Summary
Alana Washington will illustrate how rapid iteration, 100s of virtual post-its, and a bit of design therapy helped transform our service model during a global pandemic.
Key Insights
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Service challenges at Uber Freight were driven 80% by teamwork and organizational misalignment rather than solely technical issues.
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Psychological safety is critical for high-performing teams to openly address problems and hold each other accountable.
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Service blueprinting helped build empathy among roles by visualizing frontstage and backstage processes together.
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Engaging leadership to grant runway and trusting the process was essential to tackle systemic service issues.
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Focusing on one use case, the pre-pick phase, enabled a focused and controlled pilot that showed measurable success.
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Enacting four clear SLAs around tracking, scheduling, proactive communication, and coverage enabled transparency and accountability.
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Cross-functional 'team of dreams' collaboration led to operational efficiencies and employee satisfaction gains.
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Regular informal check-ins and open documentation fostered momentum and avoided siloed work.
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Organizational change followed Kotter’s model naturally: urgency, coalition, vision, communication, quick wins, and building on change.
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Scaling requires thoughtfully selecting leadership partners and transitioning initiatives from side projects to full-time ownership.
Notable Quotes
"The nightmare was not knowing our most recent shipper NPS score when the CEO asked."
"Good service is the careful orchestration of many systems and systemic change means we all have to work together."
"You cannot create a high performing team, but you can enable the conditions by which one emerges."
"Psychological safety means people feel safe to raise a flag when something’s not working."
"Service blueprinting was deeply empathy building because each role had to walk in another’s shoes."
"We focused on the pre-pick use case because it’s the most volatile and the most within our control."
"After 90 days of our pilot, we saw double digit NPS improvement and on-time pick uptick."
"Everything is pencil and nothing is precious was key to moving fast and collaborating openly."
"We created many informal spaces to fall apart together because no one can handle this alone."
"The work showed us not just how to fix service, but more importantly, how to change as an organization."
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