Ask Sam - Mobile App

The story behind this product is just as captivating as the concept itself. This app's unprecendetned level of success was a result of a forward-thinking stakeholder who had faith in our research-driven approach to design, permitting us to shape the product in a manner that we believed would enhance productivity, increase sales, and drive true ROI.

After conducting interviews, building subsequent design and the engineering team producing great development work, "Ask Sam" was born. This AI-powered, voice-responsive app serves as a digital assistant for store associates and managers allowing them to better serve customers.

Our consultancy was approached by Sam's Club with a clear objective: to establish the retailer as a technology leader in the industry while delivering a valuable product. We eagerly accepted the challenge, leveraging our expertise in innovative design while advocating for a user-centered, research focused process to ensure a high ROI.

User Research

We recognized the importance of conducting comprehensive user research in the long-term goals of the project. I helped advocate for this approach and create the research strategy for this necessary step in the journey. Laying the groundwork took a total of four weeks, but it was absolutely essential in understanding the specific needs, preferences, and pain points of the end-users. We were able to get back that initial time, in terms of our investment in research, 10x later as we had a north star to rally around which removed any ambiguity or the need to speculate on user needs. The discovery sessions ultimately guided our development efforts.

• I made three visits to Sam's Club stores located nearby to engage in on-site field studies. During the visits, I immersed myself in the store environment, observing and interacting with various aspects of the space to gain firsthand insights and data for our research.
• Additionally, I conducted multiple rounds of user interviews, engaging with employees at various organizational levels, ranging from associates to managers. These efforts were undertaken with the goal of gathering valuable insights that would empower us to make informed decisions and move forward with confidence.
• I conducted comprehensive research analysis, synthesizing the gathered intake information. Subsequently, I generated reports and visual UX delivarables intended for our executive stakeholders, enabling them to disseminate key findings, and also for our internal team to use as a focal point while devising our next steps.

While I usually create single-user journey maps, the findings felt too wide spread to ignore. I aimed to show the broad impact of inventory information across all levels and believed this illustrated the story best. We also used the insights to address pain points for managers, customers, and associates.

We created a strategy for an AI-Driven voice assistant to help associates using their feedback and pain points to navigate the way for our team. We found that they were often stopped on the floor, fielding questions from customers which could take up to 32 minutes if searching for inventory.

Transforming a process that took over 30 minutes to under 30 seconds

I was also able to leverage research insights to create a design strategy. The enhanced productivity and streamlined process would be helpful to all.This had a positive impact on both employees and customers, ultimately leading to measurable ROI and productivity stats..

We used Figma to create wireframes, and presented these high-level concepts to the Sam's Club business team and engineers. I communicated the why behind our design choices, pointing to research findings to drive these design decisions. We were proactive in reaching out and collaborating closely with the Sam's Club business team and their developers in an effort o prioritize needs, taking into account user requirements, technical feasibility, business goals, and project timelines.

After establishing alignment, we began the visual design work and started prototyping. Due to the work upfront, we quickly brought the "Ask Sam" app to life through captivating graphics and meticulous design.