Inchcape Shipping
Transforming Global Port Operations Through Scalable Digital Infrastructure
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2025
Role: Lead Product Designer (Contract)
Duration: April 2022 – March 2026
Team: Product Director, 6 Engineers, Data Architect, Operations Leads across 60+ countries
Scope: End-to-end digital transformation across global port operations
Client Inchcape
I led the product design delivery for modernising operational workflows across a global shipping network. The objective was to reduce inefficiencies in port call management and unlock working capital tied up in manual processes.
250+
Offices
$15m cashflow increase
20% output Increase
60
Countries
150+
Years old
KPIs
Exceeded
The Challenge
Port operations were managed through fragmented, manual workflows across global offices. This created:
- Delayed invoicing and blocked cash flow
- Inconsistent processes between regions
- High operational overhead
- Limited real-time visibility for leadership
The complexity wasn’t just UX — it was organisational, behavioural and systemic.
The challenge was to create a unified digital ecosystem that could scale globally while respecting regional differences in workflow.
My Role
- Defined product vision with executive stakeholders
- Structured discovery across operations, finance and engineering
- Led and mentored designers
- Established and governed the Design System
- Directed engineering handover, including on-site collaboration
Strategy
We focused on three pillars:
Standardise critical workflows without over-constraining regional flexibility
Surface real-time operational visibility to reduce bottlenecks
Design for scalability through a structured Design System
Design system component and Brand evolution
- Defined core interaction principles
- Established reusable component libraries
- Created documentation standards for engineering handoff
- Implemented governance processes for design evolution
By incorporating AI into the entire design process, I reduced the time from concept to prototype by a significant margin. AI-generated initial visual templates and flow diagrams, and surfaced user insights based on user testing transcripts.
Operator requirements
“As an operator, I want to see the follow up reminders so I have a better chance of conversion”
“As an operator, I want to see the reason why a Enquiry was lost, so I can create a PDA that has a better chance of conversion”
“As an operator, I want to see customer agreements to inform how much I charge and add agreements if necessary”
Enquiry Creation – Conversion
- Validated reduced task flows using usability testing across 3 regions
- Operator dashboard designed to surface bottleneck alerts
Enquiry Creation – Speed
- Surface historic PDAs with conversion data
- Duplicate PDAs for multi-port enquiries
- Integration of the Port cost calculator for fast cost estimates
Port Cost Calculator
Main pain points
Existing Port Cost Calculators lack a central repository for tariff information and formal maintenance
No standardisation of the Tariff creation process on a global scale
Lack of knowledge sharing across teams & businesses
What we want to achieve
Estimate cost using our own cost calculator to speed up Proforma Disbursement Account production
Increase conversion, increase speed and accuracy of PDA creation
Store all Tariff Data in Optic to Manage and track
Tariff example for Mooring, Unmooring and Shifting
Tariff management
- Dashboard for tracking and updating
- Formula builder, visual and look-up options
- Duplicate options for complex tariff tables and repeat tariffs
Port cost calculator integration
The port cost calculator was intergrated with the current service grid to speed up cost estimation and increase accuracy
- Side panel introduced to clean up the current layout
- Estimates can be created by just hitting one button
- Granular level cost estimation using the side panel ( blending the advantages )
Transformation benefits
2-year cash flow improvements
“This is much much much faster.”
Opps manager Location – Rotterdamn
“This is perfect, a great job so far”
ROC manager
Location – Brazil – Santos
“Don’t make them mandatory!”
Port Manager – Service Delivery
Location – UK