User experience and logistics
User research and beyond in logistics industry
We are always talking about user experience. This time, I wanted to talk a little bit about the experience of researchers while researching with users. 🌝
In this article, I wanted to explain a few dynamics of being a researcher in a start-up, the relationship between user experience and logistics, and my experiences on user research I conducted at Yolda.com.
Enjoy reading! 🍀
As Yolda.com, we ensure that all processes are carried out and managed digitally from end to end by bringing together the companies that have a load with the suppliers, namely the drivers (who has their own individual company). Our platforms have 3 different users:
- Our co-workers using the admin dashboards within the company
- Customers (Companies with a load)
- Suppliers (Drivers)
1) Business to business (B2B) research process
As Yolda.com, we work in a business to business model. So we only do business with individual / corporate companies. I feel a special responsibility on me as the research are structured in a B2B structure. Nobody created this responsibility and feeling in me, I brought it out myself as part of the flow of work.
What I mean: With the company (our customer) I conducted a research, new business could be done, unrealized sales can be realized. If there is a communication that the other party misunderstands or dislikes in our conversation, this may adversely affect our company’s cash flow. At this point, I try to convey the interest we show to our users and the value we give them as accurately and clearly as possible. It is extremely valuable to consider this situation and manage these dynamics while doing research.
“You stand behind your work by doing such studies, I wish you success.” — A company owner who has just discovered Yolda.com and has just made its first shipment.
A user we interviewed liked both our research and our close attention to these issues, and then made such a statement. It enabled me to witness the positive reflection of the responsibility I felt on me. :)
As the product team, we also spend time in the field. You can read the article I wrote about it by clicking below.
We are in an industry where the independent variable affecting every dependent variable is money, and even if we maximize the experience, at the end of the day, no matter how small, every issue ends up with money. In these cases, our thoughts and decisions about managing both the digital and physical experience, making product development decisions, prioritizing research, and working on the screens and cases to be designed are very different from those of an e-commerce or banking application.
For instance, if you like the service (music, toilet, table etc.) in an expensive coffee shop, even if the price of a cup of latte is 1–2 dolar more in one of the two coffee shops on a same street and the taste / brand of coffee is the equal, you may not hesitate to pay too much.
I say for now, for now, because I am sure that as the quality of the service and experience we provide in the future increases, the price selection will come to completely different points both for companies and drivers. In e-commerce, people are willing to pay 1–2 dolar more for the product if the cargo will arrive early, or they can allocate a little more financial resources to that service when shopping from a place where they trust and are comfortable. Shipping companies and drivers will also grasp this value in time.
Experience will win! :)
You can click here to see our job postings, and if you think there is a suitable position for you, you can also contact me.
2) Remote one-on-one meetings
We send an e-mail to the users to set up the meetings, or we request the CRM team to get the data and make calls from customer service to users and arrange a meeting for certain days, and we send a Zoom link to the users’ calendars.
This is that I would like to say, but :)
In this community where the drivers and employees of the companies we work with are constantly mobile or busy, there are many times when we make phone calls instead of Zoom. Being able to carry out this communication and research process over the phone has slightly different dynamics. The 1:1 interview dynamic is also changing.
Companies
Since the employee of the company with the shipment is constantly operating and managing the business, it is difficult to allocate uninterrupted call and planned time. When the interviews are conducted over the phone, both the user and sometimes our company’s stakeholders can perceive “calling and asking” as “talking”, which seems to undermine the impact of the research.
We are working on a more structured research setup. Soon, we will start to move forward with more different and functional dynamics.
Drivers (Carriers)
When I say I am calling them from Yolda.com or Yolda logistics in driver interviews, there may be uneasiness on drivers. I catch many points: They wonder if we (yolda.com) will want to give the load for less in price, why do they ask questions, let me give the answer they want so that it gives me a load again etc. etc. Trying to prevent bias in interviews also helps me improve as a researcher by using techniques in moderation and communication. Challenging in a good manner, and also instructive.
