Retail Innovation
Clientelling App
Scaling Sales & Service Across 800+ Stores Through Strategic Product Vision
- ROLE
- Lead Product Designer, Strategic Vision & Research
- TIMELINE
- August 2024 - January 2026
- TEAM
- Product Management, Engineering, Store Operations
- PLATFORM
- React Native Application for 850 Dick's Sporting Goods stores.
Impact at a Glance
800+
stores deployed nationwide
16,000+
DAU store associates
3M+
product scans monthly
Patent Pending
AI capability: Sport Search
-1s
Scan Performance (reduced from 2.5 seconds)
Foundational
for DICK's in-store digital strategy
Business Challenge
Strategic Context
DICK'S Sporting Goods was investing heavily in transforming the in-store experience, but associates' tools were outdated & couldn't compete with online shopping offerings.
Customers expected instant product knowledge, personalized recommendations, and seamless service, but associates were relying on fragmented systems, memory, and outdated handhelds.
Business Problem
Store associates couldn't deliver the elevated, personalized service DICK'S brand demanded.
Without consolidated product information, loyalty data, and intelligent recommendations, we were losing sales opportunities and failing to build lasting customer relationships.
My Strategic Challenge
I was brought in specifically to:
Define Product Vision
for what would become Dick's primary sales & service platform
Lead Research & Discovery
to understand real associate needs vs. assumed requirements
Cross-Team Collaboration
across 9 product teams and align on shared infrastructure
Design for Scale
knowing this would serve 15K+ associates across 850 stores
How I Work
Key Design Decisions
Decision 1
Single Scrolling Product Details Page (PDP) vs Tabbed Navigation
The decision
Consolidated all product information into one long-scroll page instead of tabs
Why it mattered
- Product detail pages are the #1 accessed feature (millions of views monthly)
- Associates needed information FAST while customers waited
- Research showed context-switching between tabs caused information blindness
The tradeoff
- Longer scroll depth meant more design debt to maintain
- Required careful information hierarchy to prevent overwhelming users
- Had to optimize for performance (lazy loading, image compression)
The outcome
- Average time-to-information reduced by 40% (internal metrics)
- Associates reported higher confidence in product knowledge
- Became template for all future content-heavy screens
Decision 2
AI Sport Search as exploration vs. waiting for "perfect" data
The decision
Launched patent-pending AI capability with imperfect but useful results
Why it mattered
- DICK'S has a massive, complex product catalog. Associates struggled to recommend products across unfamiliar sports categories. AI could parse the catalog and suggest relevant products based on activity-based prompts.
The strategy
- Partnered closely with Development to prototype conversational product search
- Designed for 'directionally helpful' recommendations rather than perfect accuracy
- Created visual artifacts and documentation supporting patent application
The tradeoff
- Early versions had low adoption by teammates, who are very task-focused by nature
- Certain editing & updating features were not fully optimized
The outcome
- Patent pending for unique approach to retail product recommendations
- Demonstrated Dick's commitment to AI-powered retail innovation
- Created blueprint for future AI integrations across Store Tech
Research & Discovery
Ethnographic Studies
In-store observations across multiple store formats
- Real workflow patterns vs. documented processes
- Associate workarounds for missing functionality
- Customer expectations and frustration points
- Technology constraints in retail environment (lighting, gloves, multitasking)
Key Insights That Changed Our Direction:
- Associates are expert multitaskers: any tool needs to support "glanceable" information while they're helping customers
- Sport specialization varies wildly: Basketball experts struggle in fishing, creating need for cross-category guidance (+ AI opportunity)
- Loyalty integration was invisible: Associates had no way to recognize or reward ScoreCard members in real-time
Journey Management
Created comprehensive journey maps showing:
- Current state pain points across different customer archetypes (Runner, Fitness, Hardlines)
- Behind-the-scenes associate workflows
- System touchpoints and friction
- Opportunity areas for intervention
What made these artifacts valuable:
- Exposed gaps between customer expectations and associate capabilities
- Showed how fragmented systems created service inconsistency
- Built empathy across product, engineering, and ops teams
- Became decision-making reference throughout development
Reflections & Learnings
What I Learned
1. Performance is a key feature, not technical debt.
Early in the project, scan speed felt like an engineering problem. But research showed it was THE critical user experience issue. Now I treat performance as a core design requirement from day one, not something to optimize later.
2. Adoption is as important as design quality.
Building a beautiful app means nothing if associates don't use it. The cross-team workshops and alignment work were just as critical as the UI design. Impactful design work is as much about organizational influence as craft.
3. Research artifacts should drive decisions, not just document them
The journey maps and service blueprints became living documents we referenced throughout development. When scope debates arose, we'd return to the research to ground decisions in user reality.
4. Design systems multiply impact
The operational work of organizing files and applying our design system felt tedious in the moment, but it compounded over time. Three teams adopted our patterns, multiplying the impact far beyond Sideline Assist.
What I'd do Differently
Innovate early and often: Sport Search emerged as an early concept and stands to be a key differentiator.
Document the "why" more systematically: We made hundreds of design decisions, but not all were well-documented. Future designers working on Sideline Assist would benefit from better decision logs explaining trade-offs and context.
Impacts on my Process
This project taught me that design at scale is about:
- Driving cross-functional vision
- Bridging research to strategy
- Building for longevity and future capabilities
- Creating organizational capacity for design excellence
Sideline Assist is now a cornerstone of Dick's in-store strategy, proof of how design leadership can deliver impact at enterprise scale.