↓ Problem
↓ Insight
↓ Idea
↓ Impact
[ 2 ]
01x User Researchers
02x Business Analysts
User-Centered Research & Insights
Team Management & Mentorship
Cross-Functional Processes
$8 million reduction in operational cost achieved
90% less time to onboard new team members
The Problem
Stockouts, inefficient routes, and operational blind spots eroded both revenue and trust.
“Some days I’d be rushing between stores, calling dispatch just to figure out where I was supposed to be next. If a shelf was missing something, I’d find out way too late. We need something to help us stay ahead.”
Frontline Sales Rep, Frito-Lay
Insight
Ride-Alongs and Store Visits
To go beyond assumptions, we embedded ourselves in the field:
- Ride-alongs with sales reps surfaced pain points in delivery routes, stocking routines, and daily task flows.
- On-site interviews with storeowners exposed inventory stress, missed sales due to stockouts, and anxiety around ordering the wrong products.
A pain point tracker documented recurring frustrations and inefficiencies, informing design priorities and creating a shared backlog for product, business, and engineering.
- Reps lacked real-time tools, which made it difficult to adapt on the fly, optimize delivery routes, or respond to in-store issues. They often relied on memory or outdated paperwork, which led to inefficiencies and missed sales.
- Retailers relied heavily on guesswork, unsure of which products to reorder or when. This led to frequent out-of-stock scenarios on popular items and excess inventory of products that didn’t sell.
- Training new employees was time-consuming, often taking 20+ hours due to the need to navigate multiple disconnected systems and undocumented processes.
- Communication gaps between field teams and central operations created delays, confusion, and redundant tasks. There was no shared view of performance or product needs.
- Legacy tech limited visibility, leaving frontline workers and storeowners flying blind on stocking decisions and inventory levels.
Frito-Lay needed a system that could bring clarity, coordination, and confidence to every step of the operation from the warehouse to the shelf.
Idea
Built on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Snacks to You empowers small-format retailers, such as bodegas and bowling alleys, to place personalized online orders without needing a sales rep visit.
One of its core features is the Smart Shelf, which allows storeowners to build, customize, and reorder curated snack assortments. By selecting from predefined shelf types such as endcaps or checkout lanes and entering store-specific layout details, retailers receive product suggestions tailored to their unique format and customer flow.
Fig 1/4: As an extension of the customer sign up flow, shopowners are guided through establishing a store profile.
Fig 2/4: Shopowners provided details for snack displays located throughout the store.
Fig 3/4: Custom displays can be intuitively added by grabbing and dragging.
Fig 4/4: Snack preferences are collected at the end before providing an initial snack mix recommendation.
Once a store profile is set up, submitting a tailored order is just a few clicks.
To further reduce uncertainty, the platform introduced the Snack Score, a real-time, market-based ranking system that helps retailers understand which products are trending in comparable locations. This gave storeowners confidence that they were ordering snacks their customers actually wanted, not just what was available in the catalog.
A Smart Swap was indicated with visual cues in the customer’s cart and reinforced during final checkout.
By analyzing this data, the system could suggest timely reorder opportunities, flag slow movers, and align product recommendations with upcoming seasonal events. Altogether, Snacks to You turned ordering into a strategic advantage for small retailers.
The Insights Dashboard offered storeowners a centralized view of order history, sales performance, and demand trends.
We replaced guesswork with insights, reducing out-of-stocks, improving product mix, and boosting storeowner confidence.
At this scale, the bump in orders would mean $48M to $90M in additional annual revenue. While I don’t have the specific numbers, that’s a lot of potential cabbage.
Mobile task and labor management for frontline employees
Sales Hub, built on Salesforce Service Cloud, reimagined daily workflows for delivery drivers and sales reps. One of its most impactful features was route optimization powered by geotagging, which allowed drivers to check in automatically at each stop, track mileage, and reduce travel inefficiencies.
Fig 1/5: Visit delays had increased structure and automation increasing awareness across operations.
Fig 2/5: Store details, scheduled tasks, and actions were all organized within store pages with user input.
Fig 3/5: Setting up an order was largely automated, but with clear form taxonomy to navigate changes.
Fig 4/5: Adding products to an order was as easy as scanning a product UPC and adjusting quantities.
Fig 5/5: Finalizing an order was just a few clicks.
Tablet-optimized dashboards offered live insights into workforce performance, helping managers make smarter staffing and routing decisions. This led to increased agility across both field and central operations.
Managers had overarching views for successfully planning labor and tasks.
Workflows, such as adding new tasks, were streamlined and reduced time to completion.
Optimized for tablets, these applications support a hybrid workforce, allowing managers to seamlessly transition between home office work and field operations while maintaining full oversight of their teams.
Integration with Salesforce Service Cloud enabled streamlined schedule views for front line managers.
In-person sessions took place at a controlled testing site, where participants engaged with the prototype under the guidance of a moderator and note-takers. Remote sessions were conducted via Zoom, allowing for broader user input.
Throughout testing, we tracked user task difficulty using Single Ease Questions (SEQ) scores and gathered qualitative feedback through System Usability Scale (SUS) surveys. By systematically following up on user feedback, we ensured that insights directly informed iterative design improvements, creating a product that was both intuitive and effective for frontline employees.
In the early design phase of new product capabilities at Frito-Lay, we constructed detailed user flows to visualize key interactions and decision points. These flows were printed and displayed in shared workspaces at Frito-Lay HQ, ensuring that the broader program remained aligned with ongoing work.
This approach fostered transparency, kept teams focused on user needs, and created an opportunity to source valuable feedback from extended team members and stakeholders. By making these user flows highly visible, we encouraged cross-functional input, helping refine and optimize the product experience before development began.
Sales Hub improved field efficiency by providing real-time operational visibility, helping managers make data-driven scheduling decisions resulting in $8 million in cost reductions.
Frito-Lay Operations Manager
Impact
- Increase in average store orders from 51 to 53 annually driven by 30,000 active retailers using Snacks to You, leading to reduced stock shortages and fewer costly rush shipments.
- $8 million in cost reductions achieved through Sales Hub, which improved field efficiency by providing real-time operational visibility and helping managers make data-driven scheduling decisions.
- Training time reduced from 20 hours to just 2 hours, significantly improving onboarding efficiency.
- Improved service speed and delivery accuracy through enhanced coordination between back-office operations and frontline employees.
- Expansion of Sales Hub capabilities—Due to its success, Frito-Lay is now working with IBM to integrate ordering, invoicing, and warehouse management.
Frito-Lay’s digital transformation is ongoing. As Kevin Buehler, Senior Director of Snacks to You, put it:
"It's not like there's a start and stop to this transformation. It’s a process. We’re on this journey and will continue as we evolve with our workforce."
Future phases of the project will:
- Expand the reach of Snacks to You to more retailers and optimize AI-driven recommendations.
- Integrate more operational features into Sales Hub, including warehouse management tools.
- Refine user experience through ongoing research, ensuring the solutions continue to meet the needs of both employees and retailers.
By leveraging design thinking and user-centered methodologies, this initiative has transformed how Frito-Lay operates, setting a new standard for efficiency, visibility, and customer satisfaction.