AMPLIFYING ASSOCIATE VOICES
Leveraging AI to improve Walmart managers'
associate feedback response speed by 48x
BACKGROUND
In order for Walmart to be the best place to shop, it has to be the best place to work.
Every year, Walmart store associates participate in a survey to share their engagement, intent to stay, and sense of belonging. There was an opportunity to improve the way managers respond to these valuable insights within the Me@Walmart mobile app.
ROLE
Senior Product Designer
TEAM
RESPONSIBILITIES
COLLABORATORS
BUSINESS NEED
Leadership plans to begin holding store managers accountable for survey response effectiveness.
GOAL
Empower managers with tooling in the Me@Walmart to effectively respond to associate feedback.
CHALLENGE
RESEARCH
I learned the process managers use today is disjointed and time-consuming, resulting in low-impact manager response and skepticism among store associates.
Collaborating with Walmart’s research team we developed a comprehensive research plan defining research goals and objectives. Once aligned on a discussion guide we conducted conversations with my users.
Our users
STORE MANAGERS
Salaried leaders responsible for store management and performance.
STORE ASSOCIATES
Hourly employees responsible for a store’s daily tasks and operation.
Research goals
How do managers review survey results today?
How do managers take action in response to survey results today?
How do store associates perceive the value of engagement surveys?
Key takeaways
MANAGERS ARE TIME-POOR
Managers simply don’t have the time required to use the current toolset provided to respond to survey feedback effectively.
ASSOCIATES DON’T FEEL HEARD
Store associates don’t feel like their voice can lead to change in their own stores, largely due to lack of manager response.
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
STRATEGY
I understood my solution needed to be lightweight & streamlined so busy managers could review survey results and create action plans on-the-go.
Guiding principles
From user insights I understood these principles must be true in order for my solution to be successful.
Walmart managers are not data scientist or analysts
Managers know their store and employees best
Avoid adding non-critical responsibilities
Don’t aim to replace in-person collaboration
Managers are commonly racing against the clock
Different managers have different work styles
QUICK-WINS
First, I identified small enhancements within the existing associate-facing survey experience to take advantage of available engineering bandwidth.
Developing a comprehensive solution was going to take some time. To assure our team remained productive during design phases there was an opportunity to quickly enhance the existing associate survey experience.
PROBLEM THIS SOLVED
The previous survey failed usability and accessibility standards. Busy associates were also unable ability to pause and resume survey progress.
WHY IT MATTERS
While I was primarily focused on improving the manager's experience, the associate survey experience is critical to powering the flywheel.
ABILITY TO PAUSE
IMPOROVED CONTRAST
PROGRESS INDICATION
Displaying progress made and how much survey remains
SELECTED STATES
Selected states with multiple signifiers beyond just color
PROPER TAP TARGETS
All tap targets 44px or more to meet A11Y standards
DESIGNED FOR SCALE
INNOVATION
Next, I identified two opportunities to reduce cognitive load and streamline manager response by utilizing AI.
I collaborated closely with Walmart's AI team to explore innovation in two areas:
INSIGHTS FROM RAW DATA
Managers aren’t data analysts. With generative AI we can quickly share meaningful insights from complex data.
RECOMMEND ACTIONS
Starting an action plan from scratch can be overwhelming. A recommendation engine can springboard managers into feedback response.
Managers are presented meaningful insight into their store's engagement health, and most importantly — what to do about it.
PROBLEM SOLVED
HOW
WHY
DATA DRIVEN INSIGHT
RECOMMENDED ACTION
INSIGHT SUMMARIZED BY AI
REASONS TO CELEBRATE
All managers have visibility into a singular store-wide action plan.
PROBLEM SOLVED
HOW
WHY
Each action is fully customizable and flexible to accommodate diverse management styles.
PROBLEM SOLVED
HOW
WHY
ACTIVITY
COMMENTS
IMPACT
A cumbersome process that once took managers days to complete was transformed into an intuitive workflow requiring only a few hours.
BEFORE
Busy managers were forced to review complex results and manually create action plans.
AFTER
Managers are empowered to quickly learn from insights and create action plans on-the-move.
Usability testing highlights
5 out of 5 managers enthusiastically preferred this new feedback experience.
"Finally I can make sense out of those overwhelming result printouts!"
"I'm so excited to use this to make my store better for my associates!"