It is difficult for them to make a plan so that we can meet with the driver in a planned way, at this time, this day since of their daily life routine. Because of that, it is necessary to make the meeting only once. Otherwise, a very high quality meeting cannot be provided. Since the vast majority of drivers do not use e-mail, we have no way of pre-arranging these processes via e-mail.
3) Remote usability testing
There was a small issue that remained in our minds that we wanted to learn about the experience in our mobile app onboarding process.
We redesigned the onboarding experience in our mobile app: In the previous flow, we asked users to enter a lot of information. We tried to improve the screens and flow and make them more understandable and usable, and now it’s time to test.
How did we do the test?
I tried to give the impression of a prototype by sharing the prototype link in Figma and sharing the screen with Zoom, not by managing the process, but by sharing the screens in turn over WhatsApp during the phone call. Actually, I wanted to learn about the feelings of that screen rather than interacting with the screen. A real real prototype could have made the process much more complicated.
Of course, if I had very complicated or deep hypotheses and purposes, I could not carry out this process like this. I would do it by physically going to the field or with the support of someone who was physically next to the driver.
An interesting finding
In order to attract attention at the onboarding, we wanted to say come and join us, there are X drivers inside. However, tests showed us that this discourse actually created the impression that “there are too many drivers inside, it would be difficult for me to find a job”. Here we have once again understood the importance of testing the written content.
Looking at the issue from the other side, we continued with the number of companies that can be a source for finding a job, not the number of drivers.
4) Agriculture research
Doing research in the logistics sector and in a company that acts with a start-up mindset has its own dynamics. For instance, we recently started to transport the tomatoes of a ketchup brand, which is on almost every table, from the field to the factory.
As for the drivers coming to the tomato business, our team manager Yiğit got the idea to do an exploratory research on a subject, and it was instant. We did not have much time to work on it. I talked a little bit about the subject with my colleagues, took a short brief and then created the question set and the process.
Since my teammate Muser, who visited the tomato factory much, and my other colleagues who were working there, had to carry out this research, not me, I basically shared how it would be more appropriate for them to conduct the research, and we progressed by passing through the process together.
5) Strategic product research
Since the digital history of being a start-up and the logistics industry is not that old, there are many topics to explore and deepen on. In order to be able to use our company’s research resource effectively in the current position, we reduce the constant work with the product designers. They works to design highly usable screens and flows, and I am not trying to take a role in each new design and flow, and making user researches that can directly affect the business, doing product research is more on my agenda for now.
For example, we research the experiences of drivers while billing and talk about how we can create experiences on it.
If you want to read my research on this subject, you can click below.
6) Ongoing research
We have created and are still creating a structure that has reached a certain structure under the name of the continuous research process on both the companies (shippers) and drivers side, the progress of the process and the analysis of the outputs are settled in a certain order. It’s almost as if we can say that it is a very mini-start of ResearchOps.
Our dynamics are constantly changing. With the support of our data team, we follow the companies as our customers through a dashboard where we can access the answers to our screening questions, that is, the necessary data and select users, and invite them to our research.
These researches keep me and the team alive. The lack of an ending or the fact that we do not follow certain hypotheses with very precise lines may create a need for change at some point. There is a desire to make the task done sometimes :) However, I am sure that we will set an process that will be continued with more pleasure as the issues that emerge with the analysis of the data obtained and thematization gain meaning and as new researches emerge from here.
Certain themes emerge in the analysis of the interviews we conducted here, and we begin to turn them into actionable insights.
So,
I advocate that research can be done in every condition for those who want to do it with just having a paper-pencil. It is always instructive and enjoyable for me to try to apply research ideas in different situations and in difficult and variable conditions as I described.
I wanted to share these processes with you. Hope you enjoyed :)
You can always reach me on LinkedIn about any issue you have in mind. I would love to meet, chat and share.
