Return to Origin
Effortlessly route items back to their designated origin point with just a few clicks.
DATE
Q4 2024
ROLE
Lead Product Designer
TEAM
Riley Hendrickson, PM
Sanath Yapatla, Lead Engineer
Vinod Badhavat, BE Engineer
CONTEXT
On the Core team, I designed Return to Origin to streamline the check-in/check-out workflow for inventory-heavy businesses. This feature empowers users to quickly return items to their original folders in bulk, eliminating manual workarounds and ensuring inventory is always organized and ready for the next job. By reducing friction in a common yet tedious task, Return to Origin helps teams move faster and operate with greater confidence.
CONTEXT
PROBLEM
Item check-ins are messy, slow, and frustrating
Every project requires moving items into checked-out folders. But when the work’s done, putting them back is a guessing game—clicking through reports, digging through folders, and wasting hours just to figure out where things belong
M
McKenzie Deshamp
It would be nice to have a home folder for an item, that way returns can be much easier.
P
Phil Purd
Without this feature, it’s a show-stopper for us. We tried to implement something similar using tags, without much success.
D
Deborah Thibodeaux
Returning items back causes more work in the system than it is worth at this point.
J
Jonathan Plummer
It’s imperative that we have something like this! Like an undo and restore. I had an employee mess up our database, and it took forever to manually move everything back to original locations.
R
Rick Carruthers
I need to send items back to their location everyday. A feature like this would be a MASSIVE time saver for so many people.
SOLUTION
Armed with 250+ requests and clear pain points, we reimagined check-ins into a process that just works.
1
Feature Enablement
As a specialized feature created for businesses with a check-in, check-out model, we created a control hub where users can turn these features on.
2
Set Origin Folders
Each item can be assigned a default origin folder from its details page, or in bulk. This one-time setup powers seamless future returns.
Integrated origin setting within the item creation flow, where it’s most accessible.
Bulk setting origins would be heavily used to gain adoption of the feature.
3
Single Item Return
Users can return an item to its original folder with a single click from the item details view.
Integrated origin setting within the item creation flow, where it’s most accessible.
Integrated origin setting within the item creation
4
Bulk Return Flow
Bulk-select multiple items and return them to their origins in just a few steps. Perfect for post-job resets or end-of-day inventory cleanup.
Bulk-select multiple items and return them to their origins in just a few steps. Perfect for post-job resets or end-of-day inventory cleanup.
4
Mobile Experience
The full Return to Origin workflow is available on mobile—from quick actions to bulk returns. Designed for speed and clarity, even on the go.
Mobile bulk return flow
Return to origin integrated with quick actions
RTO launchpoint within all item overflow menu’s now
Return to Origin fits seamlessly into Sortly’s ecosystem—designed to be powerful, yet invisible.
Thanks for stopping by!