Role & Scope
• Led UX for the R&D Maker Lab, focused on future-of-store concepts, associate tools, and connected customer experiences.
• Worked directly with executives, store operations, and vendors to move ideas from whiteboard to in-store pilots.
• Balanced fast experimentation with the realities of franchise operations, legacy systems, and thin-margin convenience retail.
Innovation Lab
R&D Maker Lab | outcomes, methodology& RAPID PROTOTYPING
• Established a hands-on Maker Lab culture where designers, engineers, and ops could co-create physical/digital prototypes together.
• Built and tested interactive mockups, clickable prototypes, and “fake-door” experiments to validate desirability before heavy investment.
• Used real store footage, traffic patterns, and sales data to ground concepts in operational reality, not just aesthetics.
• Turned successful prototypes into patterns that could be scaled into standard store initiatives or digital product roadmaps.
Associate Tools
IN-STORE EXPERIENCES & ASSOCIATE TOOLS
• Designed associate tools for inventory, ordering, and task management that respected the speed and context of convenience retail.
• Simplified workflows that were previously spread across multiple systems, clipboards, and manual workarounds.
• Optimized for glanceable UI, large touch targets, and low-friction interactions that worked reliably in harsh store environments.
• Worked with training and operations to ensure that new tools actually reduced friction instead of shifting work.
Customer Experiments
CUSTOMER & OMNI-CHANNEL EXPERIMENTS
• Explored concepts around personalized offers, pickup/delivery, and loyalty integrated directly into store experiences.
• Tested “store of the future” scenarios with real shoppers and franchisees, identifying what actually drove engagement vs. what created noise.
• Framed findings for executives in business terms (basket size, trip frequency, and operational complexity), not just UX metrics.
Note: I’m actively updating this section with a full case study for this position, including before/after states, outcomes, and team context.
