Redesigning the digital catering experience to match retail success, while uncovering critical insights about trust that saved the company from a costly mistake.
Despite catering contributing significantly to Panera's profits, the digital experience lagged behind retail. After digital sales passed $1 billion, leadership asked us to improve the catering platform.
We interviewed executive assistants and pharmaceutical sales reps (the primary catering customers) to understand their needs and pain points with digital ordering.
```Sales Rep
Orders frequently for high-stakes client meetings. Always on-the-go, values 24/7 ordering but maintains relationships with specific café managers.
"People always remember bad food…and that means they aren't thinking about what I'm selling them."
Office Manager
Experienced, risk-averse. Only uses vendors she's personally vetted. A bad experience turned her away from online ordering permanently—she now calls every order.
"I've been burned before. Now I always pick up the phone, no matter what the order is for."
Sales Rep & Power User
Internal and expert users we needed to support without degrading their experience. Alina converts phone users to digital; David knows all the ordering tricks.
Users had personal relationships with catering managers and wouldn't order from unknown cafés. Some even checked manager schedules before booking meetings.
Leadership was planning to restrict orders to region-assigned cafés (for efficiency). Our research showed this would backfire—users said they'd switch vendors entirely rather than use an unfamiliar Panera location.
The initiative was halted.
Stakeholders wanted "bundles," but users had different mental models for quantity and grouping. Everyone ordered in patterns (bagels = coffee, sandwiches = cookies), but each had unique workarounds to get what they wanted.
We focused on three core flows: Starting an Order, Product Detail Pages, and Customizing Bundles. Desktop-first approach since users preferred laptops for catering orders.
Homepage variants for new vs. returning users
Single-page menu with sticky navigation to clarify bundles vs. à-la-carte
Flexible product pages handling both single items and customizable assortments
"Continuous Review" cart—users treated it as a running tally, checking after every addition
Detailed order confirmation replaying date, time, location, and café contact (addressing trust needs)
Project paused mid-testing. Next steps were completing mid-fidelity validation and integrating catering components into the Panera design system. My role would be maintaining system consistency as the designer who built the retail system.
Our research didn't just inform design—it prevented a strategic mistake that would have damaged customer relationships and driven users to competitors. By giving leadership the user's voice, we influenced major business decisions beyond the scope of the original project.