Enabling an award-winning rollout

Tesco needed to find a way to roll out their Whoosh offering to a large number of stores, and fast. There were strong indications that improving the internal processes and implementing streamlined technology would unlock this.

I carried out discovery research and rapid testing to enable Tesco Whoosh to expand to over 1000 stores, exceeding its rollout target by 25% which earned the project a Grocer Gold award.

What we did

A smiling woman in a blue uniform exchanges a paper bag with a man in a black jacket and helmet at a grocery store checkout. Flower arrangements and shelves with produce are visible in the background.

Discovery research

To understand where to best focus the team’s efforts, we carried out discovery research in stores that were already providing Whoosh as a service. I observed the entire backend lifecycle and identified key points for improvement, including risk-scoring potential changes in terms of effort required and impact on process. I also carried out competitor research to understand how others were addressing similar challenges.

The output of this was a process map with key recommendations.

Flowchart illustrating a process with stages: receive order, picking, marshalling, and handover, including notes, photos of storage equipment, and screenshots of an app interface.

Developing and testing the MVP

Working closely with the developers and the product manager, we developed an MVP proposition for the new processes, powered by devices used in-store.

We tested this this in several stores to ensure the system and processes were working as anticipated. Throughout this series of research, both were refined and improved.

Two Tesco employees smiling and holding shopping bags that read 'Whoosh. From store to door within 60 minutes,' inside a grocery store.

Unifying the work streams

During this process, we realised that to colleague and customer side work streams were not as aligned as they could be. To rectify this, I set up sessions with both teams to map the end to end journey from both the customer and colleague side. This resulted in a living document that detailed the experience and the projects being worked on across the service which in turn reduced duplicated effort and helped provide a coherent, joined up experience.

Three men in tuxedos smiling and holding an award on a stage with colorful lights and a person speaking at a podium in the background.

Real results

The Whoosh service won the Grocer Gold Award for E-commerce initiative of the year in 2023.

“Throughout several trials, Tesco has tweaked delivery fees and fulfilment times to get the balance of speed and profitability just right, creating a model that is sustainable.”