MANAGER APPROVALS
Redesigning a high-risk inventory approval workflow within a fragmented legacy system
project OVERVIEW
Role: Lead Product Designer — workflow, interaction design, and final UI.
Team: Store Inventory Management
Timeline: 4 months
Platform: Enterprise mobile
Scope: Manager approvals across 2,000+ stores
Problem
On-hand adjustments over $750 required manager approval
Built on store-based infrastructure scheduled for retirement
Managers manually validated adjustments across multiple systems
No unified strategy for modernizing approvals
Goals
Redesign on-hand approval flow
Increase approval speed while preserving decision confidence
Establish reusable approval patterns
Scale toward centralized approval system
Align stakeholders on rollout strategy
Discovery
I began with contextual in-store interviews to understand how managers handled high-value inventory adjustments while balancing other operational responsibilities.
RESEARCH
In-store manager interviews
Observed live approval workflows in store
Storyboarded findings to clarify workflow pain points
Audited legacy Centralized Approval System
Studied return to vendor, markdown and point of sale approval flows
Mapped entry points and touchpoints
key insights
High-dollar approvals tied to shrink control
Managers manually investigated adjustments
Trusted associates often received faster approvals with minimal review
Validation required cross-system checks
Legacy system inefficiently supported the real approval workflow
Ideation
Explored whether to evolve the legacy approval pattern or redesign the interaction model to support faster, higher-confidence decisions.
OPTION: A EVolve THE LEGACY PATTERN
Changes
Clearer approve / deny controls
In-flow on-hand adjustment capability
Associate names surfaced instead of employee IDs
Benefits
Familiar interaction model
Lower implementation risk
Tradeoffs
Constrained by legacy interaction model
Required multiple decision steps
Less intuitive for new users
OPTION B: Redesign Product Card
Changes
Product image visible
Dollar impact surfaced
Associate names replaced employee IDs
Clear approve/deny controls
Aligns with existing card pattern
Benefits
Enables faster initial judgement
Reduces cross-referencing
Tradeoffs
Higher implementation effort
Larger system change
DECISION
We selected the redesigned product card model to support two approval paths: immediate approval for trusted, routine adjustments and deeper investigation for higher-risk cases.
By consolidating decision context into a single view, the new model reduced interaction steps and improved decision speed without sacrificing validation.
Flows
To ensure the experience supported real-world validation behavior, I mapped end-to-end flows across primary and edge use cases — including quick approvals, investigative reviews, notification entry, and alternate paths.
REDESIGNED WORKFLOW
MANAGER APPROVAL ECOSYSTEM
Beyond OH approvals, I mapped all digital manager approval types across store systems to understand how and where managers made approval decisions.
Identified approval types across store systems
Documented tools used for each approval
Clarified migration dependencies across teams
Provided a shared view for modernization planning
ENTRY POINT Strategy
As approval types migrated to Google Cloud, we needed to determine how managers would access the new Centralized Approval System.
Option A: Store Tasking Platform
Integrated into existing tasking platform
Unified approval access
Required MyView partnership funding
Option B: New Home Screen Icon
Dedicated approvals application
Faster implementation
Added another application to the store ecosystem
I prototyped both entry paths and presented them to senior managers and directors to drive alignment and secure a leadership decision.
While we recommended the Store Tasking Platform for ecosystem simplicity, leadership selected a dedicated home screen icon due to funding constraints and cross-team dependencies.
Shipped Product
A streamlined on-hand approval experience enabling faster decisions and accurate in-store validation.
Pending Approval Page
Consolidated pending approvals into one scannable list
Aligned terminology (“Old” / “New” Qty) with in-store language
Grouped quantity + dollar impact for faster risk assessment
Surfaced associate names (replacing ID-only visibility)
Enabled approve/deny actions directly from the list
Added “Review OH Count” for deeper investigation
key outcome
Centralized decision context so managers can act immediately — without switching systems.
review on- hand count
Displays all selling locations for the SKU
Includes picked quantities to reflect true available inventory
Enables real-time OH adjustments during validation
Eliminates the need to deny incorrect requests solely to correct counts
key outcome
Supports accurate in-store validation and allows managers to correct discrepancies before approving.
MANAGER APPROVALS HOMEPAGE
Consolidates multiple approval types into a single entry point
Designed to scale as additional approval types migrate from legacy systems
Prioritizes approval groups by urgency
key outcome
Establishes the framework for the new Centralized Approval System and supports phased integration of additional approval types.
COLLABORATION
Aligned engineering on constraints, dependencies, and phased delivery
Coordinated migration readiness across product teams
Balanced enterprise standards with real store workflows
Led stakeholder alignment on entry-point strategy and tradeoffs
Rollout
Executed a phased migration to the new approvals app without disrupting store workflows
Maintained functional parity while reducing decision friction
Validated usability in-store to confirm adoption
Outcomes & Impact
UM/UX Lite Score Rise
Validated usability improvements between baseline and production-ready experience.
Manager Feedback
Managers reported the experience was clearer, faster, and easier to use
+90
Ease of Use Score
Validated usability improvements between baseline and production-ready experience.
