understand the core workflows, painpoints, and gaps. Based on my ethnographic research, I produced a collective user profile of what it meant to be a store employee working in a physical store.

Key Learnings:

  • Employees were using multiple tools to do simple things like moving inventory

  • There were lots of manual processes in-store were a tool could help

  • There wasn’t an easy way to fix empty holes or low inventory in store

  • There were so many tools that employees had to choose from to do their job

Comprehensive Audit to understand what tools existed

In order to improve how businesses built tools, I audited what tools were actually being used across all the physical store businesses today. I documented over 50 unique tools across the businesses. Some had very similar names without a clear distinction on when to use what tool.

Key Learnings:

  • There was no single source of truth on what tools existed on the Platform or how they should be built

  • Businesses would re-build the same tool resulting in duplicative work

  • Businesses were only focused on their use cases, and didn’t think about how it the tool could work for another format

  • UI was different in each tool and didn’t have a cohesive feel or look

Synthesis across businesses

After the I time spent in store, I synthesized the processes and workflows across each business. I mapped out the employees daily workflow so I could understand the virtual, physical and manual work completed. I used this as a starting point on how to simplify or automate daily actions.

Journey map to understand developers workflow

I facilitated a workshop with my tech partners to really understand how developers built tools for the platform. I focused on opportunities in each phase to improve the process.

Identifying a design system that would scale

I evaluated design systems both internal and external. Researching components, accessibility, and theming supported across businesses, I looked for a system that could support the platform needs as we grew. Based on my deep dive, I identified an internal design system that could be a viable option.

Influencing and Driving Alignment

I wrote a detailed document with FAQ’s to drive alignment across product and tech teams. I needed to that ensure teams had a chance to vocalize any concerns about using this design system. With partner design teams, I created a concept prototype with common tools to show them in action the pattern/changes. I had the green light to move ahead and identify tools as a pilot.

Choosing Pilot Tools

I worked with managers across the platform on their roadmaps to identify potential pilot tools. Store Notifications as well as a new Order Management Tool were my test tools. I rebuilt the UI in the new design system and provided engineering detailed documentation on components and patterns.

Engineers were able to build the tools 30% faster. They could easily re-use code while raising the bar on the visual cohesion of the tools.

Delivery Handoff

Across the businesses and platform I was able to get alignment on using this design system for all new and existing store tooling. I documented all unique physical store patterns and socialized with tech and design. Using this design system has simplified tooling across the board. It has created a cohesive visual system that is recognizable and easy to use for employees.

Key Takeaways

Learnings

  • Big letters, Bold colors, Keep it simple…. from a store employee on what they wanted from tooling UI

  • In order to influence teams, you must meet them where they are and how they think

Challenges

  • The efforts to migrate the existing tools on the platform to the the design system took years longer than expected

  • Net new work always became higher priority than reducing tech debt