Expedited Shelf Strip Workflow
Key Activities
Moderated interviews, wire framing, prototyping, UI Design, usability testing, product release.
Problem
Merch Execution teams managed urgent shelf strip requests across multiple systems and 40+ emails per week, making the process slow, manual and error-prone.
Solution
Redesign the expedited shelf strip workflow in SFP Apps to remove manual work, improve speed and usability, and retire the legacy system.
Role
Sole Design Lead
Team
1 Product Manager, 1 Technical PM, 1 Scrum Master, 2 Quality Engineers, and 7 Developers
Timeline
August 2025- March 2026
FINAL DESIGNS
This solution replaced a fragmented, email-heavy process with one application and automated notifications.
It was launched to production in Spring 2026, saving users an estimated 5ā10 hours per week.
DESIGN PROCESS
My Contribution:
I was the sole UX designer on this project and led the design process end to end, from research and stakeholder interviews through prototyping and implementation. I partnered closely with the product manager and developers to make key design decisions that balanced user needs with technical feasibility and constraints.
Expedite Shelf Strip Request Page
Expedite Shelf Strip Request Admin View
Expedite Shelf Strip Request Search
Expedite Shelf Strip Request Detail View
Shelf strips are the unique price tags and product detail stickers attached to items on grocery store shelves. Kroger requires shelf strip creation workflows to be as nimble as possible in order support the various needs of the business including new products, promotions, discounts, etc.
In turn, Kroger prioritized the rollout of an updated creation workflow and experience, and the deprecation of the legacy one. I was responsible for designing an expedited workflow, rethinking the experience while still supporting core user needs and jobs to be done.
BACKGROUND
Shelf strip creation workflows needs to be fast and efficient to support thousands of products and frequent price changes.
PROBLEM
The existing workflow was manual and error prone.
The expedite workflow started in SFP Apps and ended in a legacy system scheduled for deprecation. In between, users copied information between systems by hand and sent emails to move each request to the next step. Every handoff was a chance for delays and errors.
Workflow would start in SFPApps.
Workflow would end in legacy system (to be deprecated).
RAPID IDEATION
I leveraged existing patterns to drive cross-platform consistency.
In parallel, I connected with other designers to understand how similar workflows and patterns were handled in their tools.
I wanted to identify opportunities to reuse familiar patterns and create consistency across platforms as we brought this capability into SFP Apps.
I worked closely with my product manager, tech lead, and key stakeholders to align on requirements and fully understand the business process. This helped me define what needed to be included in an MVP.
I gathered requirements with PM, tech lead, and stakeholders for wireframes.
Division users on the left needed to create shelf strips and mark them as expedited, while an admin group on the right was responsible for reviewing those requests and submitting them to a third-party system for printing. I then scheduled feedback sessions with users to validate the workflow and identify any gaps.
I started by drafting early designs. The updated workflow needed to support two distinct user groups with separate jobs and needs.
USER TESTING & FEEDBACK
Division user group
Admin user group
I ran moderated feedback sessions with 8 division users and 2 admins to validate the early designs and understand how the current process really worked.
The biggest insight was how manual the process was. Users copied information between systems and wrote emails just to trigger the next step. Some associates sent over 40 emails per week for this process alone, spending 5 to 10 hours on it weekly.
That changed the direction of the projectā¦
The biggest opportunity wasnāt just improving the UI. It was removing manual effort through email automation.
I worked with an engineer to design automated emails sent directly from the system.
Each key action in the workflow, like submitting a request or an admin approving it, now triggers the right email to the right people automatically. Because the workflow depended on these notifications, accuracy and timing were critical, so we designed them to be reliable and scalable.
INSIGHTS & CONSTRAINTS
Directions for submitting emails.
Example emails.
We made a conscious decision to prioritize automation first and save status visibility for a future phase.
Users also wanted clearer visibility into where their requests stood. But the manual emails were the biggest source of lost time, and automating them would deliver the most value fastest. Focusing the MVP on automation let us ship sooner and solve the biggest pain point first, with a clear path to add status tracking next.
HAND OFF
At the start of this project, I initiated biweekly design sessions. These were used for design share-outs, technical reviews, and clarifying requirements.
Because of this close collaboration, the final handoff of designs was smooth. I continued attending stand-ups and review sessions throughout the development process to be available to maintain alignment and address any questions as the feature was released in the dev environment.
RETROSPECTIVE
How we planned to measure success:
Hours saved per user per week: target of 5ā10 hours
Manual emails replaced by automated ones: target of 40+ per user per week
Expedited shelf strips created in the new workflow: tracking adoption as the legacy system is retired
What I learned
The most important design decision on this project came from research, not from the screens. Talking to users showed that the real problem was manual coordination, not the interface. Next time, Iād measure a baseline before launch, like time per request and emails sent, so the impact would be even easier to show.