The Growth Engine: $80k MRR Carrier Upsell Strategy

Driving $321k+ in total revenue expansion by re-engineering the carrier upgrade path through contextual value-signaling and behavioral design.

Role

Lead Product Designer & Growth Strategist

Impact

+$80,198 Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), $321k+ Total Lift

Project Overview & Impact

I led a strategic redesign of the Carrier upgrade path, focusing on Expansion Revenue. By identifying high-value features that were previously "buried" in the UI and bringing them to the forefront of the user journey, we achieved a record-breaking $80,198 increase in MRR. This single experiment validated that our users were willing to pay more, provided the value was clearly articulated at the point of intent.

The Business Problem (Stagnant ARPU)

Despite high traffic, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for the Carrier segment was plateauing.

The Symptom: Users remained on entry-level "Standard" plans for years, even as their fleet size and complexity grew.
The Diagnosis: Value Obscurity. The "Pro" and "Select" features (like premium load tracking and route optimization) were hidden behind deep menu layers. Users didn't know what they were missing, so they had no incentive to upgrade.

The Design Hypothesis (Feature Discovery)

Hypothesis: If we move "High-Value" features from the settings/tools menu directly into the primary search workflow as "Locked State" previews, we can trigger a higher upgrade intent at the moment the user actually needs the tool.

The Strategy: The "Contextual Gate"

In-Workflow Previews: I designed "Glimpse" states for premium features within the free search results.
The Upsell Bridge: Instead of a generic "Upgrade" button, I created a contextual modal that showed exactly how much time/money the premium feature would save on that specific load.
Visual Anchoring: Highlighted the ROI of the "Pro" plan by comparing it directly to the manual effort of the "Standard" plan.

Project Overview & Impact

The Business Problem (Stagnant ARPU)

Despite high traffic, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for the Carrier segment was plateauing.

The Symptom: Users remained on entry-level "Standard" plans for years, even as their fleet size and complexity grew.
The Diagnosis: Value Obscurity. The "Pro" and "Select" features (like premium load tracking and route optimization) were hidden behind deep menu layers. Users didn't know what they were missing, so they had no incentive to upgrade.

The Design Hypothesis (Feature Discovery)

The Strategy: The "Contextual Gate"

In-Workflow Previews: I designed "Glimpse" states for premium features within the free search results.
The Upsell Bridge: Instead of a generic "Upgrade" button, I created a contextual modal that showed exactly how much time/money the premium feature would save on that specific load.
Visual Anchoring: Highlighted the ROI of the "Pro" plan by comparing it directly to the manual effort of the "Standard" plan.

Before DAT Load Board Product Selector Bot

Data Validation & ROI (The Gold Standard)

This test was the most successful financial experiment in the product's recent history.

Metric	Result
Incremental MRR (Monthly)	+$80,198
Total Experiment Revenue	$321,000+
Conversion to 'Pro' Plan	+28% Increase
Statistical Significance	99.9%

Strategic Insights: Selling "Outcome," Not "Features"

Expansion over Acquisition: It is 5x cheaper to upsell an existing user than to acquire a new one. This project proved that design is the most effective tool for "Expansion Revenue."
Timing is Everything: An upsell message shown on the pricing page is "Marketing." An upsell message shown when a user is actually trying to solve a problem is "Utility."

Tools & Methodology

Design: Figma & Framer (High-fidelity prototypes)
Research: Competitive Benchmarking & Feature Audit
Validation: VWO (Multivariate Testing)
Principle: The Endowment Effect (Making users feel like the feature is already theirs, they just need to "unlock" it).

Tools & Methodology

Design: Figma & Framer (High-fidelity prototypes)
Research: Competitive Benchmarking & Feature Audit
Validation: VWO (Multivariate Testing)
Principle: The Endowment Effect (Making users feel like the feature is already theirs, they just need to "unlock" it).

Other projects

Scaling Leads by 375% via Conversational AI

An interactive package selector bot designed to reduce decision paralysis. By guiding users through a personalized funnel, we didn't just improve UX we exploded high-intent sales leads.

Recommended row on the Carrier Pricing Grid on the Load Boards page

Accelerating the Path to Purchase via "Recommended" Logic

Simplifying complex carrier pricing for better plan-fit. By adding explicit carrier-size guidance, we reduced decision time by 11 seconds and drove a 16% lift in SSU (Self-Service Signup) starts.

+166% Revenue Lift: Highlighting Value over Price

A strategic redesign of the pricing grid hierarchy. By injecting contextual pop-ups and emphasizing higher-tier feature benefits, we shifted the plan mix and generated $30k+ in monthly incremental revenue.

Optimizing the First Fold: A $15k/Mo Design Lift

A holistic refresh of the high-traffic landing page. By shortening headers and prioritizing segment-specific CTAs, we improved engagement across all user categories and boosted annual revenue by $180k.