From Fleet to Feature Set: Applying Real-World Pain Points to Product Design
In business, some of the best software isn’t built in a boardroom—it’s built on the ground. My journey into tech didn’t start with venture capital or a pitch deck. It started with bus routes, driver dispatches, no-show reports, and compliance audits.
Before co-founding ISI Technology, my partner and I spent years operating transportation businesses where the stakes were real and the margins were razor-thin. It was in that high-pressure environment that we realized: the tools we needed didn’t exist—or didn’t work the way we needed them to.
Frustration Was the First Feature
We didn’t start building software because we wanted to. We started because we had to survive. The platforms back then were clunky, disconnected, and completely unable to adapt to the realities of non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT).
Manual scheduling meant our dispatchers spent hours each morning coordinating hundreds of daily rides, often reassigning the same route multiple times. Billing errors while submitting claims created significant revenue loss that we couldn’t afford. Driver communication relied on a cascade of phone calls that would make military coordination look simple. And compliance tracking consumed countless hours per week that no busy operator could spare.
So we did what any operator would do—we found workarounds. Eventually, those workarounds evolved into systems. And those systems became the foundation of what would become RouteGenie.
The Breaking Point That Built Everything
The decision to build rather than buy came after multiple vendor implementations failed to meet our operational needs. We’d invested significant resources in software that promised to solve our problems but couldn’t handle basic scenarios like wheelchair-accessible vehicle routing or Medicaid billing requirements.
When I calculated that we were spending more on software licenses and workarounds than it would cost to hire a development team, the math was clear. We weren’t just buying software—we were subsidizing products that didn’t understand our business. But I was partially wrong, it took us many years to build the great software: building a good software takes a lot of time and resources.
Built for Operators, By Operators
At ISI Technology, we don’t just write code—we solve operational headaches. Every product decision is grounded in a single question: Would this actually help someone running a real business today?
We keep that lens sharp by staying close to the field through constant feedback loops with transportation companies using our tools, weekly calls with clients to understand their evolving pain points, and beta testing new features internally before they’re rolled out.
These feedback loops deliver measurable results. Our dispatch optimization features have led to significant reductions in scheduling time and substantial improvements in on-time performance across client fleets. When operators tell us a feature saves them hours daily, we know we’re solving real problems.
Turning Operational Pain into Scalable Products
One of our most successful features—a smart scheduling assistant—was born from a recurring nightmare we faced in our own transportation businesses: too many manual touchpoints for assigning drivers and vehicles to rides.
Here’s how it used to work: A dispatcher would receive a ride request, manually check driver availability, cross-reference vehicle types with passenger needs, verify insurance eligibility, and then hope nothing changed before pickup time. For complex rides requiring wheelchair accessibility or multiple stops, this process could take significant time per booking.
We didn’t just want automation—we wanted intelligence. So we built a feature that learns from past behavior, rider preferences, vehicle specifications, and eligibility rules. Now, when a ride request comes in, the system suggests the optimal driver-vehicle pairing in seconds, factoring in everything from traffic patterns to driver performance metrics.
The result? Our clients have dramatically reduced average scheduling time while improving passenger satisfaction scores substantially. That’s the difference between software that “works” and software that actually transforms operations.
Why Real-World Origin Stories Matter in Tech
When your product is rooted in lived experience, it shows. You prioritize usability over bells and whistles because you’ve felt the pain of clunky interfaces during busy morning dispatches. You solve for edge cases that frustrate real users because you’ve been that frustrated user. And you move faster because you understand the stakes—every minute of downtime costs money and potentially affects someone’s access to healthcare.
I believe more technology companies should start this way—not from theory, but from necessity. From frustration. From first-hand experience of what happens when systems fail at the worst possible moment.
Final Thoughts
At ISI Technology, we’re proud to build tools that were forged from operational challenges—not hypothetical problems. As we expand into new verticals, that philosophy will never change.
Because at the end of the day, the best software doesn’t just run—it runs your business better. And if you’re currently struggling with software that was built by people who never had to manage complex fleet operations during peak hours, maybe it’s time to find tools built by operators who have.
If your transportation operation is held together by workarounds and spreadsheets, we’d love to hear your story. Sometimes the best way to build better software is to start with someone else’s operational headache.
*Note: While this post draws from real operational experiences in the transportation industry, specific metrics and scenarios have been generalized to protect confidentiality and business-sensitive information.
