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Every time I run a human-centered design workshop, I can count on one thing: someone will eventually crack a joke about building a pizza tracker. It’s usually tossed out as a lighthearted example of “design thinking in the wild.” People chuckle, nod, and move on.

But here’s the thing: while everyone knows Domino’s online tracker, almost no one recognizes its real genius, or really figures out how it could bring clarity to their own transformation challenges. That’s a missed opportunity.

Because what looks like a gimmick from a pizza chain is actually a masterclass in solving one of the hardest problems in enterprise transformation: making invisible progress visible.

The Problem with Invisible Work

In most organizations, progress is a black box. Teams know they’ve submitted a request, filed a ticket, or kicked off an initiative. But then it disappears. Updates are infrequent, vague, or overloaded with jargon.

That lack of visibility creates three predictable outcomes:

• Bottlenecks: Small delays compound because no one knows where things are stuck.

• Mistrust: People assume nothing is happening—even when work is progressing.

• Shadow Work: Teams create their own tracking systems just to stay informed.

Leaders often respond with heavier project management tools, more dashboards, or weekly status meetings. But more complexity rarely fixes the visibility gap. Usually it makes it worse.

What Domino’s Got Right

Domino’s solved this problem with a deceptively simple interface almost 20 years ago. The pizza tracker broke down a complex, multi-step workflow (order, prep, bake, quality check, deliver) into five stages anyone could understand.

Three design choices made it powerful:

• Stages, not details: Customers don’t see oven temperature or delivery routing; they just see the step that matters now.

• Real-time progress: Updates happen automatically without a human manager pushing them out.

• Plain language: “Your pizza is in the oven” is more reassuring than “Order #58943 is in process.”

The result? Trust. Customers stopped calling to ask, “Where’s my order?” because they could see the journey unfold.

In Defense of Pizza Trackers

That same principle applies to enterprise transformation. Employees, managers, and customers don’t need another project plan buried in SharePoint or a dense BI dashboard. They need a simple, visible way to understand where things stand right now.

And yet, in every industry, leaders undervalue visibility. They prioritize speed, automation, or efficiency but overlook the fact that trust and adoption often hinge on something as basic as “Can I see what’s happening?”

Design Principles for Enterprise Transparency

If you want to bring the pizza The Case for Radical Visibility tracker’s strengths into your transformation work, here’s where to start:

• Break the journey into clear steps

People don’t need to see every internal sub-process, dependency, or system handshake. They just need to know which stage the work is in and what comes next. For example, instead of showing 20 different workflow states, reduce them to five meaningful stages that match how people naturally think about progress. Simplification reduces cognitive load and creates alignment across teams.

• Provide real-time updates

Visibility is only useful if it reflects reality. Static reports or weekly check-ins leave gaps where mistrust can grow. By wiring updates directly to the systems where work happens, you give people a reliable view without adding reporting overhead. Think of it as a heartbeat for your transformation: steady, automatic, and trustworthy.

• Use plain, human language

Technical jargon may be precise, but it’s rarely reassuring. “Pending workflow approval #32” is meaningless to most people, while “Waiting for manager sign-off” is instantly clear. Visibility isn’t just about information; it’s about making that information accessible. Use the simplest language possible, and test it with real users before assuming it makes sense.

• Show ownership and accountability

A tracker that just says “in progress” is no better than silence. The power of visibility comes from knowing who owns the next move. Good trackers don’t just show where the work is, they show who is responsible. This reduces finger-pointing, accelerates resolution, and builds trust between teams.

• Design for both sides of the table

Too often, organizations design visibility only for leadership dashboards, leaving employees or customers in the dark. A true “pizza tracker” mindset asks: how do we make progress transparent to everyone who has a stake in it? Visibility should reassure the customer that things are moving forward and give employees the clarity they need to act confidently. When both groups benefit, adoption soars.

The Case for Radical Visibility

Transformation isn’t just about new systems or AI-driven workflows. It’s about people’s confidence that change is actually happening. The pizza tracker works because it reassures, informs, and builds trust—three outcomes that most enterprise dashboards fail to deliver.

So the next time someone jokes about building the next pizza tracker in a workshop, don’t laugh it off. Defend it. Because in a world where transformation efforts are too often invisible and abstract, making the invisible visible might be the most powerful tool you’ve got.