Case Study

Smart Checklist: Transforming a Mission-Critical Workflow Across 50+ Markets

  • Role: UX Leader

  • Company: Yum! Brands

  • Scale: Thousands of restaurants across KFC and Pizza Hut markets worldwide

  • Team: Cross-functional team spanning Product, Engineering, Operations, and Design

  • Duration: 6+ months

  • Focus: Problem framing, organizational alignment, experience strategy, scalable design foundations, and delivery execution

Some details and visuals have been redacted or adapted to protect proprietary information. The case study emphasizes leadership approach and outcomes over exact designs.

Executive Summary

Smart Checklist is a core operational workflow used daily by restaurant teams across KFC and Pizza Hut markets worldwide. As UX Lead, I led the transformation of the experience from problem framing through rollout strategy, aligning product, operations, engineering, and design around a shared vision for improving task execution at scale.

Beyond improving usability, the initiative evolved into a broader product transformation effort. It established a modern design foundation, launched a design system initiative without dedicated resources, and created capabilities that continued to support product development long after the original redesign shipped.

Challenge

Over time, signals from user interviews, operational partners, and in-product feedback revealed recurring frustrations. Shift leaders struggled to understand what required action, what had already been completed, and whether tasks were being performed correctly during busy shifts.

Different stakeholder groups interpreted the problem differently. Operational partners largely focused on simplifying task content, while product teams viewed the issues as a collection of usability improvements.

After synthesizing feedback across multiple channels, I identified that the larger issue was not the tasks themselves but the workflow experience surrounding them. Users lacked clarity, confidence, and guidance during critical operational moments.

Because Checklist was one of the platform’s most heavily used experiences across more than 50 markets, solving the problem represented an opportunity to improve operational efficiency, strengthen product adoption, and establish a more scalable foundation for future product evolution.

My Leadership Role

As UX Lead, I owned the strategic direction of the initiative from problem framing through delivery.

While product designers led much of the detailed execution, I was responsible for defining the transformation strategy, aligning stakeholders across Product, Operations, Engineering, Brand, and Market teams, coaching designers, and maintaining quality throughout the initiative.

A significant part of the role involved creating organizational support for changes that extended beyond the redesign itself. This included building alignment around a broader workflow transformation and establishing a new design system effort despite having no dedicated resources allocated to the work.

Key Decisions & Strategy

Reframing the Problem

One of the most important contributions was shifting the conversation from simplifying checklist content to improving the workflow experience itself.

Instead of treating user feedback as isolated usability issues, I helped stakeholders see a broader opportunity: reducing cognitive load, improving confidence, and making operational execution easier during high-pressure shifts.

This reframing created alignment around a more strategic product transformation rather than a limited interface refresh.

Delivering Through Phases

Given the scale of adoption and operational sensitivity of the product, a full redesign carried significant risk. I structured the initiative as a phased transformation:

Phase 1. Resolve critical usability barriers.

Phase 2. Modernize the experience and establish scalable foundations.

Phase 3. Create a path toward more intelligent and adaptive workflows.

This phased approach helped secure stakeholder confidence, reduce rollout risk, and create space for longer-term investments that would have been difficult to justify through a single large redesign effort.

Building the Foundation for Scale

As the redesign progressed, it became clear that the existing UI foundation would limit future improvements.

The legacy system lacked flexibility, accessibility standards, and reusable patterns. Continuing to build on top of it would increase complexity and slow future development.

I proposed creating a new design system alongside the Checklist transformation.

The challenge was that no dedicated resources existed. Designers and engineers were not allocated to design system work, and everyone understood that starting such an initiative would create an ongoing commitment.

To move forward, I worked with the team to reallocate capacity, establish a shared vision, and build momentum around the effort. What began as a supporting initiative for Checklist evolved into a reusable design system that continues to support product development today. The effort improved consistency, accessibility, and collaboration between design and engineering while reducing the cost of future product changes.

Outcomes

User Experience Improvements

Year-over-year survey results showed measurable improvements across key experience metrics:

  • Overall satisfaction increased from 59% to 72%.
  • Ease of navigation increased from 60% to 70%.
  • Confidence in task completion increased from 63% to 71%.
 

These improvements indicated that users found the experience easier to understand, navigate, and complete successfully.

Bar chart titled 'Distribution in answer results' displaying user sentiment across four survey questions related to the HutBot experience. Each question shows response percentages across five satisfaction levels, from 'Highly Dissatisfied' to 'Highly Satisfied'. Highlights include: 59% of users are highly satisfied overall, 60% find navigation easy, 63% feel confident completing tasks, and 58% believe the features are relevant to their needs.

Product and Organizational Impact

Beyond UX metrics, the initiative delivered broader outcomes:

  • Established a modern design foundation that enabled future product investments.

  • Launched a design system initiative that continued beyond the original project and became part of the team’s operating model.

  • Improved collaboration between design and engineering through reusable patterns, documentation, and shared implementation standards.

  • Increased stakeholder confidence in UX as a strategic partner rather than a delivery function.

  • Created a scalable foundation for future workflow modernization efforts across the platform.

“It’s so much easier to use!” – Frontline user feedback shared in company chat

What I Learned

This project reinforced that large-scale product improvements often depend as much on organizational alignment as design execution.

The biggest challenge was not redesigning the interface. It was aligning stakeholders with different perspectives, building momentum around a shared vision, and securing commitment for long-term improvements without dedicated resources.

It also reinforced the importance of problem framing. By looking beyond individual usability issues, we were able to identify a broader workflow challenge and create a solution with greater impact.

By combining product strategy, stakeholder influence, and design leadership, we improved a mission-critical workflow while establishing foundations that continued to support the product beyond the original redesign.