Anytime you eat in a pub or cafe in Australia, or visit a Food Hall in the US or UK, chances are you've seen a me&u QR code at your table. Relatively straightforward at face value, but a powerful growth engine for hospitality, from ordering and payments to guest personalization, and tools for staff.

I joined me&u (prev. Mr Yum) as their first Product Designer. I grew the product design and research function as the company scaled to 25M+ users worldwide.

We launched three new products for in-venue ordering: order & pay, split bills and food halls. I was responsible for design, testing and supporting delivery of these features. I also led research to alter the strategic direction of the US launch, which resulted in a new dedicated app for servers and staff.

The user is (probably) drunk.

I designed an ordering experience that people would use in low-light, busy, social settings. They're distracted by the story their friend is telling them whilst trying to order the next round of drinks.

The experience needed to be bold and simple. It needed to help venues increase order value, with care not to trick people into buying more than they should.

The app had to be flexible to work with the venue's operations, whether they wanted guests to pay for each order, or pay at end. So each change to the system had to consider multiple custom ordering and payment setups.

• Scan QR code, add to order, view bill and pay any time
• Allow user to enter in how much they want to pay
• Last person finalises the remaining amount

Adding split bills was a critical feature for launching in the US, where the original model of pay-as-you-go wasn't appealing to restaurant owners and didn't vibe with tipping culture.

Getting servers on side

The first attempt to launch in the US ran into a critical issue. Servers actively worked against the app, often times putting their hand over the QR code to stop guests from scanning. We needed to shift their opinion from a tool that was impacting their income, to a tool that makes their shifts easier, and would increase their tips.

I led research in Austin, TX to understand the differences in the market, perceptions from owners and servers, then designed solutions that would make it easier to go out and sell to venues. I uncovered characteristics of our ICP, and designed a new app, Crew, that would give servers control over the tables they were servicing. The design was dark-mode first, to work best in low-light venue settings.

Staff can offer upsells and accept payments without rushing back to the POS. They can also manage tables, product availability and wait times instantly. Higher tips, and increased customer satisfaction led to network effects where staff were now a driving force for usage in-venue.

73% of Australians ordered on me&u in the past year.

Working with the founders, I created a concept prototype to help share the vision with the team for a new mobile app for users to save venues, see where their friends have been, and get rewards and deals. This paved the way for new AI powered features, and the Spots app, launching soon.