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Scaling Global Freight Workflows

Overview

Led end-to-end discovery and redesign for Silq’s freight operations platform, replacing fragmented spreadsheet- and email-based workflows with a centralized system for global operations teams.

Impact

  • Up to 60% less time managing POs and shipments

  • 50% faster workflow setup

  • 60% less operator setup time for new workflows

  • 35% faster inspector turnaround

  • Adopted across Asia, US, and EU teams

Challenge

Freight operations were fragmented across spreadsheets, PDFs, and email, creating delays, inaccurate handoffs, missed milestones, and poor visibility across suppliers, factories, and logistics teams.

My role

Led discovery, user research, cross-functional workshops, IA, workflow redesign, and design-team growth from pre-seed through Series A.

This would solve exactly the feedback you got: the impact would be visible immediately, instead of being discovered only by scrolling.

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Company Type: FreightTech Startup

Role: Led product discovery, roadmap shaping, and stakeholder alignment

Platform:  Responsive Web Application

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Achievements:

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Jan, 2021

Silq raised $2M pre-seed

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Feb, 2021

Built the first product concept and started regular user testing and iteration

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March, 2021

Created the design system

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Aug, 2021

Launched three apps

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Dec, 2021

Built and scaled the design team to 3 designers

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Mar, 2022

Silq raised $17.6M Series A

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Jump to:

Workflow Overview

End-to-end order workflows span multiple manual tools, driving errors and delays.

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Tech Pack

Sampling

Production / PO

Shipment

Discovery
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 Discovery and ideation

Primary persona

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User Research

User research findings

85% of brands still maintain logs on spreadsheets

These spreadsheets are emailed back and forth expecting the factories to keep sending updated versions. 

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Fragmented feedback

Sample approvals spread across email and PDFs - adding delays per decision.

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Key pain points: Lack of visibility, lack of control, delays in shipment,  business is loosing money

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Co-creational Workshops

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Opportunities

1. Unified Order Hub
Consolidate tech packs, POs, sampling feedback and shipment data in one view - eliminating a time drain switching between tools.


2. Live Status & Alerts
Surface real-time shipment timelines and auto-notifications to cut “Where’s my order?” tickets by 30%.


3. In-Context Escalation
Embed vendor comments and issue-escalation flows directly into the timeline, reducing resolution time by 40%.


4. Configurable Dashboards
Let teams customize KPI widgets (processing time, delay hotspots) to drive proactive decisions.

Ideate

Ideation

Information Architecture v.1.

As Lead Product Designer, I facilitated cross-functional IA workshops - mapping core modules and edge cases.

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Wireframes

- Mapped and sketched key workflows in low-fidelity wireframes
- Ran rapid usability tests to validate information architecture and interaction flows

 

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Information Architecture v.2.

After usability tests, I updated labels, combined under-utilized modules, and flattened navigation - improving task efficiency and reducing cognitive load.

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Design solutions

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Client app

Console app

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Inspector app

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Email strategy

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On-the-go sampling & QC - annotate images, log defects, and send live feedback


Impact: Accelerated inspector turnaround by 35%, slashing sample review cycles.

A unified order-management and shipment tracking hub for clients.

Configurable task-template builder for production milestones and dependencies

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Impact: Enabled templates that cut setup time by 50%, standardizing workflows.

Build an email strategy driving users back into the platform.

Time and Action calendar

  • Users want to follow up with factories, maintain a T&A calendar, know exactly what is going on in their production line

  • Users need to be able to escalate issues if there is a delay

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Changes after user testing

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  • All dates are displayed by default
    Why: Mirrored the users’ existing Excel patterns) 

  • Expand/Collapse Stages (temporaty solution) 
    Why: Let users hide completed or future shipment phases to reduce visual noise and focus on the steps that matter right now)

  • Switched from a cramped top bar to a persistent side-nav 
    Why: Scale with more modules, maximize vertical workspace)

  • Milestones grouped by stages (e.g. ‘Production,’ ‘Customs’)
    Why: so users can see progress at a glance and avoid context-switching.

Tasks and Task templates

Users want to be informed on time about changes happening to their orders, quickly react to things that require their attention,  communicate via the platform

Console app

Create templates

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Client app

Complete tasks

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Significantly decreased cost of human errors

Reduced operator setup time for new workflows by 60%

Enabled global consistency across regional teams (Asia, US, EU)

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Results

Purchase order management

Order management allows users to submit purchase orders directly to their suppliers, which enables them to plan the logistics of the delivery ahead of time.

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To give logistics teams a central place to view, update, and manage purchase orders (POs) tied to freight shipments - improving coordination between buyers, suppliers, and operations.

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Reduced shipping errors due to mismatched PO/shipments

Enabled more accurate consolidation decisions by visualizing what’s ready vs. what’s delayed

Results

Message center

  • Before: Shipment communication was scattered across email and spreadsheets.

  • Ops teams had to manually copy-paste shipment IDs, reference PO numbers, or chase updates across platforms.

  • This caused miscommunication, delays, and lack of accountability.

UI Breakdown

Chat-style interface with threaded conversations

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Attachments (e.g., packing lists, customs docs)

Filters: by status, person, shipment, urgency

 

Contextual views — each message is tied to a shipment, task, or PO

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Replaced email usage for shipment-related communication

Reduced miscommunication errors

Improved issue resolution time

Created a searchable message log, boosting transparency and accountability

Results

Shipment

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Reduced time to update shipment data

Improved operational coordination between ops teams and clients

Enabled faster reaction time to in-transit issues

Results

5. User Testing

During the Design Process, I conducted a countless number of User Testing Sessions and was constantly improving the design.

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Impact

The redesigned platform replaced spreadsheets and emails for global ops teams. It became the core system for managing freight workflows, reducing delays, and coordinating across suppliers, factories, and logistics partners.

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  • Up to 60% less time managing POs and shipments

  • 50% faster workflow setup

  • 60% less operator setup time for new workflows

  • 35% faster inspector turnaround

  • Adopted across Asia, US, and EU teams

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