🌍 Industry Overview
While platforms like MakeMyTrip, Expedia, and Booking.coms of the world have revolutionized the passenger travel industry, international cargo is still managed through legacy systems and manual processes.
Freight forwarders and 3PLs act as travel agents and project managers for international cargo movement. They more often rely on disconnected legacy systems and other tools (Sheets, Docs, Emails and WhatsApp to run and operate their business.
Imagine you’re a cargo owner in the year 1750, shipping exotic spices from India. You hand over your exotic spices to the ship owner (carrier) that will carry them across the world to Europe. In return of receiving your spices you are presented with a bill of lading by the company who is shipping it
WTF is a bill of lading ? It is a glorified piece of paper stating
- What goods you are shipping and how to handled them ?
- Who is shipping these good ? (shipper)
- Where is it coming from (where did the carrier receive it, from where the carrier is shipping it)
- Where is it heading (where will carrier de load it from the shipment and where they will deliver it
- Who is it being shipped to ? (consignee)
Why is a bill of lading so important?
- It defines the title of goods i.e one who has the original copy of the BL at the moment owns the cargo
- It controls the payment settlement between shipper and consignee, as it serves as the proof that shipper has shipped the cargo
- It serves as the pre-requisite document for customs process in both origin and the destination country. Just like your passport is a pre-requisite document for getting a visa
Fast forward to the year 2023: The world has changed dramatically, but the bill of lading remains relatively unchanged. Today, the bill of lading process is still reliant on the physical transfer of paper records and applies to roughly 40 percent of all containerised (shipping happening via shipping containers via sea) trade transactions.
Despite being the cornerstone of international trade, the Bill of Lading workflow is broken:
- Still heavily reliant on paper documents or static PDFs.
- Collaboration between teams (Docs, Accounts Payable, Credit Control) is scattered across Excel, WhatsApp, and email.
- No single source of truth to track status, approvals, payments, or delays.
- High risk of revenue leakage and delayed shipments due to miscommunication or non-compliance.
Industry Jargons
Shipper (Exporter) - The business entity that owns and is going to ship the cargo
Consignee (Importer) - The business entity that is buying the cargo from the shipper and is going to receive this cargo
Freight Forwarder (FF)
Traditionally, shippers would deal directly with ship owners or carriers. However, with the rise of globalization and the surge in global trade, this model became unsustainable. Carriers no longer had the capacity to manage individual shipper relationships, paving the way for a new type of intermediary: the Freight Forwarder (FF).
Much like travel agents in the airline industry, Freight Forwarders aggregate demand — except, instead of booking flights, they manage the booking of cargo movement. Over time, FFs evolved to become essential intermediaries between shippers and carriers, playing a key role in logistics coordination and often handling documentation, including the issuance of Bills of Lading.
Key Teams Within a Freight Forwarding Organization
Docs Team - The Docs (Documentation) Team acts as the documentation expert for the customers, They create the draft bill of lading from the documents received from the customers (shippers) and share it with customers for approval. Once approved they send it to shipping lines either via feeding the data into shipping line’s digital booking portals or via email Credit Control / Accounts Receivable Team -This team is focused on making sure that shippers pay on time for the cost of services incurred during moving their shipment. This teams makes sure that shippers don't receive their bills of lading till the time they paid on time for previous shipments if they have credit line with them or have paid in advance in case they have no credit line with them Accounts Payable Team - This team is focused on making sure that shipping lines are paid on time so that bill of lading is released from the shipping lines on time Carrier: The entity responsible for transporting the cargo across countries. Shipping Line or Airline
Problem Statement 🔬
The current state
Teams collaborate on Excel sheets, Google Docs, WhatsApp, emails, and manual follow-ups. The document passes through multiple stakeholders: Docs team, Accounts Payable, Credit Control, Shippers, and Shipping Lines. Managers and business owners lack real-time visibility on the process and its bottlenecks. Release of a BL can be delayed due to missed payments, miscommunication, or unclear task ownership—often resulting in lost trust, delayed shipments, and financial losses. Companies like WaveBL, IncoDocs, and PandaDoc are attempting to digitize different aspects of this journey, but a fully collaborative, real-time workflow tool tailored to freight forwarders is still a massive whitespace
👥 Personas Involved
Docs Team – Manages shipping instruction, drafts, and BL release coordination Accounts Payable Team – Responsible for paying carriers to release the BL Credit Control Team – Ensures shippers have paid before releasing the BL to them Shippers (Customers) – Expect timely release of BL once shipment has sailed and payments are made Freight Forwarding Owner / Manager – Needs visibility, control, and performance metrics 🔄 Current Workflow Snapshot
Each week, 100+ active shipments across multiple shippers are manually tracked through a fragmented, non-standardized process. This is typically done via Google Sheets, WhatsApp, and email—with no system of record or automation.
