If you visited a grocery store in the 1800s, one of many clerks would do the shopping for you. It was only a century ago when you might choose an item from the shelf yourself, which is what many of us do today at a supermarket.

The same thing has taken place with paying for your groceries. You used to need to line up at a check out counter and have a clerk scan items for you and add up the total bill.  

Then, a new product hit the market: the self checkout kiosk. As a customer, it enabled you to scan your own groceries and pay for them. 

These self checkout kiosks required fewer clerks, less space, and were simple enough for most people to use. Grocers that installed these kiosks also set the clerks up to train and educate customers who felt confused or intimidated. 

At first, self checkout sounded ridiculous. “I’m going to do the extra work of scanning my own groceries? No, thank you.” If you had a couple of items, and the regular checkout had a long line, maybe you’d try it. Then, as time went on, you got more comfortable with checking out yourself—and you might’ve ever preferred it. 

Serving yourself was faster, you could take responsibility for any mistakes you made, and you didn’t need to make small talk with anyone. 

Scale used to be a fuzzy concept for me. When I was tasked with scaling distribution for Figma’s Story Studio team, I wasn’t sure how to think about it. Then, I noticed how grocery stores had scaled the selection and checkout processes, and it all clicked for me.

My customers (my co-workers) had an incentive: they were already writing articles, and they wanted to make sure each one reached more of the right readers. They were also extremely busy, so the solution needed to be very simple and low effort for them. A product I made was a list of channels, which looked like a menu—but this was too complicated on its own. In order to make it more convenient, I also introduced a service, a bi-weekly distribution workshop, which would help my customers execute on ideation and promotional tasks.

If you’re wondering how to make a greater impact, or if you’re ever tasked with scaling something, it helps to consider how to help someone serve themselves—or at least get much closer to it. You’ll need to introduce products and services that they feel comfortable using, and educate them on the possibilities and how to use it. It takes a lot of thought, intention, and energy, and it’s totally worth it.