Sam`s Club

Todd Garner’s career began more than 20 years ago as an electronics and garden center associate at a Walmart store in Muscatine, Iowa, a job he credits for sparking his interest in retail transformation. Following college, Todd served as an Air Force Contracting Officer and later found his passion as a product manager at Asurion Insurance Services. Todd’s career has been anything but a singularly focused path. He spent time consulting at Bain and Company and leading strategy and operations teams at Starbucks prior to rejoining Walmart as a product leader. At Sam’s Club, Todd leads the strategic management of products, drives operational transformations and ensures an exceptional user experience across the Sam’s Club omnichannel business including eCommerce, digital in-club experiences, supply chain management, merchandising and more.

In this discussion with Retail Tech Insights, Garner sheds light on how product management is creating positive impacts for businesses as well as consumers and mentions the emerging scope of digital intervention in modern-day retail. He works to illustrate the significance of product mindset in an era pacing through transformation through a trial-and-error approach.  

How do you foresee emerging methodologies or frameworks in product management contributing to meeting the changing demands of businesses?

At Sam’s Club, we see two critical factors driving our success: our seasoned experience teams and the establishment of our emerging product ops organization. As we pursue our goals, we prioritize both agility and thoroughness, ensuring that we move swiftly while preserving the capacity to make well-informed, unified decisions. The key to sustaining this mentality is the collective, persistent engagement of the experience team, a tight-knit group of individuals, empowered to make the decisions related to their product’.

Typically, the teams comprise a product manager, an engineering manager, a business leader (such as an operator, merchant, or eCommerce owner), a UX designer, and an analyst. This configuration reflects a comprehensive approach that integrates various expertise and perspectives necessary for effective decision-making.

Given that product management is a relatively new concept for physical retailers, we have taken steps to reinforce this model by implementing slightly modified ways of working. These adaptations are aimed at optimizing collaboration, streamlining processes, and enhancing overall efficiency. By refining our approach to team dynamics and decision-making, we ensure that our product development efforts are driven by informed and coordinated actions, ultimately supporting our broader objectives at Sam's Club.

As our embrace and application of the product mindset and design thinking have grown, we've established a product ops organization. This entity plays a pivotal role in our operations by facilitating the streamlining, aggregation, and intelligent planning across more than 200 product teams. These teams are instrumental in supporting our digital aspirations and solutions. Product ops ensures experience teams are equipped with the essential resources, tools, and processes needed to execute our objectives effectively and we have the visibility to ensure we are moving the needle on the initiatives and products that matter most to our members and associates. The strategic focus on product ops underscores our commitment to operational excellence and member satisfaction at Sam's Club.

Can you share your experiences from one of the projects that you were recently involved in?

We recently unveiled our seamless exit experience, a significant innovation driven by design thinking, a product mindset, and our experience teams. This breakthrough addresses a key concern voiced by our members: the hassle of waiting in line for receipt verification upon exiting the club. The technology behind this solution iscurrently live in more than 120 clubs , and we are on track to reach all of our nearly 600 clubs  by the end of 2024. Combined with Scan & Go , the cutting-edge artificial intelligence and computer vision technology employed for our exit technology provides a nearly fricition-free shopping experience with no lines, no waiting, and no hassle – a truly differentiated experience for our Member.

  ​True focus lies in understanding the needs and pain points of our members and associates. Unravelling the roots of their challenges, we craft tailored solutions that directly address their unique struggles.   

This technology was the result of a member centric focus and rigorous exploration of multiple technologies and concepts such as camera technology, infrastructure requirements, processing systems, and hardware placement, coupled with the development of a sophisticated machine learning algorithm for computer vision, the team honed in on the ideal solution to meet our members' needs.

In just a few months and through multiple iterations, the team transformed concepts into a functional prototype. Within six months, we proudly unveiled an exit experience that exceeded expectations and were poised for widespread implementation across our chain. In clubs where the technology has been deployed, more than half of members are getting the friction-free exit experience. This translates to all members leaving the club 23% faster.  Investment in digital solutions not only enhances member experiences but also solidifies Sam's Club's position as an industry innovator. 

In which areas of product management do you observe challenges in delivering satisfactory outcomes with existing services?

As Sam's Club has expanded and transformed, we identified the necessity for a dedicated product management function. Embracing principles of product management has allowed us to streamline our operations, enhance collaboration, and elevate the caliber of products and innovation offered to our members. Complementing this strategy, our experience team model has empowered teams playing a pivotal role in uniting individuals with diverse expertise and perspectives, thereby fostering innovation and creativity within our organization. Through a relentless dedication to learning and growth, we have witnessed firsthand the positive impact of product management on our business. We remain steadfast in our commitment to refining and optimizing our methodologies to align with our evolving business model and better serve our members.

In your opinion, what is the most promising technology trend currently impacting the field of Product Management, and why does it hold such appeal for you?

Undoubtedly, the escalating reliance on technology in our society necessitates the development of efficient strategies to scale and support our expanding aspirations. In this context, I foresee the emergence of genAI as a pivotal force multiplier. Leveraging genAI holds the promise of rapidly acquiring invaluable insights that inform our product roadmaps, facilitating quicker, more informed decision-making processes. Moreover, genAI has the potential to streamline the creation of essential documents such as product requirement documents, user stories, acceptance criteria, and other administrative needs, thereby conserving valuable time and accelerating the pace at which we can innovate. These advantages are not confined solely to product managers but also extend to other members of the experience team.

What recommendations or guidance would you provide to professionals in your role, working within the retail industry, regarding effective practices for maximizing performance?

To maintain focus on problem-solving, we place a premium on understanding the needs and pain points of both our members and associates. Through this process, we can pinpoint the root causes of their challenges, paving the way for the development of targeted solutions tailored to address their specific needs. Setting clear outcomes from the outset is paramount, allowing us to establish precise goals and benchmarks for success. This not only aligns the efforts of our team but also provides a structured framework for measuring the impact of our initiatives.

At the core of our approach lies the integration of a product mindset, design thinking, and agile methodologies throughout our organization. This strategic embedding ensures our ability to swiftly adapt to evolving member preferences and market dynamics. Such flexibility empowers us to iterate on our products continuously, facilitating the delivery of incremental enhancements that contribute to achieving our desired outcomes for our members, associates, and our business as a whole.