Smaller sizes
More customers prefer mini-sized baked goods and snacks.
Bimbo Bakeries USA · Class project
Buttery: Breakfast Subscription
A research-led breakfast subscription proposal for Bimbo Bakeries USA, developed from nine participant sessions in a three-person class project.
3Team members
Shared responsibility across research and design
4Market trends
Used to shape the primary research plan
3Research methods
Interview, observation, and projective activities
9Participant sessions
Three sessions conducted by each teammate
Team & Contributions
Team members: Yaxuan Xiao, Henry Yang, and Jinheng Cen. We shared the research and design work evenly.
- Conducted secondary research into breakfast habits and market trends
- I recruited participants and conducted three of the team's nine research sessions
- Synthesized findings and developed concepts together
- Created the final presentation and presented it to the client as a team
- My additional work: I coordinated meeting times, milestones, and task handoffs to keep the team aligned.
Client Need
How might Bimbo Bakeries USA increase breakfast and bread-and-bun purchases among adults ages 18–35?
The brief focused on making products in Bimbo Bakeries USA's breakfast and bread-and-buns categories more relevant to younger consumers.
Before creating a product, we needed to understand how this age group eats, shops, and makes decisions within the constraints of everyday life.
01 · Secondary Research
Four trends shaped what we needed to learn from people.
We studied shifts in food formats, convenience, health, indulgence, and flavor to form an initial view of younger consumers' expectations.
Convenience
Convenience is increasingly important when Gen Z selects food.
Health and indulgence
Health awareness and food indulgence coexist among younger consumers.
Bolder flavors
Customers seek more stimulating and distinctive snack flavors.
02 · Session Design & Recruitment
We designed three activities to learn through talking, observing, and doing.
Each 90-minute session combined direct questions with evidence from participants' environments and a creative exercise about their ideal snack.
Interview
Discuss routines, motivations, constraints, and food-purchase decisions.
Observation
Photograph food cabinets and ask participants about what they keep within reach.
Projective exercise
Ask participants to draw an ideal snack and express needs beyond direct answers.
03 · Conduct Sessions & Collect Evidence
Nine sessions connected participants' stories to their real environments.
We documented what participants told us, photographed their food cabinets during observation, and collected drawings from the projective exercise. These three forms of evidence helped us compare intentions with everyday behavior.
All currently living in the United States
Focused on younger breakfast consumers
Required for every recruited participant
User Insights
Limited access
Without time, transportation, or nearby variety, breakfast options narrow quickly.
On-the-go eating
Breakfast often happens during class, work, or a commute.
Safe exploration
People want novelty without committing to a full package or unfamiliar flavor.
Portion sensitivity
Portion needs change with schedule, appetite, and health goals.
Emotional value
Baked goods can provide comfort, reward, and social connection.
04 · Find the Opportunity
We organized the evidence to find gaps between needs and existing choices.
We transferred session notes into post-its, grouped related ideas, and mapped the patterns through a 2×2 framework and a Venn diagram.
How might we design an accessible, convenient, and varied breakfast experience that fits young adults' morning routines?
05 · Ideate & Refine
Our first three concepts explored emotion but did not solve the underlying routine.
Why We Revisited the Direction
The first concepts did not fit how young adults actually navigate breakfast.
We went back to the evidence and rebuilt the idea by combining insights from secondary research with what participants shared in interviews. That synthesis shifted the concept away from expressive packaging and toward a convenient, customizable service designed for young adults' everyday routines.
Final Direction
The proposal moves breakfast planning to a weekly choice.
The final concept is a customizable bread subscription planned once and delivered in individually packaged, ready-to-eat portions.
Customize once
Select bread type, flavor, dietary preferences, portion size, and weekly quantity.
Deliver reliably
Use scheduled weekly or biweekly delivery to remove the need for a morning stop.
Grab and go
Individually packaged portions fit class, work, and commuting routines.
Recommendation & open questions
A service hypothesis to test, not demonstrated demand.
Our deliverable was a concept recommendation and presentation to the client. The research supported exploring convenience, variety, and flexible portions; it did not establish that people would subscribe or that delivery would be commercially viable.
Adoption
Would people choose a recurring subscription over supermarket multipacks or ordinary grocery delivery? A next study should compare these alternatives, including price and commitment.
Service feasibility
Freshness, customization, packaging, and delivery cost need evaluation before the service can become a viable recommendation for implementation.
Evidence scope
Nine exploratory sessions informed the concept. They do not establish demand across the full 18–35 age range or demonstrate increased purchases.
Reflection
Revisit the direction when the concept misses the routine.
Our early concepts emphasized expressive packaging. Returning to the research shifted the recommendation toward access, convenience, and everyday routines. That was a useful change in direction, but the subscription model still needs testing against simpler ways to buy breakfast.