Step-by-Step Journey (Manual + Siloed)
Shipment Booking Confirmed Customer Service team processes the booking Docs team logs the shipment details into a spreadsheet Shipping Instruction Collection Docs team follows up with shipper to collect SI (typically on WhatsApp) Draft BL Coordination with Carrier Docs team submits SI to carrier Reviews draft with shipper Docs team collects invoice from carrier Shares invoice with Accounts Payable team for payment Follows up until payment is made Shares payment confirmation back with carrier for BL release Docs team checks if Credit Control team has raised invoice to shipper Follows up for payment confirmation Waits for Credit Control to approve BL release Once approved, BL is released to shipper 💊 Pain Points
🚨 Docs Team
Tracking is entirely manual, often done in static spreadsheets Collaboration is disjointed across WhatsApp, email, and calls No real-time status view across all shipments No visibility into team dependencies (e.g., has payment been made?) High risk of delayed or accidental release of BLs 🚨 Accounts Payable Team
Gets carrier invoices via chat or email with no standardized handoff No real-time visibility into what’s pending, urgent, or overdue Lacks traceability of who made the payment and when 🚨 Credit Control Team
Often working in the dark on which shipments are ready for invoice Doesn’t have a reliable source of truth on shipment/payment readiness Cannot enforce BL hold logic due to lack of system enforcement Faces pressure from sales or docs team to release without validation 💥 Business Impact for Owners / Managers
No control or traceability on BL release decisions: Was payment actually received? Why was it released if not? Blind spots on performance metrics: What is the average turnaround time from sailing to BL release? How many BLs were delayed this week? Which shipments are on hold and why? Who are the top delayed customers or lanes? BLs sometimes get released before payments are received, leading to bad debts No enforcement mechanism for credit control thresholds Shippers frequently escalate: “Why hasn’t my BL been released?” “Why is it on hold when I’ve already paid? 🧠 Why a Collaborative Digital System is Needed
The current system is:
Fragmented → spread across spreadsheets, chats, and inboxes Opaque → no team has a complete view of the shipment lifecycle Reactive → issues are caught late, often post-escalation Uncontrolled → no guardrails for approvals or payment enforcement A better system would:
Provide centralized, real-time visibility into every shipment’s BL status Enable structured task flows and handoffs between teams Support automated guardrails to prevent early release without payment Enable collaboration on a single document with versioning, approval logs, and audit trails Give business owners live dashboards on delays, blockers, and team performance Reduce dependency on memory, WhatsApp, and spreadsheet hacks
🧠 The Assignment
Design a product that reimagines the Bill of Lading Workflow & Collaboration Process for modern freight forwarders.
🎯 Goal
Create a collaborative document editor and workflow manager that allows freight forwarder teams and their customers (shippers) to:
Digitally manage the lifecycle of a Bill of Lading, end-to-end. Eliminate manual tracking via Excel/WhatsApp/email. Collaborate internally across departments (Docs, Credit Control, Accounts Payable). Collaborate externally with Shippers and Carriers. Provide real-time visibility to owners and managers into critical process metrics (e.g. turnaround time, delays, compliance). 👥 Key Personas
Docs Team Member – Manages the BL process and coordinates with shippers, carriers, and internal teams. Credit Control / Accounts Receivable – Ensures customer payments are received before approving BL release. Accounts Payable – Ensures freight and carrier invoices are paid to receive the BL from the carrier. Shipper (Customer) – Provides shipping instructions and waits for the BL to be released. Owner / Manager – Needs real-time oversight, control, and insights into the BL release process. 🛠 Scope
Design the following:
1. Task & Workflow Management UI
A Kanban-style or timeline-based board to track each BL’s current status. Clear visibility into who owns what step, and what’s pending or blocked. Task priority sorting and due-date tracking. Internal notes, tags, reminders, and attachments. 2. Collaborative BL Document Editor
Editable BL document with structured fields (shipper, consignee, ports, container info, etc.) Audit trail of changes with version history. Role-based access (Docs team can edit, Credit Control can approve, Shipper can view/comment). eSignatures and approval tracking for shipper draft approvals. Inline comments and tagging (à la Google Docs / PandaDoc). 3. Payment Check Controls
BL can only be released to Shipper after payment confirmation. BL can only be received from Carrier after carrier invoice is paid. Status syncing between Docs, Accounts Payable, and Credit Control. 4. Collaboration Layer
Replace WhatsApp/email threads: Internal messaging within tasks. External messaging with shippers (optional: email or in-app chat). Activity feed per shipment/BL. 5. Manager Insights Dashboard
Avg turnaround time for BL release (from sailing date) BLs delayed this week / month Delay reasons (payment pending, shipper delay, carrier delay) BLs released without payment compliance Shipments by team member, by customer, by delay frequency Filters by date, customer, shipper, sales person, etc. 🧾 Deliverables
You can choose the format that best helps convey your thinking. Ideally:
Key problems being solved Personas and user journeys Your product philosophy and design principles Task board / workflow manager Collaborative document editor Any supporting screens (notifications, shipment timeline, etc.) How data moves between stakeholders How tasks and documents are created, edited, approved, and tracked 📌 Constraints
You don’t need to design the full BL form format—focus more on collaboration, tracking, workflows, and visibility. Think modular and scale-friendly—this is being designed for FFs handling 100+ shipments per week. Feel free to draw inspiration from modern collaboration tools like ClickUp, Notion, Trello, Figma, and PandaDoc. Bonus points if your solution feels 10x faster and delightfully intuitive for operational users.
The Multi-Billion Dollar Paper and Excel Jam
