Unlocking $5MM in Revenue & Shaping Product Strategy on Walmart’s A.I. Inventory Tool.

Executive Summary

As a UX Researcher, I led end-to-end research that shaped the product strategy for Walmart’s A.I. inventory tool, enabling $5MM in new revenue, and increasing inventory accuracy across 4,700+ stores. Research uncovered critical visibility gaps and informed a product roadmap where 81% of insights were prioritized, strengthening product–market fit and adoption.

The Challenge

Walmart faced a critical challenge, up to 40% of its inventory is inaccurate. Store managers and merchants were overwhelmed in inventory inaccuracies, manually reconciling conflicting data while losing sales and frustrating customers who encountered empty shelves. Our research uncovered these painful daily realities, revealed the visibility gaps causing them, leading to a solution that transformed shelf management across 4,700+ stores.

Methodologies Used

  • Contextual Inquiry

  • Structured Interviews

  • Quantitative Surveys

  • Concept Testing

  • Workshop Facilitation

Collaborated With

  • Sr. Product Director

  • Product Manager

  • Staff UX Designer

  • UX Manager

  • Account Management Leads

  • Engineering Manager

Timing

  • 6 Studies over 5 Months

My Approach

I led a 5-month research effort spanning 6 studies, owning strategy, execution, synthesis, and stakeholder alignment. My work spanned store operations, merchandising, product, engineering, and data science teams to ensure the solution addressed the most pressing problems, validated by real-world data and user feedback.

Research Questions

  • How do Merchants and Suppliers currently manage shelf conditions and inventory, and where do the biggest pain points occur?

  • What visibility do Merchants and Suppliers have into real-time shelf performance, and what gaps exist in detecting issues like non-compliance or out-of-stocks?

  • What types of data, and insights do Merchants expect from an aggregated view of shelf-level performance, and how would they use this information to take action?

Research Objectives

  • Understand Current Inventory & Shelf Management Practices: Identify how Merchants & Suppliers manage shelf conditions, compliance, and inventory accuracy.

  • Uncover Friction in Inventory & Shelf Management: Understand pain points and inefficiencies in maintaining shelf accuracy.

  • Explore Use Cases for Shelf Intelligence: Determine the most valuable shelf-level metrics, understand how Merchants and Suppliers would use this to take shelf-level actions.

Key Themes

  • Visibility Gaps → Missed Sales: Teams lacked real-time data on shelf conditions, leading to inaccurate orders, stock-outs, and delayed restocks.

  • Disjointed Planning & Field Execution: Merchants, vendors, and stores operated in silos. Lack of shared timelines and reactive communication slowed execution.

  • Demand Forecasting Needs Real-Time Shelf Intelligence: Users wanted actionable shelf-level insights (e.g., compliance, product availability) to drive smarter decisions on labor, replenishment, and store support.

Building Research Capacity Through Cross-Team Collaboration

Throughout this project, I partnered closely with a Product Manager who was new to collaborating on research, creating opportunities for learning and cross-functional skill development. I led a collaborative synthesis process where we analyzed research findings together. This improved her ability to identify insights, and deepened my understanding of product priorities. To build her confidence in research, I created a shared synthesis document that became a template for cross-team research collaboration. This framework has since been adopted by 4 other product teams within 3 months.

Prioritizing Research

I led a workshop bringing together product, design, engineering and data science to translate research findings into specific priorities on the roadmap. Using a structured framework, we prioritized and mapped research insights against product timelines, creating “priority maps” that generated immediate alignment.

Impact

This research supported Walmart's strategic Omni-channel efforts, improving integration between physical and digital experiences, and improving customer satisfaction by reducing out-of-stocks. The work aligned with the CEO's commitment to technology-driven innovation to strengthen Walmart's market position.

  • +$5MM Revenue Impact

  • Reduced Workflow Time by 30%

  • 81% of Insights Prioritized on Roadmap