Meet Anderson
Senior engineer + repair shop regular
Anderson Kwon builds the tools fleets and service providers use to get repairs approved and done. He spends his time thinking about shops juggling a dozen jobs at once, and what it takes to make a feature work from a phone, in between calls.
What did you learn about how fleets work with service providers that shaped this feature?
Service providers are always on their feet. They’re juggling dozens of jobs at once and still finding time to answer calls in between. So instead of building something they’d have to sit down at a desk to use, I wanted it to work wherever they are, whenever they need it.
A lot of their decisions are time-sensitive. They should be able to make them on the go, right from their phone.
You made it easy to navigate, text, and upload photos. What was the hardest part of making it feel that simple?
Building for when things go wrong. The ideal flow is simple: a text goes out, the provider responds, and the job moves forward. Real life is messier. Messages don’t always get delivered, phone numbers change, and people opt out halfway through.
A lot of the effort went into making sure no fleet or service provider ever gets stuck because of it.
If you walked into a repair shop tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d show them?
I’d pull up a job and show them that everything lives in one place, from the estimate to the approval to the invoice. Right now a lot of shops are piecing things together from email threads, phone calls, and spreadsheets.
Being able to open a single screen, see exactly where things stand, and act on it right there makes a huge difference. It saves time, and it saves them the mental load of keeping track of it all.
What’s one small detail you built in that service providers will really appreciate?
When a service provider reviews a failed inspection or a repair order, or is scoping work, we suggest details for the estimate and invoice. They can accept the suggestions as they are or adjust them however they need.
They’re always in control, but they’re never starting from a blank slate. Across a busy week that time really adds up, and it takes away the most tedious part of the process.