Introduction

Coyote Logistics, part of UPS, is a leading global third-party logistics provider with 16 offices worldwide that connects Customers/Shippers with Carriers/Drivers 10,000 times a day (like Uber but for companies and trucks).

I joined Coyote back in 2018 to establish the UX Practice in-house and incorporate Design Thinking and User-Centered Design practices into the product development lifecycle.

Opportunity

About 2,000 employees serve Coyote's customers over the phone and email, completing short and repetitive tasks, such as generating shipping rates, entering shipment details, and providing shipment updates.

We asked ourselves: How could we empower customers with real-time access while reducing employees manual tasks to enable them to focus on higher-value activities?

Spoiler Alert: we created a self-service platform that customers loved.

Approach

Project Milestones:

1. Problem & Hypothesis Statements: Collectively aligned on problem to solve and how to solve it.

2. User Research: Interviewed users, captured needs & pain points to address in new experience.

3. User Flows & Sketches: Collaboratively created user flows & sketches in lieu of formal requirements.

4. MVP Design: Created Wireframes and Detailed Design for first release.

5. User Feedback: Conducted Usability Testing, sent a Survey, & collected CSAT from Production.

1. Problem & Hypothesis Statements

I led a very insightful working session where stakeholders described current state issues and potential avenues to accelerate growth. Disagreements were the most interesting part of the discussion.

2. User Research

Once a direction has been established, we reached out to customers to learn their daily processes and how our technology could add value to their business.

An Interview Protocol, that served as discussion guide during calls, allowed us to stay on topic and collect data on areas of interest. We took notes per participant and then grouped them by topic (Affinity Diagram) to expose Emerging Themes.

Instead of creating Personas, we decided to document "Mindsets", which since they are more fluid, it allowed us to reflect our customer behaviors more accurately. It's a Service Design thing… you can read more here.

In retrospective, we could have created Personas, which we did, in the context of a different project:

3. User Flows & Sketches

Based on the solution that business outlined and what we have learned about our users, we mapped the user flows and collaboratively sketched the content and major interactions.

4. MVP Design

We created a mood-board and explored different styles, within the limits of the existing visual language.

After reviews with Stakeholders, Product, And Dev, an early and limited version was released in order to allow the team to gather feedback from real users.

5. User Feedback

Prior to releasing the MVP, we created a clickable prototype to test our hypotheses about and identify any potential risks and improvement opportunities.

Usability Testing, Onsite & Remote

Methodology

A clickable prototype was built on Axure (yeah, I know), which allowed us to create an holistic experience by embedding MS/Google forms as part of the flow.

We provided users with the password and asked them to share their screen, where they completed the following steps:

a. Pre-Test Demographic Questions

b. Task 1

c. Post-Task Questions

d. Task 2, 3, n …

e. Post-Test Questions (System Usability Score)

Report

While Product and Dev participated in the sessions and witnessed the feedback first hand, which led to backlog items for design and dev, an official report was shared with business stakeholders and leadership to "evangelize" the value of UX.

The reports were extremely well received.

Outcome

The new self-service experience for Shippers exceeded expectations, overperfoming in a every key indicator:

• Increased Number of New Accounts

• Increased Digital Volume

• Increased Gross Margin

• Increased Pre-Paid Transactions

And customers loved it!

Production Site CSAT Score

Additional Iterations