Picnic: B2B Meal Planner
Transforming a consumer grocery app into an enterprise bulk ordering platform for professional kitchens
The Challenge
How might we expand into the B2B market while leveraging existing infrastructure, without cannibalizing the consumer product?
How might we enable head chefs to efficiently order bulk quantities for meal planning, when current tools are optimized for individual consumer purchases?
The Context
Picnic was a successful mobile-first grocery delivery app serving individual consumers. The company wanted to explore the B2B opportunityspecifically targeting restaurants, catering businesses, and institutional kitchens that needed to order ingredients in bulk.
This was a redesign and platform expansion project. The existing consumer app had strong infrastructure (supplier network, logistics, payment systems) but was designed around consumer shopping patterns: browse, discover, add-to-cart, checkout. Professional chefs needed something fundamentally different: recipe-driven ordering, bulk quantities, recurring orders, and budget management.
Before: Consumer App
- Discovery-focused browsing
- Individual item quantities
- One-time purchases
- Personal preferences
Goal: B2B Platform
- Task-focused ordering
- Bulk quantities
- Recurring orders
- Budget & cost management
Design Process
1. Understanding Professional Kitchen Workflows
I conducted interviews and contextual inquiries with head chefs, kitchen managers, and catering coordinators to understand their current ordering processes:
- Menu planning drives everything: Chefs plan menus first, then order ingredientsnot browse and discover
- Efficiency over discovery: Speed and accuracy matter more than product exploration
- Bulk thinking: Orders are in cases, kilos, and bulk units, not individual items
- Budget constraints: Every order needs to stay within budget and track costs per dish
- Repetition: 80% of orders are recurring with small variations
2. Identifying Core User Needs
Through research, I identified the key jobs-to-be-done for professional users:
Start with menu, automatically generate ingredient list
Convert recipe quantities to bulk ordering units easily
See cost per dish and per order in real-time
Save and repeat previous orders with minimal effort
3. Design Exploration & Prototyping
I explored multiple approaches to the core ordering experience, testing with target users:
Key insight from testing: Chefs didn't want a complex meal planning toolthey already had systems for that. They needed a fast way to turn their existing meal plans into orders. This led to the "Quick List" approach rather than built-in meal planning.
4. Designing for Both Platforms
One constraint was maintaining the existing infrastructure while serving different user needs. I designed a responsive experience that worked across devices but optimized for the tablet-in-kitchen use case:
- Mobile: Quick reorders, order status, inventory checks
- Tablet: Full ordering workflow with recipe input and bulk conversion
- Desktop: Cost analysis, order history, account management
The Solution
Quick List: Recipe to Cart
Chefs input their ingredient list (typed or pasted from their existing planning tools), and the system automatically matches items, suggests bulk quantities, and adds everything to cart in seconds. This respects existing workflows rather than forcing new tools.
Smart Bulk Conversion
Automatically converts recipe quantities (e.g., "200g butter") to optimal bulk units (e.g., "1kg package") while showing cost per serving. Chefs can adjust quantities with bulk-optimized controls rather than incrementing individual items.
Saved Order Templates
One-tap reordering for recurring menu items. Chefs save common orders (e.g., "Weekend Brunch Menu") and reorder with a single action, making minor adjustments only when needed. This addresses the 80% recurring orders pattern.
Real-time Budget Tracking
Persistent budget indicator shows running total, cost per dish, and budget status throughout the ordering flow. Critical for professional kitchens where margins are thin and every order must stay within budget.
Delivery Scheduling for Kitchens
Schedule deliveries around kitchen prep times with supplier-specific windows. Different from consumer delivery, this respects commercial kitchen hours and loading dock access.
Outcome & Impact
This was a design exploration and prototype project. The following metrics are based on usability testing and pilot program feedback.
reduction in time to complete an order compared to existing ordering methods
average usability score from head chefs in testing
of test participants said they'd prefer this to their current ordering tool
"This actually understands how we work. I'm not learning a new systemI'm just getting my existing process done faster."Head Chef, 120-seat restaurant
Key Outcomes
- Product validation: Prototype validated market fit for B2B expansion
- Strategic clarity: Research identified that professional users need speed and integration, not feature complexity
- Infrastructure leverage: Design worked within existing technical constraints while serving new user needs
- Pilot interest: Multiple restaurant groups expressed interest in pilot programs based on prototype demonstrations
Reflections & Learnings
Don't Compete With Existing Tools
My initial designs included elaborate meal planning features. User testing revealed chefs already had systems they likedthey needed ordering, not planning. The best product design sometimes means doing less and integrating better with existing workflows.
B2B ` More Features
I learned that "professional tools" doesn't mean "more complex." Professional users actually need simpler, faster interfaces because they're task-focused and time-constrained. Feature bloat was the enemy of adoption.
Infrastructure as Constraint and Opportunity
Working within existing infrastructure forced creative problem-solving. Rather than rebuild from scratch, I had to find elegant ways to serve fundamentally different user needs with the same backend systems. This constraint led to better, more realistic solutions.
What I'd Do Differently
If I could revisit this project, I'd spend more time understanding the full stakeholder ecosystemnot just head chefs, but also suppliers, delivery teams, and kitchen staff. Some design decisions assumed smooth handoffs that might not exist in reality. I'd also explore the invoice reconciliation flow more deeply, as this turned out to be more important to buyers than I initially anticipated.