Lowe's - Staggered Delivery
Contractors and business customers often require materials at different phases of a project. Yet our fulfillment system forced all items to arrive simultaneously — creating job-site congestion, increasing handling costs, and introducing avoidable project delays.
I led the design of Staggered Delivery, a scalable fulfillment capability that allows associates and customers to group products into multiple deliveries based on project timelines. The solution improved operational flexibility, reduced friction in order planning, and unlocked significant new revenue.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Duration
Product Roadmap (3 Months)
Impact
$150M incremental revenue | $10.2M net margin
Team
Product, Engineering, UX Research, Business Stakeholders
The Problem at Scale
Bulk orders were treated as a single delivery event regardless of product type, storage limitations, or installation sequence.
This created measurable business risk:
Job sites became overcrowded
Materials were exposed to damage or theft
Contractors incurred re-handling costs
Associates lacked tools to confidently structure deliveries
More importantly, the limitation prevented Lowe’s from competing effectively for complex Pro orders.
Opportunity
Transform delivery from a logistical constraint into a strategic advantage by enabling customers to schedule staggered deliveries across multiple dates and truck types, giving them greater control over when and how their products arrive. This solution should support project coordination, reduce on-site storage challenges, and improve the overall delivery experience by aligning product arrival with customer needs.
Introducing Smart Grouping recommendations reduce cognitive load, while an AI companion explains options and tradeoffs to support faster, more confident decisions.
Solution
Introduced Smart Grouping recommendations that enable associates to quickly compare and select optimized delivery configurations. An AI companion clarifies options and tradeoffs, reducing cognitive load and empowering faster, more confident decisions. This approach also ensures associates can easily understand and manage split deliveries without confusion.
Research & Insights
Partnering closely with the Research team, we conducted Moderated Usability Testing to gather actionable user insights.
Key insights included:
User Understanding: Evaluated how users interpret “Split Delivery” and what capabilities they expect the feature to provide.
Terminology Clarity: Assessed whether labels such as Fastest, Fewest, and Custom Delivery are clear, meaningful, and intuitive.
Task Efficiency: Measured how easily users can create, modify, and save delivery groups throughout the workflow.
Decision Confidence: Identified whether users feel they have sufficient information to make informed and confident delivery selections.
Workflow Alignment: Examined how well the experience aligns with associates’ real-world processes for supporting customers and managing orders.
Usability Opportunities: Highlighted areas users found confusing or helpful and captured recommendations to improve overall usability.
These insights informed a design approach centered on simplicity, clarity, and speed.
Role & Ownership
As Lead Product Designer, I drove the experience from discovery through launch in close partnership with Product, Engineering, and Research.
I was responsible for:
Defining the delivery-grouping interaction model
Facilitating cross-functional design workshops
Translating operational constraints into product requirements
Leading usability testing strategy
Influencing roadmap priorities
Designing decision-support patterns, including an AI companion
Aligning stakeholders around a scalable fulfillment vision
Recruited associates for a variety of roles, including:
Role & Ownership
As Lead Product Designer, I drove the experience from discovery through launch in close partnership with Product, Engineering, and Research.
I was responsible for:
Defining the delivery-grouping interaction model
Facilitating cross-functional design workshops
Translating operational constraints into product requirements
Leading usability testing strategy
Influencing roadmap priorities
Designing decision-support patterns, including an AI companion
Aligning stakeholders around a scalable fulfillment vision
Research & Insights
Partnering closely with the Research team, we conducted Moderated Usability Sessions with associates to understand mental models around delivery planning.
What we learned:
User Understanding: Evaluated how users interpret “Split Delivery” and what capabilities they expect the feature to provide.
Terminology Clarity: Assessed whether labels such as Fastest, Fewest, and Custom Delivery are clear, meaningful, and intuitive.
Task Efficiency: Measured how easily users can create, modify, and save delivery groups throughout the workflow.
Decision Confidence: Identified whether users feel they have sufficient information to make informed and confident delivery selections.
Workflow Alignment: Examined how well the experience aligns with associates’ real-world processes for supporting customers and managing orders.
Usability Opportunities: Highlighted areas users found confusing or helpful and captured recommendations to improve overall usability.
These insights informed a design approach centered on simplicity, clarity, and speed.
