Mondi
Operational UX Case Study

Mondi
Order-to-Delivery

What started as a UI refresh evolved into a redesign of how planning, scheduling, and inventory decisions are made across the order-to-delivery lifecycle.

Role
UX Strategy & Design Lead
Scope
Order-to-delivery transformation
Team
7 members
Delivery
5 products in 7 months
My role

I led the shift from a UI-led ask to an experience-led transformation — reframing the problem, aligning stakeholders, and driving a more scalable operational workflow across five products.

01 — The Problem

The ask was UI.
The real problem was the experience.

The initiative started as a request to update the interface. Early discovery showed that the real friction lived in fragmented workflows, rigid logic, and limited user control. The system was optimized for process rules — not for real-world decision-making.

Fragmented workflows
Order planning and delivery management were spread across multiple interfaces.
Limited scheduling control
Users had restricted control over delivery scheduling despite warehouse constraints.
Rigid inventory logic
Allocation was driven by FIFO-only rules, with little flexibility for operational decisions.
Operational friction
The system optimized for process rules, not for user efficiency or business outcomes.

“The issue wasn’t just the interface — users couldn’t actually control the workflow.”

Operational insight

“Planning was happening across disconnected layers, which increased friction and slowed decisions.”

Stakeholder insight

“The system decided too much. Users needed better control.”

Experience insight
Experience transformation framework
From system-driven operations to user-controlled planning
The redesign focused on how work gets done across planning, scheduling, and inventory decisions — not just on how the interface looks.
01
Before
System-driven workflow
Fragmented interfaces, FIFO-only allocation, and low user control made the experience rigid and inefficient.
User experience
Follow the system
→
02
Transformation
Operational experience redesign
We unified planning, scheduling, and allocation around user goals and operational realities.
Design move
Redesign the workflow
→
03
After
User-controlled operations
Users gained clearer control over planning, scheduling, and inventory decisions with less operational friction.
Business result
Better decisions, faster action
↺
Key shift
We moved the conversation from “refresh the UI” to “fix how the workflow actually works.”
02 — What We Built

A unified operational experience

We didn’t redesign screens — we redesigned how work gets done. The solution unified planning, scheduling, and inventory into a single operational experience that reduced friction and improved decision control.

Users
Operational decision-makers
Planning
Unified planning layer
Scheduling
Truck-level delivery control
Inventory
FIFO + override flexibility
Decisions
Lower friction, better control
Experience
Unified planning layer
Combined fragmented interfaces into a single planning experience.
Scheduling
Truck-level control
Enabled delivery scheduling based on warehouse capacity and operational constraints.
Inventory
Flexible allocation
Introduced default FIFO with override capability when operations required it.
Scale
Reusable UX foundation
Created clearer, more consistent patterns across products.
03 — Personas

Designed for the people behind procurement, finance, and quality decisions

The experience was designed for three core decision-makers, each with distinct responsibilities but overlapping workflows.

Emma Thompson
Procurement Manager
Age 35
ABC Ecommerce
Ecommerce & Retail
“I need a reliable and efficient system that makes ordering supplies quick and easy, so I can focus on ensuring operations run smoothly and cost-effectively.”
Needs
Fast ordering, easy reordering, real-time tracking, strong search/filter, inventory visibility.
Goals
Operational efficiency, fewer errors, smooth supplier coordination.
Pain points
No real-time tracking, logistics complexity, difficult order adjustments.
Paul Muller
Finance Manager
Age 45
ABC Ecommerce
Ecommerce & Retail
“I need a comprehensive view of our procurement spending and financial health.”
Needs
Real-time cost visibility, financial dashboards, transaction tracking, and claim management.
Goals
Financial accuracy, audit readiness, procurement-finance alignment.
Pain points
Scattered data, repetitive tracking, and no unified spend view.
Kim Fischer
Quality Assurance Manager
Age 38
Good Food
Food Industry
“When food packing doesn’t meet our safety and quality standards, it’s crucial to address the issue swiftly and efficiently.”
Needs
Claim tracking, supplier issue management, real-time status visibility.
Goals
Protect product quality, safeguard brand trust, resolve issues quickly.
Pain points
No real-time claim status, manual tracking, supplier communication gaps.
04 — My Approach

Reframing the problem from UI to workflow

Instead of starting with screens, the focus shifted to understanding how planning, scheduling, and inventory decisions actually happen — and where users were blocked.

01
Diagnosed the real problem
Moved beyond the UI ask to uncover fragmentation across planning, scheduling, and inventory workflows.
02
Mapped end-to-end workflows
Analyzed how orders move from planning to delivery and where friction impacts decisions.
03
Defined experience principles
Aligned design around user control, flexibility, and operational clarity.
04
Designed unified workflows
Integrated planning, scheduling, and inventory into a single experience layer.
05 — Execution & Leadership

Driving change beyond the UI ask

The core challenge was not design execution — it was shifting the direction of the project and aligning stakeholders on a broader experience transformation.

Reframing the problem
The project started as a UI refresh. I challenged this and repositioned it as a workflow and experience problem.
Balancing system vs user control
The system enforced rigid rules like FIFO, while users needed flexibility. Designing for both required careful trade-offs.
Aligning stakeholders
Business, operations, and product teams had conflicting priorities. I drove alignment by making workflows visible and decision points explicit.
Driving execution at scale
Led delivery across five interconnected products while ensuring consistency in experience and decision-making patterns.
06 — Impact

From fragmented operations to measurable efficiency

The shift from a UI refresh to an experience-led redesign delivered tangible operational improvements across planning, scheduling, and inventory workflows.

Faster decision-making
Reduced planning and scheduling time by simplifying workflows and eliminating cross-system navigation.
Reduced operational friction
Minimized manual coordination across planning, scheduling, and inventory teams.
Improved user control
Enabled flexibility beyond rigid FIFO rules, aligning system behavior with real-world decisions.
Higher workflow efficiency
Reduced duplicate steps and improved end-to-end visibility across order-to-delivery.
Scalable foundation
Established a reusable experience model that can scale across additional products and workflows.
07 — Reflection
The biggest impact came not from making the product look better, but from making operational planning work better.
This project reinforced that most “UI problems” are actually workflow problems. By challenging the initial ask, we shifted focus from interface improvements to workflow transformation — and changed how the problem itself was defined.