Eliminating errors for teams where mistakes cost millions.
GLX CARGO
Even the companies keeping the world running struggle to keep track of what they need to do. My role as part of the in-house team at GLX Digital was to engage with commodities companies such as Woodside Energy, Santos Ltd and Glencore and understand why small mistakes were occasionally losing them millions in revenue. The result was the creation of GLX's flagship SaaS product 'GLX Cargo'.
[
] While the stakes are higher, the sale of LNG can still be likened to the sale of apples - an analogy that proved crucial in creating a simplified digital experience.
ROLE:
UX Design
UI Design
UX Research
CLIENTS:
Woodside Energy
Santos Ltd
Glencore
YEAR:
2019 - Present
Problem
Commodities companies lack a central source of truth.
Despite dealing with some of the biggest portfolios on the planet, we discovered many commodities companies are running their operations out of decentralised spreadsheets, causing errors when users access outdated spreadsheets to make decisions and potentially costing the company millions in lost revenue.
[] When selling apples, the seller and buyer need to agree when the goods will be delivered, in what quantities and at what price. The seller and buyer are responsible for notifying each other if anything changes. We discovered that there are great consequences when this doesn't happen.
Key Discovery Activities
User Journey Mapping helped us identify that there were several workflows which were unnecessarily convoluted. As a result we streamlined the process for task management, invoicing and customer management (KYC).
Design Workshops were run with clients across multiple companies to empower users to contribute to the design and ensure stakeholder alignment.
User Persona were created after interviewing users and were useful not just to inform ideation but also to explain design decisions to non-designers.
Competitive Comparative Analysis revealed that other platforms focused on streamlining data entry and integration, and there was not an effective solution for the management of 'contractual tasks' - actions that cargo operators need to complete to ensure smooth delivery of the cargo.
Key Ideation Activities
Wireframing was useful to present early designs to stakeholders while remaining focused on layout and content rather than styling.
Prototyping allowed us to demo designs to key stakeholders in order to get contractual approval before even committing development resources.
Usability Testing with both low and high fidelity prototypes allowed us to identify issues early on and saved significant development time.
Heuristic Analysis assisted the product team in methodically identifying areas of improvement. Having a structured framework for critique made it easy for non-designers to contribute to designs.
Key Insight
Commodities traders resist standardised processes, as they utilise secrecy and creativity to achieve success.
Our original assumption was that all users at commodities companies would benefit from a digital platform that makes information more accessible and standardised. While this is true for Cargo Operators (users who execute the day-to-day tasks for cargoes), we discovered that Cargo Traders (users who buy and sell cargoes) prefer to keep their information confidential and enjoy being able to exercise creativity in negotiating the best contracts for their cargoes. This meant a significant shift in our product, changing our primary user from a Trader to an Operator, and thus focusing on contract execution over contract negotiation and analysis.
Key Outcome
Streamline information for rapid decisions.
Workflows customised for commodities.
Commodities cargo operators distill complex information down to a few critical fields, specific to their company and team, in order to make rapid trade decisions. Instead of attempting to create a 'one-size-fits-all' solution, we enabled Cargo Operators to customise forms to suit their highly optimised workflow. While customisation options can often go ignored in a B2C application, in a B2B sovereign (high-use) application used by high performance teams the ability to optimise specific screens is invaluable. The 'Cargo Details' page serves as a dashboard for overseeing specific cargoes, offering access to tertiary information while keeping essential details visible for rapid decision-making.
[] At a glance this page will tell you who is purchasing your apples, what type of apples they want, when you need to deliver the apples, where you need to deliver them to and how much you agreed to sell the apples for.
NB: Some elements of the UI have been altered to comply with NDA. Please contact me for more in-depth designs.
I discovered that cargo operators distill complex information down to a few critical fields, and ensured that all key information is displayed in order of importance on a single screen. A multi-tabbed widget allows users to access tertiary information while keeping key details in sight. This 'Cargo Details' page formed the core of GLX Cargo.
[] At a glance this page will tell you who is purchasing your apples, what type of apples they want, when you need to deliver the apples, where you need to deliver them to and how much you agreed to sell the apples for.
NB: Some elements of the UI have been altered to comply with NDA. Please contact me for more in-depth designs.
Key Outcome
Eliminate errors when mistakes cost millions.
For international commodities teams, executing complex contracts and tracking associated obligations poses a significant challenge. One of my key design objectives was breaking down intricate contractual terms and developing a system that captures and present obligations through clear, actionable tasks. This formed a feature that customers paid an extra $five figure sum annually to have access to and potentially saved them millions in lost revenue.
NB: Some elements of the UI have been altered to comply with NDA. Please contact me for more in-depth designs.
Key Outcome
Reduce manual entry for time-poor teams.
Commodities operators complete similar tasks across cargoes, but manually assigning tasks to each cargo is labour intensive. To streamline this process, I developed a 'Template Task' workflow that automatically generates tasks for cargoes meeting specific criteria. These tasks dynamically adjust their due dates as the delivery dates of the cargo change, ensuring efficient management of each cargo's lifecycle. This feature adds an additonal $six figure sum annually and is used by every customer of the system.
One of our clients reported “It is really good to be honest, it is what we were looking for. It will be very helpful for the team”.
[] If you want to purchase multiple lots of apples from the same buyer, you can create to-do items that automatically track your actions every time you agree to a new purchase with that buyer.
NB: Some elements of the UI have been altered to comply with NDA. Please contact me for more in-depth designs.
Learning
Outcomes over deliverables.
You catch the biggest fish when you cast a wide net.
When tasked to deliver a specific ‘feature’, I advocated for reframing the request around the desired ‘outcome’ with stakeholders. This allowed the ideation process to be structured around problem-solving rather than delivering features, enabling the product team focus on validating assumptions and exploring alternative ideas.
Leveraging Lean UX, I became a key driver in shifting the organisation's focus from 'deliverables' to goals.
Learning
Designers are facilitators.
I think this is becoming more and more important in the age of AI - Designers cannot rely purely on the deliverable of a strong UI or UX, but must be able to hold their own as facilitators.
I've found that possessing a deep understanding of both user needs and business objectives uniquely equips designers to facilitate cross-functional workshops and mediate team discussions effectively.
Learning
Design = Art + Science for Business.
While potentially controversial, I believe Design takes the creativity of Art and the scientific method of Science to create something useful for Business.
GLX CONNECT
Product Design / UX Design / SaaS
Simplifying and de-risking counterparty negotiations for price discovery in emerging markets.
