Overview
In this project, we targeted the sizable Foodservice market, which is projected to reach $10 billion by the end of 2024. However, the industry faces significant inefficiencies across various areas, resulting in lost sales, subpar customer experiences, challenges in reconciliation and reporting, and delayed market potential realization.
Building on our payment infrastructure, we designed and launched a user-focused Menu solution that empowers restaurants, bars, and cafes to streamline order management. The solution allows customers to scan QR codes for menu access, explore options, enhance engagement, make payments, view reports, and access a range of additional features. Since we iterated and pushed to live, Menu has grown adoption by 4x in 12 months, and over 6 digit transactions.
My contribution
Strategy
Research
Design Lead
The team
1 × co-founder
1 × product manager
2 × product designers
Year
2023
Building on strong foundational rails
Team and I embarked on intensive research to understand the QSR market (quick service restaurant), immersing ourselves in the value chain, observing frictions, uncovering customer behavioural patterns, while carefully taking note of opportunities and leverage points for our already existing product suites - terminal api, payment link, checkout, inventory, and Nomba QR. It was notable to discover - only 1/4 of restaurant/bars/cafes we visited had digitised their value & operational chain.
A unified system
Based on our discovery, we mapped out a unified solution to cater to the various journeys and processes that exist today in a typical QSR environment, solutions that would enable customers view & order from Menu, and enable restaurants to manage inventory, receive payments, essentially, an all-in-one embedded experience.
Customer convenience - scan, view, and order via QR
Building on our unified system goal, we created a digital menu for customers to scan with smartphone, view, and order via the restaurant's dedicated QR code. When customers order, they are presented with the option to dine in, pickup at restaurant, or get it delivered at their desired location (for restaurants that decide to enable this option) - enjoying flexible choices and delightful experience.
Terminal for collection - orders and payments
From our research, we discovered that waiters play a pivotal role in the QSR sector. Restaurants, cafes, and bars require a solution that fully integrates the waiter's experience into the service chain, as they serve as the critical link between customers and the business. With the Menu terminal, waiters can effortlessly manage customer orders, oversee table activities, and seamlessly process payments, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable dining experience for customers.
Increasing efficiency with Order Display System
We found that orders are often mismatched due to the lengthy communication chain before they reach the 'back of house,' a problem that worsens during peak demand. To address this, we engaged directly with chefs, kitchen staff, baristas, and cafe teams, listening to their pain points and needs. Based on their feedback, we created an initial wireframe, which we refined collaboratively with these users. The result of this research led to the development of the Menu Order Display System—a solution designed specifically for kitchen and bar teams. It streamlines order handling from multiple areas, ensuring smooth workflows and efficient order management across all stations.
Menu management - Receive and process customer orders
I designed a robust Menu management center as a feature, accessible via the user's existing dashboard, so merchants can easily access other rails (invoicing, outlets, payment links, and more) that also power their business, a fully integrated system. Merchants could easily customize their Menu, generate special ordering links, create meals, set delivery options, process orders, and more to power their restaurant, bar, or cafe.
Summary
Results and metrics
MVP wasn't as expected, there were reliability issues, as we didn't really envisage how these features integrate fully in our existing rails/system, also, we underscored how multi-segmented QSR industry is, which means, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution, some businesses required customization. But then, after a couple of trials, audits, and fixes, we got to a very comfortable reliability score. After which, we grew Menu utilization by 4x in 12 months