Improving productivity with Design thinking in JD Wetherspoon

Reducing waste, improving workflows, and empowering teams through real-world UX thinking.

As a Team Leader at Wetherspoons, I applied service design and UX principles to improve kitchen workflows, reduce food wastage, and simplify team communication. Through small, intentional changes like spatial reorganization, visual cues, and behavioral nudges, I helped the team save time, improve productivity, and build autonomous working habits—all while aligning with the company’s larger goals around sustainability and operational efficiency.

Role

Team Leader

Tools

Notion, Pen & Paper

Duration

Part-Time work

Challenge

Research

UX Process

Approach

Results

Learnings

Food wastage was a growing concern as the company pushed for more conscious recycling and segregation practices.

  • Staff often forgot or missed weekly updates from HQ due to lack of a centralized, accessible communication system.

  • The kitchen layout caused unnecessary walking and task duplication, affecting delivery times and staff energy.

  • End-of-shift chaos due to last-minute stock management created avoidable stress.

These issues led to a need for service-level interventions that supported staff workflows without requiring large-scale infrastructure changes.

Food wastage was a growing concern as the company pushed for more conscious recycling and segregation practices.

  • Staff often forgot or missed weekly updates from HQ due to lack of a centralized, accessible communication system.

  • The kitchen layout caused unnecessary walking and task duplication, affecting delivery times and staff energy.

  • End-of-shift chaos due to last-minute stock management created avoidable stress.

These issues led to a need for service-level interventions that supported staff workflows without requiring large-scale infrastructure changes.

Reduced food wastage

Improved team autonomy

Inproved delivery time significantly

Reduced food wastage

Improved team autonomy

Inproved delivery time significantly

Reduced food wastage

Improved team autonomy

Inproved delivery time significantly

Identifying problems

How I noticed them in the first place?


Well, i've neither studied service design nor a service designer, but my interest and excitement to make my environment more easy and accessible made me think like a service designer. I first experienced these inefficiencies firsthand. Tasks felt fragmented, and information was either missing or repeated unnecessarily. I spoke to colleagues and noticed recurring pain points. I validated my observations by engaging with the team and managers.

Key Methods:

  • Shadowing

  • First-hand participation

  • Informal team interviews

  • Co-ideation with team members and leads

The process that helped me

Not all solutions come through a very linear UX process, but still i used and stuck to the standard linear process where I had to,

  • Discover – Observed and experienced pain points during regular shifts

  • Define – Clarified problems through conversations and trend spotting

  • Ideate – Proposed low-cost, high-impact changes (e.g., cue cards, board, layout shifts)

  • Prototype – Tested new tool placements and layout adjustments on a trial basis

  • Iterate – Adjusted based on feedback (plug positions for microwaves, adding visual)

  • Implement – Finalized systems and saw natural team-wide adoption

Approach I took

Approach I took

Even though I haven't tried service design, I did some homework, understood how to make those changes keeping many other factors like architecture, environment, connectivity, access, etc… in mind. Here’s a breakdown of the key service design changes I proposed and implemented:

Central Notice Board

A weekly-updated board placed near the kitchen containing:

  • Menu/spec changes

  • Staff responsibilities

  • Recycling instructions

  • Company-wide announcements

UX Law: Jakob’s Law – People expect consistency; a single hub for info reduces mental overhead.


Visual Cues for Stocks

Visual signs installed on fridges to indicate "First In, First Out" usage.
This helped reduce expired stock and trained staff to rotate items independently.

UX Law: Hick’s Law – Simplified decision-making using visual hierarchy.

also inspired from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear - Adding visual cues to your environment is one of the most powerful and overlooked ways to change your behaviour. page-84.


Layout Re-organization

Moved microwaves closer to fridges to reduce walking loops.
Rearranged space to ensure all key tools were reachable from a single zone.

UX Law: Fitts’s Law – The closer an actionable item is, the faster it can be used.


Space Optimization

Restructured shelves and unused spaces to store container and necessary items for daily usage.
Reduced long walks across kitchen to retrieve items.

Psychology: Encouraged flow and reduced physical fatigue = higher morale + efficiency.


Shift-End Prep & 5-Min Rule

  • Encouraged pre-planning for end-of-shift tasks early on

  • Introduced “5-Minute Rule”: use any free moment to refill or restock ahead of peak times

UX Principle: Progressive Disclosure – Introduced practices gradually to avoid overwhelm.

Even though I haven't tried service design, I did some homework, understood how to make those changes keeping many other factors like architecture, environment, connectivity, access, etc… in mind. Here’s a breakdown of the key service design changes I proposed and implemented:

Central Notice Board

A weekly-updated board placed near the kitchen containing:

  • Menu/spec changes

  • Staff responsibilities

  • Recycling instructions

  • Company-wide announcements

UX Law: Jakob’s Law – People expect consistency; a single hub for info reduces mental overhead.


Visual Cues for Stocks

Visual signs installed on fridges to indicate "First In, First Out" usage.
This helped reduce expired stock and trained staff to rotate items independently.

UX Law: Hick’s Law – Simplified decision-making using visual hierarchy.

also inspired from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear - Adding visual cues to your environment is one of the most powerful and overlooked ways to change your behaviour. page-84.


Layout Re-organization

Moved microwaves closer to fridges to reduce walking loops.
Rearranged space to ensure all key tools were reachable from a single zone.

UX Law: Fitts’s Law – The closer an actionable item is, the faster it can be used.


Space Optimization

Restructured shelves and unused spaces to store container and necessary items for daily usage.
Reduced long walks across kitchen to retrieve items.

Psychology: Encouraged flow and reduced physical fatigue = higher morale + efficiency.


Shift-End Prep & 5-Min Rule

  • Encouraged pre-planning for end-of-shift tasks early on

  • Introduced “5-Minute Rule”: use any free moment to refill or restock ahead of peak times

UX Principle: Progressive Disclosure – Introduced practices gradually to avoid overwhelm.

Results

Results

  • Major time savings across hundreds of daily orders

  • Clear reduction in wasted stock

  • Teams embraced autonomous workflows

  • Managers relied less on repetitive instructions

  • Created space for future improvements to be made collaboratively

  • Major time savings across hundreds of daily orders

  • Clear reduction in wasted stock

  • Teams embraced autonomous workflows

  • Managers relied less on repetitive instructions

  • Created space for future improvements to be made collaboratively

Learnings

Learnings

  • Small, low-effort design decisions can have disproportionate impact

  • UX and service design aren't limited to digital spaces—they apply wherever humans interact with systems

  • Leading by example and co-creating with teams builds ownership and longevity

  • This experience deepened my belief in designing for people first, even in high-pressure, operational contexts

  • Small, low-effort design decisions can have disproportionate impact

  • UX and service design aren't limited to digital spaces—they apply wherever humans interact with systems

  • Leading by example and co-creating with teams builds ownership and longevity

  • This experience deepened my belief in designing for people first, even in high-pressure, operational contexts

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