Product Discovery - Unifertil
Cargo Scheduling
Objective.
Increase freight scheduling from 15% to 95% by the end of 2023.
Expected Results.
-
10% increase in factory production capacity. Approximately 300 additional tons per day
-
Possible increase in revenue of R$ 324 million/year with current plants
-
Possibility of increasing profit by R$6.5 million/year with current plants
-
Improved quality of customer service
-
Reduced time spent on unscheduled freight
-
More commercial time dedicated to value-added activities with customers
What is the target? Where are the main problems?
As part of the discovery phase, we invited key stakeholders from different areas of the client’s business to our office for a series of workshops to identifiy the main problems to solve. This is the initial scheduling and loading flow that was identified and analyzed:
Personas.
A persona is a semi-fictional representation of a company's ideal customer. It is a tool that helps you understand your target audience and create more effective marketing strategies.
As part of the discovery process, we conducted interviews with key stakeholders across different roles — including customers, drivers, supervisors, and the sales team. These conversations helped us identify and prioritize the main personas we needed to focus on in order to effectively address the core problems and deliver meaningful solutions.
João da Silva
Customer
Age: 55 years
Sex: Male
Children: 3
Where he lives: Lajeado/RS
Occupation: Cooperative Producer
Workplace: Office/Home
Means of communication: Telephone/email
What are the main objectives?
Schedule the planting, fertilization and harvest of his crop.
What does he listen?
“Yara has a very rigid system.”
"Mozaic has a very rigid system (Tizzy)."
What are the Pains?
Change the schedule due to unexpected events.
It depends on the supervisor's authorization for the delivery of your order.
What are the main problems/challenges?
Find a supplier with a good price and flexibility in negotiation/delivery.
What does he see?
Other suppliers already use scheduling via system/portal.
What are the Needs?
Visibility of your orders with clear action to be taken.
Management of loading schedules.
What does he think and feel?
“What is the status of my orders?”
“I understand that at Unifertil, shipments are made on a first-come, first-served basis.”
You receive the order portfolio but are unable to take effective action.
What does he speak and do?
Send a truck to load on the agreed date.
Fill out Excel with the Loading Authorization.
Purchase fertilizers for future delivery (planting).
Fernando Santos
Representative
Age: 50 years
Sex: Male
Children: 2
Where he lives: Esteio/RS
Occupation: Sales Representative
Workplace: Office/Home
Means of communication: Telephone/email
What are the main objectives?
Organize the purchase and shipment of fertilizers for your customers.
What does he listen?
“The weather forecast is calling for rain and scheduling will be compromised.”

“The harvest has failed and customers will have difficulty paying.”
What are the Pains?
Supervisor requests that he does not have authorization must be made by email.
Distribute your quota among customers.
What are the main problems/challenges?
Have visibility of the customer portfolio and be able to schedule appointments
What does he see?
Several competitors are very "bureaucratic".
Smallholdings have difficulty with technology.
What are the Needs?
Predictable scheduling to plan transportation.
Visibility of your orders with clear action to be taken.
What does he think and feel?
“Which clients should I prioritize for loading this week?”

“Did the client who scheduled the load go ahead?”
You receive the order book but are unable to generate effective actions.
What does he speak and do?
Confirm delivery with clients to schedule at Unifertil.
Inform the supervisor of clients scheduled for this week.
It is great to work with Unifertil.
Alexandro Freitas
Supervisor
Age: 40 years
Sex: Male
Children: 1
Where he lives: Esteio/RS
Occupation: Unifértil Superviser
Workplace: Office
Means of communication: Telephone/email
What are the main objectives?
Organize the purchase and loading of fertilizers for your customers.
What does he listen?
“Unifértil’s differential is its flexibility.”
“Mozaic implemented a scheduling tool and increased productivity by 20%.”
What are the Pains?
Rework is still significant even after Sankhya.
Release pending shipments as a matter of urgency.
What are the main problems/challenges?
Lack of customer scheduling, last-minute loading.
What does he see?
Sankhya has helped other areas more than sales.
Many representatives are disorganized and generate rework.
The sales app causes a lot of problems.
What are the Needs?
Automate the Load Order to reduce rework.
Improve scheduling productivity to increase sales.
What does he think and feel?
“Scheduling is one thing and loading is another!”

“Every sneeze has to unfold the order.”
Loading without scheduling is also flexibility (Unifertil differential)
What does he speak and do?
Negotiates the sale of fertilizer with customers.
Negotiates the delivery of orders with customers.
Coordinates the planning of loading quotas with production.
Customer Journey
Through interviews with clients, the sales team, and the loading operations team, we mapped out the end-to-end user journey for purchasing fertilizers. This allowed us to understand each step of the process — from initial contact to final delivery — including what the customer expects at each stage and how they currently respond to pain points in the experience. We were able to capture both the customer's expectations and the emotional reactions throughout the journey, which helped us identify key opportunities to improve communication, efficiency, and overall satisfaction.
Benchmark Trizy.
We conducted a benchmark analysis focusing on Trizy, a competing tool currently used by other fertilizer companies. This helped us identify its strengths, weaknesses, and the potential risks it could pose to our solution. Based on this assessment, we also uncovered clear opportunities to differentiate our product and deliver a better, more tailored experience for our users.
New scheduling flow divided into 2 steps
After a series of workshops with the steakholders, we identified the main problems to solve, prioritized them based on impact and implementation effort, and mapped out quick wins. Using card sorting and voting techniques, everyone actively participated, helping ensure shared understanding of both the challenges and the decision-making process. This is the new scheduling flow:
Step 1: Scheduling
The customer has visibility of the order portfolio and plans the scheduling. It is not permitted to plan the scheduling of orders with commercial problems, thus avoiding problems with loading.
Step 1: Scheduling
Step 2: Loading
The customer has visibility of the order portfolio and plans the scheduling. It is not permitted to plan the scheduling of orders with commercial problems, thus avoiding problems with loading.
The customer "assembles" the load based on an automated process that validates problems before the truck arrives at the shipping location.
Wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes
Based on the user profiles and the current ordering process, we identified that the solution needed to be extremely simple and intuitive. At this stage, one of the main challenges was to shift existing habits — particularly the reliance on Excel spreadsheets by clients, sales representatives, and internal teams. To support this transition, we designed low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes with straightforward flows and screen layouts that closely resembled Excel tables. This approach helped ensure ease of use and faster adoption. More advanced flows and experiences could be introduced later, but in this first phase, changing user behavior was critical for the solution's effectiveness.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
High-fidelity Prototype and users flows
After testing the initial low-fidelity prototypes with a few potential users, we moved on to creating high-fidelity versions. At this stage, the client was still working on a new logo and visual identity through their marketing team, so we used temporary fonts and colors to keep the design process moving forward. We created specific flows for the end customer, the sales representative, and the supervisor approval process. The prototypes were tested again with users, and we applied all necessary adjustments before handing them off to the development team — who had been involved throughout the process to identify potential technical limitations early on.
Client requests appointment
Step 1: Scheduling
The customer has visibility of the order portfolio and plans the scheduling. It is not permitted to plan the scheduling of orders with commercial problems, thus avoiding problems with loading.
Supervisor approves
Customer schedules loading
Adoption Results After One Year
One year after the solution was implemented, we have already reached approximately 75% adoption across users. While the final target remains at 90%, the current rate reflects the company’s flexibility with scheduling, which naturally impacts full adherence. Still, the results so far demonstrate strong engagement and a clear shift in user behavior — showing that the solution is well-aligned with both operational needs and long-term goals.
