About Mothership
Mothership is a B2B SaaS startup that focuses on modernizing the outdated technology of the freight and logistics industry. Mothership has introduced reliable same-day delivery using a growing marketplace of drivers,
The Problem
The majority of Mothership’s user base are small to medium-sized businesses, which send low-volume shipments through the platform. In order to scale the business, we must design a system that meets the unique needs of enterprise customers, allowing them to easily book shipments in large volumes, to increase our market-share, remain competitive, and meet revenue goals.
The Solution
Mothership Routes enables enterprise customers to quickly upload, quote, book, track and manage large volumes of shipments.
Shippers benefit from time and cost savings when routing multiple shipments together.
Role: Senior Designer
Timeline: 12 weeks to MVP
Team: CEO, 1-2 Design, PM, 9-12 Developers
Impact
Mothership Routes earned a 92% adoption rate from the enterprise clients we targeted. 6 months later, Mothership Routes became our core product and brought in over 70% of the company’s revenue. We exceeded both our revenue goals and our funding goals for 2021 and 2022.
Process and Learnings
Our biggest undertaking was to scale the business, increase revenue, and expand our product suite to capture more market-share in the shipping industry. Our customer segmentation metrics showed we could achieve this with more bookings from enterprise customers, and less focus on small to medium sized businesses.
Research and Discovery
I initiated the discovery phase by consulting the support team, analyzing quantitative data, and interviewing stakeholders and internal experts. With a solid foundation established, I created a user research plan, engaging enterprise customers who utilized our shipment platform, and developed foundational interview scripts.
Research Methods: User interviews, SME interviews, Analytics analysis, Moderated User Testing, Collaborative Workshops, User Surveys
Deliverables: User Personas, Site Maps, User Flows, IA Diagrams
User Interviews
After reaching internal alignment on scope and project definition, I conducted generative user interviews with 5 enterprise subjects. All users are responsible for shipping and managing orders at their company, and they have used our single shipments experience in the past. Interview subjects worked for DoorDash, Lyft, Shopify, GoPuff, and PayPal.
Understanding Our Target Users
Meet Alex
Alex represents our target enterprise user. He is financially stable, well-educated, and technologically proficient. He takes a systematic approach to managing orders. He is detail-oriented, precise, and reliable. He highly values efficiency and accuracy in his workflow.
“We wish we could use Mothership for all our shipments, but it’s not possible with the website right now. It’s easy for one time things, but it would take forever to send all our shipments.”
— Alex @ DoorDash
User Research - Themes, Insights, Opportunities
Theme
Match Mental Model & Current Process
Insight
Large enterprises maintain intricate workflows for the organization, scheduling, and reservation of shipment orders. In order to use a shipping service, it must align with their existing workflow, as enterprises are reluctant to modify their processes due to integration dependencies with critical software such as accounting systems.
Opportunity
Identify critical and common aspects of enterprise workflow and design an experience that matches their mental model and allows for a seamless integration.
Theme
Meaningful Tracking Experience
Insight
Enterprise users place a high priority on shipment tracking. They seek a comprehensive and informative tracking solution that provides visibility into the status and progress of their routes and shipments at each stage of the process.
Opportunity
Design a tracking system that provides users with a comprehensive view of route progress, individual shipment statuses, and real-time driver data. Users should easily and quickly see where their shipment is and access all relevant details in a user-friendly, shareable format.
Theme
Robust Editing Capabilities
Insight
Because the shipping infrastructure can be quite unpredictable, our users often need to make changes to shipment details, both during the booking process and after items have been shipped.
Opportunity
To accommodate these needs effectively, our system must provide them with comprehensive editing options, allowing them to include extra information, if needed, at both the shipment and route levels. This should be an option for them throughout each stage of the booking, quoting, and tracking process.
Theme
Efficiency and Customization
Insight
Efficiency is highly important to users, who exhibit shared behaviors and use cases. They seek tools that facilitate a quick and precise workflow. The majority of users often dispatch identical shipment batches, use custom spreadsheet layouts, set specific order preferences, require convenient tracking information sharing, and repeatedly send orders to specific destinations.
Opportunity
Create an intuitive and guided experience with features that will allow users to customize their workflow and support the above use cases, allowing them to move quickly through the experience.
Theme
Document Availability
Insight
The freight transport sector heavily depends on industry-specific documentation, including loading manifests, bills of lading, packing lists, and invoices. These documents play essential roles at various stages throughout the shipping process.
Opportunity
Enable users to access and download shipping documents as needed, offering this functionality at various stages during the booking, tracking, and management processes.
Theme
Transparent Pricing
Insight
The expense associated with shipping shipments can vary due to factors like driver availability and road conditions. Enterprise users need upfront pricing to prevent unforeseen expenses and to facilitate adjustments to their bookings when required. In the single-shipment experience, pricing was only revealed at the final checkout screen, representing a notable pain point.
Opportunity
Design an experience that shows the total cost as soon as we have enough information to generate a quote. By combining this with the ability to make real-time changes, users can see how adjustments impact their total expenses. This way, we ensure that the booking cost is upfront and transparent, avoiding surprises and providing an honest and straightforward experience.
Mapping the Experience
After learning more about our users and their needs, I created user flows and sitemaps for the booking and tracking experiences to ensure the product vision aligned with the business and user goals. These living documents were used as tools for alignment, planning, handoff, and documentation.
Wireframe & Testing
Wireframe prototypes were created to conduct usability testing sessions.
Sessions
5 enterprise users (remote, moderated)
2 internal SME’s and design team
Outcome2 iterations
Additional test rounds with 3 enterprise users
Requirements solidified for MVP; future follow-ups documented
High-Fidelity Solutions
A guided and intuitive experience that allows enterprise users to simply upload a spreadsheet, add shipment & route metadata, view pricing upfront, and book and track their shipments.
Theme | Meaningful Tracking Experience
Theme | Robust Editing Capabilities
Theme | Efficiency and Customization
Theme | Transparent Pricing
Mothership Routes | Prototype
Measuring Success
Mothership Routes earned a 92% adoption rate from the enterprise clients we targeted at the beginning of the second quarter post-launch. 6 months later, Mothership Routes became our core product and brought in over 70% of the company’s revenue. We exceeded both our revenue goals and our funding goals for 2021 and 2022.