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Role: 
UX Lead (contract)
Client: 
Inchcape Shipping Services
Scope: 
Global finance & ops transformation
Team:  
UX/UI, Service Design, BAs
 
 

Transforming Finance & Operations for a Global Shipping Provider.  

UX leadership on a multi-year digital overhaul, improving cashflow visibility, streamlining workflows, and embedding UX as a strategic function.





Context & Challenge 

Inchcape is a 170-year-old maritime services provider with global reach, but its internal workflows were outdated, fragmented, and deeply manual. Processes differed by region, finance and operations weren’t in sync, and systems relied heavily on spreadsheets, inboxes, and siloed knowledge.

Brought in as UX Lead during a major digital transformation programme, I was tasked with shaping the UX strategy, managing a cross-functional team, and helping Inchcape transition from reactive workflows to scalable, user-centred systems.

Legacy port operations spreadsheets.

Coordination between agents, vessels, and shore teams relied on sprawling, manually updated Excel files like these, full of duplicated effort, inconsistent structure, and invisible dependencies.


Strategic approach
We began with a company-wide thematic discovery, surfacing patterns across departments and identifying four key areas for UX intervention:

  1. Cash allocation and reconciliation
  2. Billing lifecycle management
  3. Customer query resolution
  4. Operational dashboarding

We approached each not as isolated tools, but as opportunities to shift how responsibility, visibility, and decision-making flowed across Inchcape.




Cash Allocation ToolProblem: 
Finance staff were manually reconciling payments across dozens of global bank accounts — a time-consuming, error-prone process.



Solution: 
We built a unified interface aggregating bank data, syncing with the billing database, and supporting complex reconciliations (e.g. split payments).

Outcome:
  • ~10 hours/week saved
  • Reduced risk of misallocations
  • Greater cashflow transparency across 40+ regions




Billing & Accounts Workflow Problem: 
Completed services weren’t triggering billing — operations and finance were out of sync, resulting in delayed invoices and revenue.

Solution:
We built a live dashboard that connects operational data with finance workflows, allowing teams to track job progress, assign billing tasks, and invoice more efficiently.

Impact:
  • Eliminated billing lag
  • Boosted team accountability
  • Reduced delayed payments







 Customer query managementProblem:
Customer queries came in from multiple channels, were untracked, and often unresolved — damaging relationships and delaying payments.



Solution:
We proposed a lightweight collaboration layer within the billing system — enabling tagging, threaded comments, and resolution tracking per service line.

Result:
Though partially implemented due to technical constraints, the concept was adopted by the VP of Technology as a model for future systems.







Operations dashboardProblem:
Shipping agents operate under tight time constraints and lacked real-time operational visibility — especially across multiple ports.

Solution:
We designed a flexible dashboard architecture:
  • Role-based custom views
  • Live data for job tracking and port logistics
  • Mobile-accessible for agents in the field

Outcome:
Faster decision-making, improved port management, and easier onboarding across diverse contexts.
Collaboration and user engagementThe UX team collaborated closely with business analysts and service designers to ensure we focused on the right features.

In my second month as UX lead, I founded the User Expert Panel, a diverse group of users that was a crucial part of our design process. They regularly provided feedback and participated in review sessions, ensuring we always had access to user insights. We kept stakeholders engaged by giving company-wide presentations and doing one-on-one reviews. Using design thinking principles, we got support from senior stakeholders with different and often conflicting views.

Most importantly, we kept in touch with employees to ensure our solutions fit into their daily work, making constant improvements.



We often used quick ‘guerrilla testing’ methods to get fast feedback on our ideas


Personas used to demonstrate solutions to stakeholder


Snapshot from a company-wide design walkthrough



Visting


UX Lead: Yarden Gur
UX Designers: Tunc Karadag, Amar Wandere
UI Lead: Josh Butcher
UI Designers: Vlad Neuman, James Hardwick
Service Designer: Sujeban Susilakanthan
BA: Martin Williams