US road freight was losing an estimated $331.9M a year to cargo theft, identity fraud, and double brokering. The load board that 65% of the US spot market relied on was DAT's, which meant the fraud was happening on our rails. As sole researcher, I ran a two-phase contextual inquiry across brokers and carriers to map where trust broke down, determine whether DAT had a right to win in the vetting space, and define the personas and product direction for whatever we built next. The study produced a right-to-win thesis, five trust personas, and an experience map that traced directly into shipped capabilities. The capabilities included the Carrier Company Profile, embedded vetting filters in search, and a hardened identity-verification layer. The research insights also laid the foundation for DAT's acquisition strategy. It became the only research-led strategic initiative approved during a two-year platform rebuild, and the only new public product to launch from the load board side in that window.