Grocery Merchandising Data Modernization
Project scope:
Discovery Research, Concept Validation, MVP Strategy
Date:
October 2024 - May 2025
Role:
Product Designer, UX Researcher, Design System Federator
*Some project specifics have been omitted to protect client privacy.
Background
A large grocery retailer was modernizing Merch Hub, an internal platform intended to become the central dashboard for merchandising users. Reports & Insights within Merch Hub already brought together links to PowerBI reports, but users still had to open individual reports, compare data sources, and interpret the story themselves.
The opportunity was to move beyond a directory of reports and surface the critical metrics users needed most often directly in their workflow — reducing tool switching, manual analysis, and uncertainty around the source of truth.
Problem
How might we help merchandising users access trusted, decision-ready insights without forcing them to deep-dive into individual reports?
Merchandising teams were working across outdated apps, individual spreadsheets, and a fragmented reporting ecosystem. One analysis found users switching between 10 different apps roughly 80 times in a three-hour period.
The solution also had to fit real delivery constraints: it needed to live inside Merch Hub, use PowerBI for visualizations, and embed those insights into an Angular application without creating another disconnected tool.
Solution Summary
We validated and delivered an Insights Feed MVP inside Reports & Insights: a lightweight experience that surfaced five critical merchandising KPIs directly in Merch Hub, including weekly and period sales comparisons, top UPCs by gross margin, and sales and margin trends.
Concept validation
We started by meeting with two merchandising SMEs to understand the reporting pain points and pressure-test the idea of an Insights Feed. The concept was positively received, which gave us enough confidence to plan discovery around what users would actually need from the feed.
Discovery interviews
I planned and conducted 30-minute interviews with 8 merchandising users across category management, assistant category management, digital, and brick-and-mortar roles. The first half focused on current reporting behaviors and decision-making needs; the second half introduced the feed concept and gathered reactions to collapsed and expanded states.
Metric synthesis and prioritization
After the interviews, I synthesized every metric and KPI users mentioned, then partnered with the cross-functional team to remove duplicates and translate jargon into a clearer list. This narrowed the opportunity to 15 high-value metrics for reporting and decision making.
Survey validation and leadership alignment
I created a UserZoom survey asking respondents to force-rank the top 5 metrics they look for daily or weekly. With 63 responses across merchandising roles, we could compare aggregate and role-based priorities, then present a clear MVP recommendation alongside the broader Integrated Insights strategy.
Challenges & Results
Fragmented data → Decision-ready insights
Users previously had to move between reports, spreadsheets, and disconnected applications to build confidence in the data. The Insights Feed MVP brought five validated KPIs into Merch Hub so users could see high-frequency sales, margin, and UPC performance signals without opening separate reports.
Broad reporting needs → Evidence-based prioritization
The research approach helped the team move from a broad problem statement to a defensible MVP. Qualitative interviews uncovered the language and decision context behind the metrics; the quantitative survey gave leadership a clear prioritization signal for what to build first.
Platform constraints → Practical product strategy
Because visualizations needed to be built in PowerBI and embedded into an Angular platform, the strategy balanced user value with delivery feasibility. The final direction gave the team a practical MVP and a longer-term path toward embedding insights directly into merchandising workflows. I also got to learn a ton about PowerBI via pairing with developers to bring the MVP to life!
Next Steps & Reflections
This project reinforced how powerful mixed-methods research can be in a complex enterprise environment. Interviews gave us empathy and specificity; the survey gave us the evidence needed to align stakeholders and focus delivery around the metrics users valued most.
It was also a strong example of design influencing product strategy beyond a single feature. The MVP addressed an immediate reporting pain point, while the Integrated Insights vision for Merch Hub created a clearer path toward a future where users get trusted information in context, instead of hunting for it across tools.
If the work continued, my next focus would be measuring adoption and trust: which insights users return to, where they still leave the workflow to validate data, and how embedded insights can better support faster merchandising decisions.