Regional Inventory Allocation Tool

Context

Regional inventory planners and warehouse ops leads manage high-volume SKU allocation during seasonal peaks — high-stakes decisions under time pressure.

Data lived in 4+ systems. Planners copied numbers manually. New hires required weeks of shadowing.

Problem

Misallocation drove costly transfers and fulfillment delays. Planners lacked confidence in data and tools.

Design challenge: surface complex constraints without overwhelming power users.

Leadership

My scope as design lead:

• Set UX direction and IA strategy across 2 eng squads
• Guided 1 designer on research synthesis and deliverable quality
• Facilitated weekly critique with PM and eng leads
• Drove exception-first framework — pushed back on low-impact feature requests
• Established patterns adopted into internal ops design system

Process

Research and alignment approach:

• Contextual inquiry with 8 planners across 3 regions
• Workflow mapping — 6 handoff points causing delay
• Cross-functional workshops with PM, eng, and ops
• Concept and usability testing before build

Solution

Task-based navigation and progressive disclosure:

• Exception-first landing matched mental model
• Inline validation kept users in flow during bulk edits
• Audit log on same screen for trust and compliance
• Shared patterns aligned with internal ops design system

Impact

~35% reduction in weekly allocation cycle time. 12 regional teams adopted across two rollout phases. Allocation patterns became reference flows for subsequent ops tools.

Reflection

Embedding ops SMEs in critiques made decisions stick. I'd instrument analytics earlier to tie design changes to error rates across teams.