With Loadsmart, we needed to work with a new product that had more long-term planning for its business model. Besides that, we identified an opportunity to improve the journey for a specific user, as well as improve the integration between design and technology.
Loadsmart streamlines logistics with digital brokerage, freight procurement tools, dock scheduling software, truck management software, and custom solutions to optimize freight movement for shippers and carriers.
With world-class investors and a deep industry expertise, they have fundamentally changed how freight is priced, booked, and shipped, automating and improving processes for everyone involved, from instant quotes and booking trucks in seconds to fleet management and localization of shipments.
Loadsmart first contacted us to help building a new product. The idea was that the RFPGuide would interact with shippers and carriers into a single platform. They needed the product to grow steadily. And fast.
From the get-go, we understood that they wanted to help the logistics process from the starting phase to the end delivery. So we started working by fully integrating our squad into their existing team. The goal here was to deeply understand such a complex and unique business Loadsmart had. Then, we started a discovery process with two of the main clients of the platform: shippers and carriers.
COMMUNICATION
From the start, both companies recognized the importance of clear communication and a strong sense of collaboration in order to ensure the smooth operation of the project. We established regular meetings and check-ins to discuss progress, address any issues, and ensure everyone was on the same page.
DESIGN
One of the first things we did was understand the design process. Loadsmart had different products that lacked consistency, so they were already building a design system by the time we arrived. Their challenge was how to convince all the teams to use it. We took responsibility for ourselves, and the design system adoption rate grew from 3.5% to 42.4% on the product we were working on.
“They are very responsive, engaged, and top notch professionals, having quality as part of their core values. Also excellent team members, very easy to work with.”
GUSTAVO BARBOSA
VP of Engineering, Loadsmart
INTEGRATION OF THE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY TEAMS
Another significant contribution we made was to the product development process. We noticed that some features were never delivered even after we spent considerable time designing them. Our understanding was that one of the issues was that product, design, and engineering were working separately, resulting in people on the same team with different priorities instead of a similar goal.
We articulated with stakeholders to draw attention to this problem, proposing a different approach to the agile development process. The goal was to start with our squad, but shortly after, this initiative motivated others to improve its agile guidelines companywide.
Together with Loadsmart’s team, we were able to help improve several internal processes, increasing the feature delivery rate. Their new design system made it possible to build and test things faster. With that combined, the product we worked, which used to be secondary and a single page, grew to the point it became one of their mains products, the ShipperGuide, fully integrating the core business model of the company.
We were also able to bring another major user into the platform: brokers were now able to deal in a more direct and productive way with the other moving parts of the operation.
“Labcodes Software Studio delivered a fully functional, high-quality website on time, meeting the client's expectations. They communicated frequently and promptly, ensuring an effective workflow. Their sheer professionalism and commitment were hallmarks of their work.”
GUSTAVO BARBOSA
VP of Engineering, Loadsmart
