LeafLink - 2022
A Business Level Dispute Resolution System That Lets You Get Back To Business
B2B Dispute Resolution for the Cannabis Industry
Introduction
Bringing LeafLink’s dispute resolution process to the next level.
LeafLink payments launched in 2020 and was built to provide invoice tracking and payment solutions to businesses in the Cannabis industry. The platform, an offshoot of the original LeafLink marketplace, included a feature allowing users to raise and resolve disputes around invoices between buyers and sellers. Our pod was asked to develop and test a post MVP version of dispute tracking.
Team & Roles
It takes a village to build a feature
Senior Product Designer (Me)
Senior Product Manager
Front-End Software Engineer
Senior Back-End Engineer
Current State
Hey, I need help with these issues…
The existing version of the dispute feature let users flag specific invoices as being “in dispute.” This would trigger a LeafLink staff member to email the initiator of the dispute for context and then aid the user in finding a resolution. Interactions and documentation of the disputes occurred entirely off platform. The LeafLink staff often utilized phone calls, texts, and email threads to track and resolve disputes.
The Problem
Business needs to track & automate the dispute process
The business interest was to bring the dispute process in platform so that they could track the kind of disputes that were cataloged. There was an additional interest in exploring if there was a way to automatically resolve disputes around incorrect invoice totals. These were estimated to make up 50% of the disputes raised with LeafLink.
Discovery
Pain points identified with users
In talks with users, they said that they found this whole process very cumbersome and disjointed. Two major frustrations emerged. The first being hopping between platforms and the second being that every dispute exchange started from square one with no context.
“I get an email from LeafLink asking why I'm disputing it, which if there was a way to avoid a lot of back and forth emails or anything like that…”
– Accounting Manager
“I always have to send out an email and then go back into LeafLink and try to find the invoices… that I'm trying to resolve. The dispute interactions, honestly (are) a huge pain…”
– Assistant Controller
Disputes v2
With this context, expanded & built Disputes 2.0
With this context, we went about fleshing out the current dispute process.
New Dispute Submission Process
Fleshed out the whole dispute submission process to include a dispute category selector, contextual comments around the dispute, and the ability to attach documentation to your initial dispute.
Automated Resolution Flow
Constructed a resolution process for incorrect invoice totals that allowed for the invoice to automatically correct itself if both the disputer and the recipient agreed to the updated invoice total.
Dispute Comment Thread
Built a running comment thread attached to each dispute. The comment thread was built to allow anyone at the dispute originator or recipient’s company to talk with each other or any LeafLink staff member to resolve their dispute. The comment thread would also allow users to upload documentation mimicking a more public and organized form of their existing email process.
Disputes Page
The team gave both the LeafLink staff members and LeafLink customers a new disputes page that would allow them to easily track and organize existing and resolved disputes.
Usability Testing
Putting the feature in our user’s hands
While constructing the new dispute process, we tested the new feature with existing LeafLink customers to track quantitative success rates for tasks given in the platform along with qualitative feedback to how the new feature worked.
Participants
Monterey Tilth Farms
Chief Product Officer
Grassdoor
Assistant Controller
Grassdoor
Controller
42 Degrees
Accounting Manager
Ladybug Farms
Chief Operating Officer
Teebz
Chief Executive Officer
Gage USA
Senior Cost Accountant
Methodology
Collecting quantitative & qualitative feedback from our users
The usability test involved running the user through a prototype built around the processes of starting and then resolving a dispute. The session involved setting them up with an issue that they wanted to raise a dispute about and then dropping them into the prototype. We then prompted users with 13 tasks to complete, unaided and paused along the process to collect feedback.
Our Insights
Where’s my shipment?
Users didn’t understand raising a dispute around “Inventory Not Delivered”. They were confused if this meant the entire shipment hadn’t been received or parts of the order did not arrive.
Our Recommendation 
We broke this dispute reason into two, one specifically around “Shipment Not Received” and another around “Missing Inventory”
I want to edit or delete it.
Users also mentioned that they might want to change the details of a dispute, or delete it if they had made some error.
Our Recommendation ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55764066e4b0a6d0afa65450/b1d8df49-fc7e-4f9c-b2dc-63580165da9c/Recommendation4_v1.png?format=2500w")
We were reluctant to give users full editing or delete access for fear of bad actors. There was concern that some users might change the terms of a dispute after the discussion had started or delete a dispute which had not really been resolved. We recommended introducing edit and deletion functions given only to the dispute originator, but these actions would deactivate after 6 hours.
Which is the most up to date invoice?
When completing the prototype, users were confused on if the LeafLink invoice of record had been updated. They also had trouble finding the most up-to-date invoice.
Our Recommendation ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55764066e4b0a6d0afa65450/0ebc1954-62a5-4eec-a6a9-ee784d0f3cc0/Recommendation2_v1.png?format=2500w")
We proposed adding “events” into the comment thread timeline with links to relevant documentation. This would allow users to have confirmation of what had changed in the system and easy access to where these events had taken place.
Let me confirm it.
For changes made either in the automated process or by a LeafLink staff member, dispute originators wanted a notice that some resolution action was about to take place and be able to greenlight it before it went through
Our Recommendation ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55764066e4b0a6d0afa65450/d0f6a259-441e-4a37-9dd6-e0b9e7a3dfc6/Recommendation3_v1.png?format=2500w")
We proposed adding a new email notification allowing the dispute originator a summary of how their dispute would be resolved and give them a time window to contest it before the dispute was officially settled.
Task Success Rates
An intuitive way to find a resolution
Overall the prototype tested very high with task success rates and users cited it as very easy to use.
“I think your whole system is very self-explanatory… Just the general intuitiveness of it. Yeah, it flows nicely. It’s user-friendly.”
– Chief Product Officer
“(It’s) very straightforward and simple. I mean, it’s idiot proof… I think you've summed up exactly what needs to be in there.”
– Senior Cost Accountant
Task Success Rates
Find Invoice to be Disputed
60%
Start a New Dispute
100%
Include File in a Disputes
100%
Dispute “Not Delivered”
83%
Dispute “Correct Invoice Total”
83%
Input Correct Invoice Total
100%
Confirm Dispute Summary
100%
Generate New Dispute
100%
Define Dispute Resolution
100%
Identify Dispute Status
100%
View Updated Invoice
66%
Write a Comment
100%
Overall Sentiment
The sentiment and feedback from the testers were positive.
“Oh my gosh, this is perfect… It’s just really easy to follow, it’s documented perfectly so that you can see what happened at what time.”
– Accounting Manager
“You’ve got all the features that you would need from the invoice editing process and why you would need to dispute it… I can see what’s happening to the communication that’s happened around it. So that’s great”
– Chief Product Officer
“That was… really great to see. That’s everything I was hoping for. I was actually just telling my coworker before I got on the call… I really hope they add options for missing product or wrong invoice totals and stuff. And that’s exactly what you guys had.”
– Senior Cost Accountant
Dev Handoff
A comprehensive guide to bring the feature to life
I worked with the front-end, and back-end engineers to construct a handoff document that would cover everything they would need to build the new dispute function.
- Key screens with/without content
- All Major Breakpoints
- Flow documentation
- Specification sheets for complex interactions
Next Steps
Keep on iterating…
From our work talking with customers and LeafLink admin users, we began road mapping v3 and v4 additions to the dispute feature.
- Connect quantitative data post MVP launch to track usage and adoption
- Test dispute resolution flows
- Allow @’ing other employees for users and admin
- In-Email integration for dispute responses
- Expand categories for auto-resolution processes
Thank you for your time.