Tesco Promotions Mgmt Tool
A singular destination for Tesco colleagues to create and manage effective promotions
Situation
MyProduct Promotions was an online tool used by over 200 Tesco colleagues (Buyers, Buying admins, Trade planners and Category planners) to load and manage Tesco store promotions. This number doesn’t include suppliers to Tesco, who also use the tool to the same end.
The problem was that the tool was perceived as a necessary end part of the process to load promotions. Our initial challenge was to look at this process and create a vision for change.
What we did
Research
12 remote interviews with Key Tesco colleagues & suppliers
Remote workshops in Miro
We conducted 12 remote interviews with key Tesco colleagues and suppliers to understand workflows and pain points. Ensuring nuances within business categories and roles were covered. We then correlated our findings with business insights from product owners and reached the following hypothesis.
Research findings
1. Poor processes & siloed working
Colleagues created their own custom spreadsheets to manage promotions in Excel. There was not a standard process or templates for these documents. This meant sharing best practices and artefacts was poor.
The current browser tool was seen as simply a promotions loading/scheduling tool.
2. Poor communication
Most communication around managing promotions took place over email, or through meetings (in person or through Teams). Many colleagues found the volume of communication overwhelming and inefficient.
3. Mistrust of data
There was also a mistrust of data from external sources. Many colleagues preferred to use their own forecasts (typical taken from historic sales). Accurate data was not being used to help drive decision making at key points.
4. Generic, repeated promotions
Many promotions were generic, heavily led by seasons and repeated events. Promotional activity is often based on what was done previously, with small improvements/amendments. Repeating promotions meant that a volume of activity is not targeted or personalised.
Design
What we did
Workshopped early concepts based on the problems identified in the research, using the crazy 8’s method.
Created conceptual wireframes from preferred solutions.
Created a presentation deck, which we presented around the business to key stakeholders, telling the full story of current landscape and vision for the future.
Conceptual wireframes
-
Customisable workspace
-
Micro personalisation
-
AI suggestions/improvements
-
Channel specific tasks
-
Rules based targeted promotions
-
Real-time co-creation
-
Team management
-
AI created promotions with natural language prompts
Prioritising features
With the conceptual wireframes complete we were then able to get the team together to plot the solutions against estimations for perceived value vs the effort to create. This allowed the product team to decide what solutions we would tackle first in our MVP designs.
Approaching detailed design - the design system
Expanded the centralised design system, to create an enterprise focused variation
Weekly team shares and a sandboxed creation of new components/tokens
Detailed design
1. Quick draft promotion creation
Created design zone principles for the workspace, where the left hand side would work as a secondary zone for data control within the workspace. The top area would be a global navigation and search area, and the left would be used for Data Analysis tools.
2. Customisable workspace
We explored in the designs produced a way of allowing the workspace to be customised and saved in the following ways. Firstly the user could view the date either in a list, a kanban or plotted on a timeline. This allowed the user to view promotional material via status, or visually by date plotted.
We also created a way for users to view promotions across buying areas, this allowed colleagues to cover other areas when needed and for managers to manage promotions across larger data samples.
Lastly filter controls were introduced to enable colleagues to easily view promotional activity and a granular level.
Kanban workspace view of promotions
Timeline view of promotional years
Workspace customisable by business area(s)
Outcome
With the conceptual designs created and the value change presented the team were able to successfully negotiate business buy in. This meant the work could go into a delivery cycle.