Although we met from time to time as a team working remotely, it was the first time that we came together with the all product team and we were together for 3 days. We can work very sweetly and productively without being together, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a good time physically. :)

I wanted to share this 3-day with you, as the Yolda.com product team, to tell you about our perspective and about ourselves, and to write the process down in order to save the moment for us.

Enjoy reading! ☕️

What is Yolda.com doing?

We are B2B freight forwarding company in Europe managing the entire logistics operation end-to-end for our business partners through smart management of the carrier network of logistics companies and freelance truck drivers.

No, the truck in the back was not captured on purpose :) If you noticed the truck in the back, logistics may be your industry, how about looking at our postings for the position that suits you? :)

While advancing our strategy in line with the company and product vision, we talked about how we should move forward as a product team, when and which points we should do something. We split the responsibility of the tasks on certain issues that we talked about.

As a team that has not come together for a long time, I think it is beneficial to visit our offices, see the workplace, establish a closer relationship with the company and meet face to face with coworkers. I believe that all work can and should be carried out remotely, but I also know that once in a while we need to see each other as “people” in real life.

We also had a nice meal in the evening of the day. As a product team, we met a few times for having a breakfast & chill and the topics are going on around business and what we do in the company. This time, I realized that there was no talk of business for a long time. And in fact, I realized again that in order to keep the team dynamic intact, not everything is business-to-business, and that it is necessary to talk about our own lives and what is happening around us.

We often do not have the opportunity to talk about out of business and external issues while working remotely and intensively at the same time. For this reason, we can actually perceive our teammates’ perspectives to life, cases and us in more difficult and unclear ways. Such gatherings, even once every 2–3 months, fill this gap, I think. (I don’t support working from the office, I don’t want it to be understood like that :D)

We went to the truck and lorry garage in Gebze transporters site before noon today. We toured our office and the entire terminal. It was my 2nd visit and it was a fun to observe my friends explore the place on their first visit here.

Then, we were at our newly opened Ataşehir office, which is now our main office, and we continued to work there. Our Nidakule office is still active and in use by the technology team.

We conduct a lot of research, doing design and making development in digital world. In fact, all subjects mentioned just before are exist because there are drivers here at the end of the day. Since we sell services rather than products directly and this service also has physical touches, I can see the value we produce or want to produce more vividly and real. This ecosystem is actually a very motivating as well as a challenging and exciting.

By observing the business in field, I can see the problems and the processes that can be improved more closely. At this point, the most negative thing I can say: a point that you have come to by spending tens of hours in digital can become “garbage” due to many reasons that are physically affected and beyond your control. Although you offer very useful and very peaceful implications, increasing diesel price, heavy traffic, bad weather conditions and for many other reasons, your work sometimes loses its meaning, albeit for a while.

In fact, working on strategic product and business development methods and conducting strategic research in a constant struggle for these dynamics keeps the team more alive. The important thing is to believe that we can create value together without losing the motivation here.

Drivers visit the offices of different logistics companies on the streets inside the garage all day to see if there is a partial load for them to pick it up. If there is a load that may be suitable for them on these boards, they go inside the office and learn the details of the load and transportation and ask for the fee. With the “Load listing” feature we have developed, drivers are able to manage this process via the mobile application and arrange their load and transportation.

The location of this place is critical for us in order to understand the lives of our users and to handle this journey with all its critical points. Yes, we are digitizing and automating processes, while at the same time leading big and drastic changes in people’s lives. It is a really difficult process and even the slightest insight we gain can take us to different points in a positive way.

There are many issues that need to be examined and addressed from a sociological and psychological point of view. It is necessary to advance the processes by discovering the right motivations in the relevant context. The dynamics of the logistics varies due to its past and present position. Developing a product for a completely ossified physical structure, for a user group that is not perfect with technology, is difficult, instructive and enjoyable as well.

We visited our call center office today.

Call center dynamics are crucial in communication with our users, in explaining the product and in every point where support is needed. While conveying the value we want to create to our users, we are able to be more active and constantly informed about the events they experience and examine them. The support of these processes to product development and research processes is great. Will be more great soon.

Drivers and companies can take their first steps and learn the processes more easily with the help of call center on mobile app and web-site screens.

In our continuous researches, getting support from the call center is beneficial both in terms of time and quality of the process.

If you want to talk more or just wanted to say hi, you can reach me on LinkedIn without any hesitation. :)

June, 2022.

Cheers.