Captain as a Service
Designed Captain as a Service, creating scalable tools for owners, seamless onboarding for captains, and trusted booking flows for renters.
The Problem
The Getmyboat platform lacked a cohesive captain ecosystem. Renters faced confusion around captain payments—unsure how much to pay or when, with transactions handled outside the app, creating insecurity about additional costs for services they'd already booked. Captains felt awkward requesting payment at the dock, while owners had no system to add, manage, or onboard captains. Without a dedicated user type, payment infrastructure, or cross-platform integration, the platform relied on fragmented experiences and offline workarounds that limited scalability for all parties.
Goal
Design an integrated captain ecosystem that:
Connected three distinct user journeys (renters, owners, captains)
Introduced a new user type
Built scalable infrastructure for payments, onboarding, and captain management
Established design patterns to support future Getmyboat features
My Role
As Lead Product Designer, I owned the end-to-end experience, from research and concepting to design, validation, and launch.
Process
Partnering with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales, I led the design of an integrated captain ecosystem that required rethinking core platform architecture:
Discovery & Systems Analysis
Collaborated with PM on cross-functional discovery sessions with Product + Engineering to map technical constraints and integration points.
Analyzed Tableau + GA data to quantify captain demand patterns and identify conversion drop-offs in existing flows.
Conducted competitive analysis (Airbnb, Boatsetter, Vrbo) focusing on multi-sided marketplace dynamics and service add-on architectures.
Key insight: Getmyboat needed to support a new user type, captains, with dedicated permissions, payment flows, and integrations across renter and owner journeys.
User Roles & Relationships
Mapped how captain functionality would integrate across existing booking flows, payment systems, user management, and communication tools.
Defined how renters, owners, and captains connect in the app, and set clear permissions for what each user type can see and do.
Strategic MVP
Our priority was simple: get captains into the app and get them paid, but design the foundation to support full platform integration.
For Owners & Captains
Captain Pricing & Invite System: Owners set captain costs and invite captains directly in-app, triggering automated email workflows.
Hybrid Captain Onboarding Approach: Manual onboarding via Customer Service and Sales teams validated captain needs before building complex automated systems.
Future Vision: This laid the groundwork for a fully integrated Captain Dashboard, with automated payouts and trip management.
For Renters
Redesigned pricing transparency with clear captain cost breakdown to build trust during booking while building scalable structure for future add-ons.
End-to-End Experience Design
Payment Flow Redesign → integrated captain costs into core transaction architecture, not bolt-on features.
Owner Management Tools → designed scalable custom captain pricing and invitation features
Captain Workflow Design → created onboarding and offer management flows that could transition from manual to automated processes.
Cross-Platform Integration → ensured captain functionality worked cohesively across web, mobile, and email touchpoints.
Collaboration & Implementation
Authored design specifications detailing user flows, interactions, and technical requirements
Aligned with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales to keep product progress tied to business goals and on track
Produced an intro-to-captains video used by Sales to onboard boat owners to the new feature
Results
Generated $1.7M in gross bookings through Captain Payments in just 3 months post-launch
Brought 400 captains onboard to the platform
Facilitated 7,000+ captain offers, leading to 620 confirmed bookings
1,700+ bookings forecasted as a result of the feature launch
