Mapping the kitchen journey to a connected customer experience.
A kitchen project involves planning, measuring, selecting products and coordinating specialist support across digital tools, store visits and consultations. I led research and experience definition at Leroy Merlin to turn that complexity into a shared model that digital, specialist and store teams could use to make consistent product decisions.
The challenge
Customers experienced one purchase journey. The organisation delivered it through separate channels.
Planning a kitchen requires customers to make connected decisions about space, layout, products, budget, installation and specialist support. However, the experience was distributed across digital tools, consultations and physical stores.
Customers had to understand how each channel worked, decide where to continue and repeatedly rebuild context as they moved between touchpoints.
Information created in one part of the journey was not always available or understandable in the next.
Customers could use several tools and services without knowing which step should follow.
Digital, specialist and store experiences reflected internal channels rather than one customer decision journey.
Research direction
I directed the research around the decisions customers were trying to make.
I defined the research direction and led usability testing and qualitative research across the kitchen journey. The aim was not only to identify interface problems, but to understand how customers formed decisions, where confidence was lost and how channels affected one another. I also examined how internal processes and responsibilities shaped the customer experience.
How customers moved from initial inspiration to dimensions, layout and product decisions.
What information customers needed before committing to the next step.
What happened when customers moved between digital tools, specialists and stores.
Product and service direction
Two decisions reframed the kitchen experience around customer decisions.
The central decision was to organise the service around customer decisions rather than company channels.
The evidence showed that improving isolated touchpoints would not resolve the underlying problem. Customers needed one understandable progression across planning, specialist guidance and store interaction.
I reframed the journey around the decisions customers needed to complete, then used that structure to identify where information, guidance and responsibility should connect across the service.
Trade offOne customer journey · Multiple connected services
I translated the research into a shared experience direction.
The experience model connected customer decisions with the tools, information, people and environments required at each stage. It gave digital and operational teams a shared reference for understanding the journey beyond their individual channels.
The model covered four areas: customer decisions, information continuity, service responsibility and connected touchpoints.
Trade offA shared model used across digital, specialist and store teams
What I led
My role connected research, experience strategy and organisational direction.
My responsibility extended from defining the research approach to establishing the experience direction. I connected customer evidence, business priorities and service operations so that teams could make decisions from one shared understanding of the journey.
- Research leadership
- Experience direction
- Strategic design
- Stakeholder alignment
- Opportunity definition
Prioritised opportunities
The research clarified where product and service decisions could create the greatest value.
The resulting direction highlighted the points where customers needed stronger guidance, better continuity and clearer progression. Opportunities were prioritised according to their relevance across the complete journey rather than the needs of one isolated channel.
Clearer progression
Help customers understand where they are, what has been decided and what should happen next.
Context continuity
Carry relevant information between digital planning, specialist advice and store interaction.
Decision support
Provide the right level of guidance before customers commit to complex choices.
Connected service
Align tools, people and physical environments around one coherent journey.
Resulting direction
The result was a clearer direction for one connected kitchen service.
One reference connecting customer decisions across channels.
Clear criteria for designing consistent product and service interactions.
A focused set of improvements grounded in customer evidence and operational reality.
A common understanding across digital, specialist and store teams.
The work established a shared model connecting digital planning, specialist advice and physical stores around the decisions customers needed to make. It gave product and service teams a clearer basis for prioritising improvements without treating each channel as a separate customer experience.
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