Designing for Complexity: Galley's Enterprise Menu Planner
Designed a flexible, data-driven menu planner that helps chefs save time, reduce errors, and scale their operations.
The problem in a nutshell
In 2023, I joined Galley, an ERP platform for the food industry, as a UX designer. One of my first major initiatives was to design a menu planning experience that would replace spreadsheets and paper-based workflows in commercial kitchens.
Menu planning is a critical — and highly complex — task for chefs. It affects not only the nutritional quality of meals but also costs, allergen compliance, prep time, and customer satisfaction. Most professionals plan manually, juggling multiple variables with limited tools:
Our goal was to create a calendar-like, data-aware planning tool that could streamline this task while honoring its complexity.
Impact
In 2024, we launched the Menu Planner as a core module in Galley's SaaS offering. It enabled chefs and corporate teams to:
- Reduce planning time
- Access cost and allergen data in context
- Customize menus for different locations and audiences
- Scale plans efficiently across programs
This quote from a corporate chef captured its real-world impact:
"I'm just lovin' the new Menu Planner!!! … [It helps us] generate new, exciting menu cycles & customize them to our communities… Much easier insight into how frequently users are updating/truly customizing their menu."
My approach
Discovery
Working with my PM, we interviewed chefs and culinary directors to understand how they planned menus and what challenges they faced using digital tools. A few core needs consistently surfaced:
- Using existing data already in Galley (recipes, collections, ingredients) to streamline planning
- Staying within budget, with real-time visibility into cost per day or cycle
- Clearly labeling allergens to meet compliance and safety standards
- Tracking frequency of use for specific ingredients and recipes — so teams could ensure variety and avoid repetition
- Planning in cycles, most commonly over 28-day periods, to support recurring programs and streamline reuse
What users have said about it
The Menu Planner has been embraced across culinary teams for making a once tedious, fragmented workflow faster, more collaborative, and more insightful — from the kitchen to the executive level.
"I'm just lovin' the new Menu Planner!!! It's helping us generate new, exciting menu cycles and customize them to our communities — way easier insight into how frequently users are updating/truly customizing their menu."
"Galley has transformed our menu planning processes and made it possible to improve production efficiency, mitigate inflationary pressures, and foster culinary collaboration across the company."
These quotes reflect not just usability wins, but real business outcomes — improved operations, better planning decisions, and stronger alignment between teams.