Product Designer
Product Designer, Product Manager, 2 Engineers, QA Engineer
8 weeks
Challenge
In the spring of 2019, Legion secured a pilot deal with a national retailer, set to launch in the fall across 14 locations in the Pacific Northwest. Large businesses often have District Managers overseeing multiple locations, whose needs differ from those of single-store managers. At that time, Legion provided minimal support for District Managers.
The objective was to design and build an MVP feature set to help District Managers oversee multiple locations, on a tight 8-week timeline to align with the pilot launch.
Results
Built an MVP feature set to help District Managers oversee multiple locations, on a tight 8-week timeline to align with the pilot launch.
Empowered District Managers with visibility and control over 14 locations in pilot launch.
14
3.5 Hrs
93%
User Research
User Interviews
We started by consulting our main contact at the retailer’s headquarters (a former District Manager) to better understand how districts operate and what level of access District Managers should have. We then conducted interviews with three current District Managers to uncover their core responsibilities and pain points. These conversations revealed a need for support in the following key areas:
Understanding the District Manager
Through interviews with three managers and a former District Manager at the client’s headquarters, we identified a set of common goals, needs, and pain points. We concluded that one of the first things to tackle was to design an effective dashboard, elevated and organized differently than a Store Manager's.
"I’m constantly toggling between locations to piece together what’s actually happening. I need a faster way to see where I’m needed most.”
District Manager, pilot region
Pain Points
It became clear that District Managers were struggling with inefficiencies caused by fragmented systems and limited visibility across stores:
No centralized data view, must check each store individually
Spends excessive time gathering and comparing performance metrics
Manual investigation for each store
Goals
Our research helped clarify that District Managers' goals centered around saving time, improving oversight, and proactively addressing compliance or scheduling issues before they escalated:
Quickly gauge performance across all locations in their district
Save time with an aggregated weekly view
Proactively identify underperforming stores or compliance risks
Current Design & Early Explorations
Design Audit
We started by auditing the existing dashboard experience for Store Managers, with a particular focus on the “smart cards” used across reporting modules. The goal was to identify reusable components and patterns that could be adapted for a district-level view, ensuring visual and functional consistency across the platform.
UI Sketches and Data Visualization
To ensure the dashboard communicated insights effectively, I collaborated with our data science team to align on data visualization best practices, such as when to use bar vs. line graphs, and how to convey trends over varying time periods. With these principles in mind, I explored several dashboard layout concepts through hand-drawn and low-fidelity wireframes.
