Reimagined warehouse surplus food recovery workflow by introducing a digital donation workflow.
That's me 😁
Team
7 Designers
1 Sr. Ops designer
1 UX Researcher
Primary role
Design strategy
Service design
UX research
Interface design
Timeframe
5 months project
Background, solution, and impact!
The focus was on driving sustainability through new initiatives 🚀.
Kroger sponsored this 2024 ECO Hackathon project to identify sustainability opportunities in warehouse operations and logistics, supporting its “Zero Hunger | Zero Waste” goal to end hunger and eliminate waste by 2030.
We built ReSKU, a new digital workflow to simplify food recovery and channel surplus food (unsellable inventory) into foodbank donations.
2x
Employee Efficiency
Streamlined evaluation,
quick disposal or donation without multiple QA checks.
Boosting Kroger partnership
Enhancing PR, fostering community goodwill, and reinforcing brand loyalty.
The problem
The existing recoup process for unsellable inventory didn’t work well.
Unsellable inventory is the surplus warehouse inventory that can't be sent to stores but is still usable & consumable. Tedious QA and process gaps led to the products being either recycled or disposed of.
Saish Lad
I proposed a three-fold approach focused on strategy, research, and mapping.
Defining a viable MVP scope!
Each unsellable category—from produce to dairy—has unique handling needs. We focused on low-friction products (Ambient goods) to ease Kroger’s first implementation.
Donation Feasibility ➔
Operational Complexity ➔
Ambient Goods
Bakery items
Fresh produce
Dairy products
Frozen foods
2. Getting inspiration from competitors
We researched how businesses manage surplus recovery processes and identified benchmark features to guide our design.
Marketplace
Product pickup
Real-time updates
Contact channels
3. Finding the right intervention point for a new process
To pinpoint where the new integration should be implemented so it doesn't disrupt the existing warehouse processes.
Floor QA
Under NDA
Conceptualization and quick feedback
Idea 1: What if warehouses had a second-chance store?
A dedicated area in each warehouse that would hold unsellable items, sorted by damage, with purchases made on-site or through an internal online shop.
Product in-flow
Identifying surplus during QA
● Over stock
● Damage
● Close to
expiration
➔
Product discovery
Creating visibility for surplus food
● Associate
marketplace app
● Warehouse
displays
● Designated Aisles
➔
Product out-flow
Supply from in-warehouse stores
● In-person
pickup
● Store
experience
But Kroger experts gave us a crucial redirection
Before moving into design, we urged early feedback from internal Kroger stakeholders to test the viability of our idea.
A marketplace would work to show visibility for unsellable inventory.
The idea could benefit from a community collaboration perspective.
Kroger warehouses could face challenges with an in-store setup.
The idea would require adding several new steps to the existing process.
Idea 2: What if warehouses had a donation system instead?
Receiving early feedback helped us make an informed pivot! We quickly iterated on the new direction and proposed an idea better aligned with Kroger's Zero Hunger | Zero Waste mission.
A donation system would boost community collaboration.
Scheduled pickups would work better than in-warehouse stores.
Setting up a donation system would still add extra steps to the current surplus inventory recovery process.
Understanding the space and designing the user experience
How two warehouse visits prioritized digitization
The manual recovery process for unsellable inventory was ad hoc and scattered, disrupting the flow of other digitized warehouse operations.
Ineffective Reporting
Ad-hoc reporting led to miscommunication and tiring report generation.
Variable Systems
Each warehouse handles unsellable goods differently.
Tedious Manual Tracking
Manual processes made data unreliable and tough to keep track of.
Solving 2 problems in 1 design solution
To digitize product recovery and improve the donation pipeline, we envisioned a revamped process to connect warehouses with foodbanks better.
From idea to prototype in two weeks
With time short to ship, we turned to rapid prototyping. Working and testing our designs with Kroger's inventory control managers and design ops team.
Shipping and presenting the end solution!
Feature 1: Donation workflow snapshot
Managers needed to know what required their attention without digging through menus. We added a dashboard showing high-priority tasks, deadlines, and pending flagged inventory at a glance.
All 4 managers reported spending less time navigating to find key information.
Feature 2: Decision-focused info layout
Managers struggled to scan product details in the old manual process, slowing down decisions. We grouped related fields and surfaced key info for quick review, with expand options for more detail.
All 4 managers reported spending less time navigating to find key information.
Feature 3: Marketplace and communication between managers and foodbank coordinators
Managers struggled to scan product details in the old manual process, slowing down decisions. We grouped related fields and surfaced key info for quick review, with expand options for more detail.
Manager - “This would speed up setting up donations with food banks.”
Hackathon pitch
Contributing to Kroger's vision
We pitched our idea at the Eco-Kroger Hackathon, competing against internal Kroger teams. And our forward-thinking approach earned an honorable mention for aligning with Kroger’s ZHZW mission.
The IU team 🤙🏻
Saish Lad
My key learnings:
When designing new products!
Working in operational environments taught me that new solutions can’t just chase efficiency. They need to feel familiar, reduce friction, and build confidence for the people using them every day.
Business first mindset
Regularly checking back with the strategic vision helped us make informed design choices. Understanding that vision turned constraints into opportunities instead of roadblocks.
Context & people > everything
Spending time in the warehouses surfaced pain points we’d never hear in a meeting. It also built trust with managers, making them active partners in shaping the solution.
Thank you!
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