Looking beyond the product

Field work

To understand the problem, we needed to look beyond dashboards.

I had recently appointed Motorway's first dedicated UX Researcher. Working alongside her and customer support leaders we examined complaint data, listening to calls to identify where the experience was breaking down.

We then followed real vehicle collections, shadowing transport partners and observing inspections, payments and handovers as they happened.

This exposed the gap between the apparent simplicity of the customer journey and the work required to complete it. Scheduling was inconsistent. Information moved between systems and phone calls. Sellers often had little visibility or certainty. Transport drivers made decisions with incomplete information.

Rather than presenting research as a report, I brought senior leaders into the field to experience the journey first-hand. Seeing the operational reality created shared understanding, secured support for further research and helped reframe the problem from operational friction into a strategic product opportunity.

What looks like an operational problem is often a product opportunity

More than another marketplace feature

The answer was Motorway Move: a fully managed service that extends Motorway beyond the auction, connecting sellers, dealers and transport providers through a single end-to-end experience.

Rather than leaving collection and handover to a fragmented network of third parties, the service takes responsibility for the entire journey.

The design challenge was not simply to create a better interface. It was to translate a fragmented real-world process into a product and service that could coordinate scheduling, inspections, payments and the needs of multiple users across one seamless experience.

I worked closely with the designers throughout the project, providing regular critique, supporting stakeholder reviews, pairing designers across squads and helping the team apply the emerging design system consistently.

As the proposition evolved, I became increasingly hands-on, working alongside the design leads to design several of the core journeys and interaction patterns, establishing the quality and interaction model before handing them back to the team for further iteration.

Sample screens I helped design for the new driver app

Testing the service - not just the screens

A product like this could not be validated through a conventional usability test alone.

We partnered with an established vehicle transport company and introduced the service into live collections. This allowed the team to test the software alongside the operational model, observe where drivers needed support and understand what happened when real vehicles, customers and schedules were involved.

My role was to help the team establish a disciplined beta, interpret the evidence and decide when we had enough confidence to expand. The aim was not to eliminate every uncertainty. It was to understand which risks mattered and whether the service could perform reliably outside controlled conditions.

Aligning the organisation

The work required support from customer service, product, engineering, design, operations and the executive team.

I helped connect those groups by turning customer evidence into a story the organisation could act on. When leaders heard customer calls and observed vehicle collections first-hand, the last mile stopped looking like an operational issue. It became a product and trust problem.

That shared understanding created the support to fund the research, develop the service and launch a live beta.

Owning the last mile

Motorway Move reduced operational friction while giving sellers and dealers greater certainty at the end of the transaction. Customers experienced quicker collections, clearer communication and payment at handover, while Motorway gained greater control over a part of the experience customers already associated with its brand.

Sourced from Trustpilot reviews