<ColorWheel/><ConcentricSpin/><ConicGradient/><ContourLines/><DiamondWipe/><DiffuseBlur/><DisplacementMap/><Dither/><DotGrid/><DropShadow/><Duotone/><Frost/><GlassTiles/><Glow/><Godrays/><IrisWipe/><Kaleidoscope/><WaveNoise/>

<ContourLines/><DiamondWipe/><DiffuseBlur/><DisplacementMap/><Dither/><DotGrid/><DropShadow/><Duotone/><Frost/><GlassTiles/><Glow/><Godrays/><IrisWipe/><Kaleidoscope/><WaveNoise/><ColorWheel/><ConcentricSpin/><ConicGradient/>

<DisplacementMap/><Dither/><DotGrid/><DropShadow/><Duotone/><Frost/><GlassTiles/><Glow/><Godrays/><IrisWipe/><Kaleidoscope/><WaveNoise/><ColorWheel/><ConcentricSpin/><ConicGradient/><ContourLines/><DiamondWipe/><DiffuseBlur/>

<DropShadow/><Duotone/><Frost/><GlassTiles/><Glow/><Godrays/><IrisWipe/><Kaleidoscope/><WaveNoise/><ColorWheel/><ConcentricSpin/><ConicGradient/><ContourLines/><DiamondWipe/><DiffuseBlur/><DisplacementMap/><Dither/><DotGrid/>

<GlassTiles/><Glow/><Godrays/><IrisWipe/><Kaleidoscope/><WaveNoise/><ColorWheel/><ConcentricSpin/><ConicGradient/><ContourLines/><DiamondWipe/><DiffuseBlur/><DisplacementMap/><Dither/><DotGrid/><DropShadow/><Duotone/><Frost/>

Perfecting transporters’ financial leverage.

Kargo wanted to expand its financing service, so we explored transporters’ financial needs through a series of research projects. The result was a new business vertical and a dedicated delivery-order-based financing module within Kargo’s transportation management system.

Some numbers, data, and statements have been altered to respect confidentiality agreements.

My role: Product Designer, Researcher, Facilitator
Project type: Business Design, Interaction Design, Service Design, Foundational Research
Collaborators: Engineers, Product Manager, Operations, Legal, Finance, Marketing
Date & place: November 2020–February 2021 · Kargo Technologies

Kargo Vendor Central financing dashboard and delivery-order details displayed on two laptops

Summary

How might we help transporters address lingering cash-flow problems in the logistics industry?

Long payment terms put pressure on transporters’ cash flow and limited their ability to grow. We combined foundational research, a financing pilot, and service design to bring delivery-order financing into Kargo’s TMS—helping vendors request faster disbursement and track their transactions in one place.

Outcome

~50%

Acquisition uplift

The new offering gave sales a stronger selling point for Kargo’s financial service.

40%

Faster agreements

Reported improvement in the speed of reaching customer agreements.

100%

First-month adoption

Among the first adopters: small to mid-sized transporters, with strong feedback.

Final output

Quick Payment in the TMS dashboard

After a two- to three-month pilot, Kargo launched its first delivery-order-based financing service. Customers could now see the shipments they had submitted for financing directly in the TMS platform.

Animated walkthrough of the Quick Payment dashboard — Quick Payment in Kargo’s TMS dashboard.

Visibility of disbursement

Vendors no longer had to ask Kargo through WhatsApp for every disbursement status or transaction detail. They could also see their historical transactions in a centralized platform.

CSV downloads made it easier to create their own reports.

Disbursement dashboard with financing status, transaction history, and reporting controls

Logistics-integrated fast disbursement

Vendors no longer needed to resubmit delivery orders and invoice documents to request faster disbursement.

They could choose shipments and invoices already in the platform, directly connecting their shipment data to the financing service.

Delivery-order financing request reusing existing invoice and shipment information

Design process overview

The cash-flow problem

Payment terms are common in logistics and can extend to 90 days after a service is delivered. Alongside day-to-day operational inefficiencies, these delays are a major constraint on transporters’ business growth.

Kargo already offered a quick-payment brokerage service, but it was available only to eligible transporters in its marketplace. To reach a broader audience, we had been experimenting with a non-exclusive invoice-based financing service, called PODF, and had seen encouraging market signals.

As we planned a product for PODF, the launch team identified an opportunity to provide financing even earlier, based on delivery orders: DOF. Before jumping into a solution, we treated this as a hypothesis and explored the problem space.

How might we help transporters address lingering cash-flow problems in the logistics industry?

Discovery

We ran two rounds of research. The first built a foundational understanding of the environment; the second answered the primary research questions and helped identify opportunities.

A questions-and-assumptions workshop produced the action items for preliminary research, which then informed our primary research plan.

Preparation

Pre-kickoff meeting
Negotiation stage

Preliminary research

Competitive research
Literature review
PODF evaluation research and perceived value of DOF

Primary research

Transporter cash-flow foundational research
Assumption and hypothesis validation using sacrificial concepts
Pilot-project planning

Field research visits with transporter teams at their offices and facilities — Field research with transporters.

Opportunity finding

The research surfaced insights into transporter growth, cost structures, and cash-in versus cash-out patterns. The detailed findings remain confidential under NDA.

Transporter growth function
Cost structure
Cash-in × cash-out patterns

We used these insights to explore potential business lines and approaches to transporter acquisition and retention.

After two weeks of synthesis and presentations, I facilitated a brainstorming workshop to align the team on next steps and turn high-level ideas into action items.

Miro ideation board used to explore opportunities and align the team — Ideation board on Miro.

The workshop produced several action items. We chose to prioritize DOF first and experiment with other hypotheses later, assigning a timeframe and a person in charge to each action. Our question became more focused.

How might we help any transporter get money faster for their shipments through an interaction similar to PODF?

Delivery

Together, we mapped the future service experience, including ideal onboarding and every touchpoint that would shape the product. We began with the end in mind and worked backwards.

Service-design board mapping the future financing experience and operational touchpoints — Service design board.

We then aligned the design with the pilot, which had been running in parallel for a month. Early feedback from transporters helped guide the next round of ideation.

Co-create flow diagrams with the business team
Map the information architecture
Sketch concept flows
Test concepts
Develop the end-to-end flow and explore interaction patterns
Run usability testing
Launch

Flow details

Detailed flows are confidential.

Overview of flow diagrams, interaction concepts, and prototype exploration — Back-to-back abstraction to concretion.

Learning

Conflict management
Practicing effective collaboration
Avoiding the temptation to quantify qualitative research
Applying divergent thinking in prototyping, framing insights, and ideation
Improving contextual design and the articulation of design decisions

Like what you see?

Let’s work together Back to all work