Meet Flexport’s UX Team: Raphael Bouchard, Staff Product Designer

By Menglu Gao and Raphael Bouchard

Get to know Raph, a Staff Product Designer on the Customs Gateway team! Customs is a critical step in all shipments that cross country borders. Unfortunately, it is a very complex and bespoke procedure that is required by all countries. It’s similar how many people have to file their tax documents once a year, except it’s for every single shipment! The Customs Gateway team specifically builds tools for compliance managers to help manage the amount that they’re spending on duties and gives them visibility into potential delays when a shipment crosses a border.

How did you get into Product Design?

When I was a kid I was fascinated by how things worked and I wanted to be the person who created those things. I loved how all the details fit together in one product and how every part was interconnected with another. Naturally I studied Mechanical Engineering because those are the people who make stuff, right?? Well, partially — I was less interested in the machines to make the things, I wanted to be the person to come up with the concepts for those things. Luckily I ran into a friend from high school on her way back from the model shop where she just picked up her 3D printed senior project. I was hooked. From that moment I realized I was on the wrong career path and Industrial Design was the next step for me. Getting closer to graduation, I saw technology becoming embedded in everything around us and it’s something I knew little about. I decided to continue my education in Grad School to learn about software systems and User Experience design along with all the aspects that come with it, from UI design to service design.

Why did you join Flexport? What keeps you here?

I joined Flexport in the beginning of 2020. Flexport has always been on my radar, because I’m the type of designer that likes really complicated things with many moving parts and constraints. Working in Customs at Flexport, there are an unlimited amount of constraints, whether they are technical constraints or compliance constraints. Our challenge is designing experiences that can handle the unexpected, like trade wars or container ships that get stuck in canals. That’s what keeps me here, every day is a new complex user challenge that we need to solve for.

So you don’t have previous experience designing for logistics/freight. Was it hard to get up to speed at the beginning?

I attended Flexport Academy, which is a two-week onboarding program that Flexport provides to its new hires. It’s a great 101 crash course into the world of logistics. I wouldn’t say it was hard to get up to speed, just ask lots of questions, shadow users, talk to users and industry experts and that’s the fastest way to get up to speed. I’d say onboarding at Flexport is continuous; I’m learning many new things everyday, from use-cases to regulations.

What does your day-to-day look like? What are you working on currently?

I’m usually working on a few projects at different stages from research to engineering ready content. On any given day, I’ll be preparing for or sharing work to get feedback from the UX team, my product team or leadership. Feedback loops are really embedded in everything we do at Flexport and I think it helps increase the quality of our work.

Currently, I’m looking ahead to 2023–2024 timeranges to understand what the business and user goals are and how we can help achieve those through service and product design; there are a few things in implementation too so responding to any last minute questions that may come up.

What types of design challenges will you be working on in the coming year?

Making an embedded product a standalone product and figuring out how the monetization model of that product and subservices impacts the user experience. The challenges are understanding the scale across user needs, since Flexport supports SMB to Global Key Accounts. Those needs are very different. Prioritizing features and experiences across those is a big design challenge because it really depends on your volumes, what the trajectory of the client company is, and how you can try to create an experience that can scale up or down with your client volume.

What’s the design culture like at Flexport? How do you stay connected with most of the team in remote times?

Each team has their own set of rituals. The design team has regular check-ins and multiple 1-on-1s. We are always reviewing work or creating Loom videos and posting them in Slack for feedback. I think this also touches on the culture of openness. Sometimes I get comments on files from other designers far from my immediate team and I really appreciate that they are looking into my work. For the larger team, I’m a member of the UX review panel. Every week we see work from designers across the company and it’s a really great way to learn from others and see how they tackled the particular problem at hand or share approaches that have worked in the past.

I really like one of our UX review principles; to be hard on the problem, not the person. I think in an industry like logistics, especially Customs, the problems are really nuanced. It’s rare that you know every single possible use case when you present your work. That’s why you present it to different people across the company because you might not have any idea that the thing you’re working on might impact a different team or have some kind of relationship or a similar pattern. Whenever those things are surfaced, it’s being hard on the problem not the person, making sure you really understand the problem that you are designing for.

Creative outlets are so important to have as a designer, what do you like to do when you’re not designing to help inspire your work?

Gardening, painting, drawing and exercising. Doodling and exercise are good ways for me to think deeply about connections to things I’m working on. Sometimes I will start with a sketchpad, daydreaming in space and start visualizing pieces coming together and then I’ll make a quick sketch of it. Or fold a piece of paper into an interesting shape. Doing anything that just gets your creative side going is important. Once it starts rolling, it’s a lot easier to control the chaotic ball of creativity.

If you weren’t a designer, what would you be doing for a living?

I find urban living and farming fascinating. I’ve always wanted to create a little corner store, a place that has nice food, and where the food comes from is a giant rooftop garden and locally sourced. Everything would be locally grown, just upstairs or down the street. One the other hand, I’ve always wanted to design carnival rides and rollercoasters, which is more engineering I think. I guess it does relate to UX design because what those rides are intended to do is to give you a specific experience whether it’s a leisurely stroll on a ferris wheel or a terrifying drop on a rollercoaster.