Instacart Pickup
Shopper App: Runner Experience
Grocery store employees use the Runner Flow to handoff an order to a customer who has arrived for curbside pickup.
Context
Customer wait time is an important metric for Pickup, as customers with lower wait times at the store tend to have higher satisfaction and reorder rates, impacting customer retention.
Learn more on this Instacart blog post I co-authored.
Problem
Our customer wait times were higher than industry standard (5min or less) and to make Pickup successful for Instacart and its retail partners, we had to decrease our customer wait time at the store.
Goals
Decrease customer wait times by 1)better differentiating the runner flow from other types of tasks in the shopper app, 2)creating a sense of empathy for the customer’s wait time and 3)communicating a sense of urgency.
My role
As the lead product designer on this project, I…
Collaborated closely with my product manager on goals for the project, design iterations and output
Reviewed ops team insights from user feedback
Went on a field trip with my product manager and UX researcher visiting different grocery stores and interviewing users to get a better understanding of their context and opportunities
Crafted flow tasks for team clarity and early opportunity mapping
Designed the entire flow, from basic concepts, through iterations and final designs (UX, UI, interaction)
Shared my work in design critique and design system check-ins for feedback
Collaborated with a sound designer to create a new notification sound that would be more noticeable in the grocery store environment
Collaborated with a UX researcher on research plan, created high-fidelity prototypes and lead the UXR sessions to get feedback on designs myself
Documented final designs for engineering and participated in QA sessions through launch
UXR Insights
Wait times at the store are the 2nd most important factor for pickup customers, after quality of items.
“After waiting 15 minutes at the allocated parking space I had to go in to the store and pick up my groceries (…) The amount of time it took I could’ve shopped for myself.”
– Pickup customer
The industry standard for a good pickup experience is waiting 5 min or less for the order to be brought out to the customer’s car.
Opportunity Areas
Insights from our field trip, ops team feedback and user feedback taught us that:
Batches (or tasks) surfaced to store associates lacked clarity about type of task: “Runner = urgent” vs. “shop = not so urgent.”
Notification sound was too low within the noisy store environment.
No info about customer being at the store or their wait time.
Design principles & goals
Build empathy towards customer
Continuous communication about wait time
Clear sound & messaging
Design explorations & challenges
Landing on the right notification copy
Timer placement: Team alignment to replace legacy header
Visual language to communicate a sense of urgency
