Freight Logistics Marketplace

Automating the traditional trucking brokerage experience and products to revolutionize the way everything around us moves.

Freight is a huge industry - in 2019, US trucking revenue was $791B, leading to a .81% GDP contribution - 4.7x more than ground transportation. 80%+ of all products, globally, have been on a truck at some point between point A and B.

In my role at the Freight Logistics Marketplace, I had impact by:

  • First full-time UX Research (UXR) hire, owning all research and operations across four product teams; growing the research team from one researcher to three in six months.

  • Research helped identify opportunities that led to the development of new product teams and increased overall team efficiency by >5%.

  • Researching findings for the app features supported extensive growth in key metrics, including increasing LPD (loads per day) through unlocking opportunities with dispatchers, shippers and small fleet drivers by identifying inefficiencies, pain points and opportunities.

Dispatcher Mode Project

Challenge

  • The current app only allowed for owner-operators to book loads for themselves; with no functionality available for dispatchers (those that book loads for others)

  • How might we build a user-centric experience that aligns to the mental model of dispatchers that we can ship as soon as possible to unlock additional capacity?

Impact

  • Initial scoping research led to mobile-first approach - findings from phone survey identified that most dispatchers were not based at computers which led to the MVP of Dispatcher Mode being implemented mobile first.

  • Usability Testing led to changing assignment process - Initial hypothesis of ‘select load, then driver’ was disproven; leading to significant process changes to ‘select driver, then load’ to align to user mental models.

  • Convinced stakeholders to conduct diary study on dScout, rather than Google Forms - incorporating video and photo content reduced barriers to adoption for participants and provided engineering and design a more empathetic understanding of their users.

  • Research supported unlocking a large segment of new drivers to support growth within the Uber Freight marketplace.

Solution

    • Developed a mobile-first experience that allowed dispatchers to book and assign loads to other drivers on the app.

    • Unlocked capacity with additional user groups which led to additional growth with the logistics network.

Approach

Step 1: Identify Key Scope

  • Identify key questions and hypothesis with stakeholders (product, design, engineering, data science and leadership) to understand areas of investigation and validation for survey.

  • Survey design and execution (via phone) with 50+ dispatchers to capture current experiences and potential user needs.

  • Work with key stakeholders to validate hypotheses and determine MVP scope based on user needs.


Step 2: Validate Experience

  • Moderated Usability Testing to ensure that the user experience aligns to dispatcher mental models.

  • Contextual inquiry in home-based sessions with dispatchers to build a deeper understanding of our users and validate hypothesis on how Dispatcher Mode will be used.

  • Identify usability issues and develop recommendations to improve the experience and ensure user centricity.


Step 3: Launch & Understand

  • Diary study with pilot dispatchers for the new experience to understand adoption of the new experience compared to the user’s current processes.

  • Document key friction points during process to make user-centric changes to the experience before full launch.

  • Capture and share feedback with engineering and design teams to build connectivity with user groups.