T-Mobile Magenta Drive — Mahesh Guntivenkata

Project Context

Joined mid-flight.
Led the whole redesign.

I joined the Magenta Drive project after it had already started — which meant no honeymoon period. I had to get up to speed fast on the goals, constraints, existing research, and internal processes. Then I owned everything from brand definition through to shipped UI. As the sole designer, every decision was mine to make and defend.

Project

Magenta Drive — Connected Cars

Duration

12 Months

Role

Sole Designer

Scope

Concept · Wireframes · Prototype · Final UI

Tools

Figma · Adobe XD

Team

5 Front-end Engineers

"I was the only designer on the project — so everything you see, I created myself. From defining the brand and personas, creating flows and wireframes, all the way to final UI designs and the application itself."

The four pillars of my work over 12 months: Understanding the Project → Research → Design Iteration → Plans for the Future.

The Problem

Navigation chaos.
No brand cohesion.
Rising support costs.

T-Mobile's Magenta Drive self-service portal had real problems. Users couldn't find what they needed, the design felt disjointed from T-Mobile's brand, and frustrated customers were calling support instead of solving issues themselves. The business case was clear: fix the experience, reduce support demand.

🧭

Navigation Issues

Users couldn't find core features within the connected cars portal. High dropout rates at key decision points signaled a fundamental information architecture problem.

🎨

Incoherent Design

The existing platform lacked a cohesive visual language. It didn't feel like T-Mobile — creating a trust gap between the main brand and this connected cars experience.

📞

Increased Support Demand

User frustration was driving avoidable support calls. Every call was a cost — and a signal that self-service was failing. The redesign needed to make the platform actually self-sufficient.

🚗

Checkout Friction

The checkout experience for connected car plans was painful: gifting options, multi-location shipping, address validation, and international shopping all had major UX gaps.

My Process

12 months.
Four clear phases.

A year-long project needs structure. I broke the redesign into four phases — each with its own goals, methods, and deliverables. Every phase informed the next.

01

Understanding the Project

Rapid context-gathering. Reviewed existing research, spoke with the team, mapped the current experience, and defined brand attributes and the target audience persona.

Months 1–2

02

Research, Research, Research

Moderated and unmoderated remote testing. Analytics review. Qualitative testing to understand the "why" behind behavior patterns. Established UX research practices from scratch.

Ongoing

03

Design Iteration & Feedback

Cyclical process: design → test → iterate. Worked on checkout, gifting, multi-location shipping, address validation, and international flows in parallel sprints.

Months 3–10

04

Plans for the Future

Final usability testing before launch. Site map for engineers. Post-launch monitoring plan. Established design and research process for future project phases.

Months 11–12

Research Approach

First UX researcher
in the company.

I wasn't just designing — I was establishing research practices that didn't exist yet. I documented everything, shared findings broadly, and built templates so the whole team could contribute to user understanding. This was about building a research culture, not just running tests.

🎙️

Moderated Remote Testing

Live sessions with users to observe behavior in real time and probe the "why" behind decisions. Powerful for catching confusion that analytics can't explain.

📋

Unmoderated Remote Testing

Scaled testing with broader user groups. Validated patterns found in moderated sessions. Used to prioritize what needed fixing before launch.

📊

Analytics Integration

Referenced usage and conversion metrics alongside qualitative findings. Qual told us "where" users struggled — analytics told us "how many" and "how often."

👥

Stakeholder Testing

Pre-launch testing with external customer groups and internal stakeholders who regularly interact with customers. Caught last-mile usability issues before they became support tickets.

Key Learning

I learned the hard way: qualitative testing is essential to understand why users behave the way they do. After months of iterating on analytics alone, I realized I was solving the wrong problem. Qual testing reset the direction.

Research Practice Built

Documented every test with hypotheses, methods, and findings. Created templates for the team. Gave a UX research presentation to lay the foundation. Invited team members to observe live sessions.

Approach to Personas

The team had already spoken to users — so I consolidated existing insights rather than starting from scratch. Smart collaboration beats redundant work every time.

Brand Definition & Strategy Clarify Phase

User Persona Research Synthesis

User Story Mapping Ideate Phase

Trip Planning Flow Core Experience

Design Iteration

Every iteration
earned its changes.

I didn't iterate for the sake of it. Every design change answered a question from research or stakeholder feedback. I ran a mental checklist on every screen before moving forward — and collaborated constantly with engineers to keep designs buildable.

Design Iteration Checklist

Does this line up with past research findings? Never design against what users told us.

Does it follow usability guidelines? Principles exist for a reason.

Will this impact warehouse ops or customer service? Design doesn't live in a vacuum.

Does this fit our project goals? Every screen serves the mission.

Can this be built for MVP? Great design ships. Perfect design doesn't.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Mahesh — Designer

5 Front-end Engineers

Product Manager

Creative Team

Warehouse Ops

Customer Service

Collaborated with engineers to gauge design complexity at every iteration. Coordinated handoff timing with their launch schedule. Worked with the creative team on animations. Got sign-off from warehouse ops and customer service before shipping flows that affected them.

Magenta Drive Wireframes Development Phase

High-Fidelity Screens Design Iteration

User Flow Screens Checkout Experience

Final Implementation Shipped ✓

The Outcome

Goals met.
Process established.

// Primary Result

Increased Conversion Rate + Positive Customer Feedback

The main goal of improving the overall checkout experience was achieved. Customers noticed. The team noticed. And the design and research process we built became the foundation for every project that followed.

📈

Conversion rate increased post-launch

💬

Positive customer feedback received

✅

MVP goals reached on schedule

🔬

UX research practice established company-wide

🧭

Navigation Fixed

Rebuilt the information architecture from the ground up. Users could find what they needed without calling support — which was the whole point.

🎨

Brand Cohesion

Magenta Drive now felt like T-Mobile. Brand consistency restored trust and reduced the "which company am I dealing with?" confusion at checkout.

📐

Process for the Future

The design and research workflow we built didn't end at launch. It became the template for how T-Mobile's team approached product design going forward.

Joined mid-flight.Led the whole redesign.

Navigation chaos.No brand cohesion.Rising support costs.

12 months.Four clear phases.

First UX researcherin the company.