Project Overview- Two simultaneous book fairs. One gym. Rotating volunteers with no prior experience.
Design Problem- Four cash registers. Two bonus thresholds. Two credit reserves. Real-time reconciliation across systems that couldn't communicate. No training.
Goal- Make the complexity invisible.
Result- A complete operations system, onboarding, role guidance, cash reconciliation, revenue tracking, and end-of-shift volunteer recruitment, iterated annually over 12 years and $150,000 in sales.
Two fairs. One room. Volunteers. Zero confusion.
$150,000.
Two checks.
Two fairs.
Both bonus thresholds hit.
Role- Instructional Designer, Operations Manager, Financial Systems Designer
Timeline- 12 years
13 color-coded shelf sections. Two fairs worth of inventory. One room.
Designed for three audiences: volunteers, cashiers, and kids.
Every dollar accounted for. Every drawer balanced. Every day.
Role-specific guidance — same voice, different job.
60+ teachers. Scheduled visits on the whiteboard. Shopping tracked by sticky note. When the note was moved, the books were on their way.