Recruited associates for a variety of roles, including:
Lowe's Associates
•Appliance Specialist •Pro Specialist •Flooring Specialist •Fulfillment Lead
Expert in Selling
Customer (Pro)
Contractors and other Business Professionals
Contractors and business professionals rely on Lowe’s for dependable inventory, competitive pricing, and convenient fulfillment options that help them stay organized, work efficiently, and keep projects on schedule while minimizing delays.
The Problem at Scale
Bulk orders were treated as a single delivery event regardless of product type, storage limitations, or installation sequence.
This created measurable business risk:
Job sites became overcrowded
Materials were exposed to damage or theft
Contractors incurred re-handling costs
Associates lacked tools to confidently structure deliveries
More importantly, the limitation prevented Lowe’s from competing effectively for complex Pro orders.
Opportunity
Transform delivery from a logistical constraint into a strategic advantage by enabling customers to schedule staggered deliveries across multiple dates and truck types, giving them greater control over when and how their products arrive. This solution should support project coordination, reduce on-site storage challenges, and improve the overall delivery experience by aligning product arrival with customer needs.
Introducing Smart Grouping recommendations reduce cognitive load, while an AI companion explains options and tradeoffs to support faster, more confident decisions.
Solution
Introduced Smart Grouping recommendations that enable associates to quickly compare and select optimized delivery configurations. An AI companion clarifies options and tradeoffs, reducing cognitive load and empowering faster, more confident decisions. This approach also ensures associates can easily understand and manage split deliveries without confusion.
Lowe's Associates
•Appliance Specialist •Pro Specialist •Flooring Specialist •Fulfillment Lead
Expert in Selling
Lowe's Associates
•Appliance Specialist •Pro Specialist •Flooring Specialist •Fulfillment Lead
Expert in Selling
Customer (Pro)
Contractors and other Business Professionals
Contractors and business professionals rely on Lowe’s for dependable inventory, competitive pricing, and convenient fulfillment options that help them stay organized, work efficiently, and keep projects on schedule while minimizing delays.
Customer (Pro)
Contractors and other Business Professionals
Contractors and business professionals rely on Lowe’s for dependable inventory, competitive pricing, and convenient fulfillment options that help them stay organized, work efficiently, and keep projects on schedule while minimizing delays.
Design Exploration
In our early designs, participants responded very positively to the experience of creating a split delivery, describing it as clear, intuitive, and valuable for managing complex customer orders.
Small friction points - particularly around terminology that impacted comprehension, drag-and-drop, and fee logic - slightly reduced the flow, but did not impact task success or overall positive sentiment.
Changed of Direction
Our initial design relied on a drawer-based workflow. Testing revealed it constrained visibility and made multi-group management difficult.
I led the shift to a full-screen orchestration view, enabling:
Clear hierarchy between products and groups
Easier editing
Stronger spatial understanding
Reduced interaction friction
The change significantly improved task success and usability scores.
Changed of Direction
Our initial design relied on a drawer-based workflow. Testing revealed it constrained visibility and made multi-group management difficult.
I led the shift to a full-screen orchestration view, enabling:
Clear hierarchy between products and groups
Easier editing
Stronger spatial understanding
Reduced interaction friction
The change significantly improved task success and usability scores.
Design Exploration
In our early designs, participants responded very positively to the experience of creating a split delivery, describing it as clear, intuitive, and valuable for managing complex customer orders.
Small friction points - particularly around terminology that impacted comprehension, drag-and-drop, and fee logic - slightly reduced the flow, but did not impact task success or overall positive sentiment.
AI Companion — Designing for Trust, Not Novelty
To further support decision-making, we introduced an AI-powered companion that surfaced contextual guidance during delivery setup.
It helped associates:
Understand tradeoffs between speed and consolidation
Identify potential conflicts
Validate grouping logic
Rather than positioning AI as an authority, I designed it as assistive intelligence — transparent, contextual, and non-blocking.
Adoption improved because the system supported expertise instead of replacing it.
Business Impact
By simplifying complex delivery coordination for both customers and associates, the experience reduced friction in high-value purchases and increased order confidence. The initiative generated $150M in incremental revenue and $10.2M in net margin, demonstrating the direct business impact of thoughtful, customer-centered design.