Challenge:

As a client of our Seattle office, T-Mobile is no stranger to our level of service and expertise when it comes to content creation and marketing approaches. That said, T-Mobile Money is the financial product from wireless carrier T-Mobile. While it isn’t an actual bank, T-Mobile Money provides many of the same services that banks do, all through an app/web experience. So when T-Mobile approached our Seattle office with the need for app experience help through their development partner, our office was brought in. At the time, there were a number of pressing UX challenges to be solved as the feature set was being groomed and prioritized. With budget decisions to be determined, T-Mobile also needed guidance on what features would have the greatest impact to the quality of their app.

Solution:

Looking to provide the best quality service to a long standing client, it is important to first understand the team structure and collaboration process. T-Mobile was a client of our Seattle branch, so for everyone’s comfort the project management component would be run from there. Typically, our Seattle office is marketing and content focused, so providing our app design approach and development needs knowledge to their management team was key in keeping schedules on track. Project management aside, T-Mobile does not do their development work in house, rather they utilize a white-label banking product which is then branded from their development partner. In order to best facilitate the work, our team was to be directly engaged with not only T-Mobile, but their development partner in parallel. This collaboration strategy was put into place in order to tackle any challenge quickly as well as not impact a function of the greater white-label product which could in turn impact the development partners’ other customers. Once we had a solid collaboration strategy in place, all teams conducted a kickoff and onboarding to clearly define all requirements and avoid possible design complications. Prior to the start of any feature incorporation, it was important that our design team was focused on reasoning behind all current UX standards. To accomplish this, a deep app audit was conducted, making notes of user paths and noting questions. As part of that audit, a full application map and breakout of state views was also created and populated to the teams’ confluence page. Using the gained understanding, we were then able to create a project timeline schedule that included a full list of deliverables for each new feature. Using the schedule and deliverables information, the team was then able to create a priorities list which guided our team in what features to incorporate into the existing product designs. With each feature set added, our team, the client, and the development partner then reviewed the work and provided approvals. Upon completion of each feature incorporation, an audit and report were composed to measure the impact to the user, ultimately providing proof of a successful effort.

Result:

Having the new feature additions made to the T-Mobile Money app, users were given new and simpler ways to add accounts, manage their money, and review in-app rewards. The app also now integrates seamlessly into both google and apple wallet, as well as has a roadmap for future streamlined experiences. Through our work together, T-Mobile has grown it’s app’s user base and looks to continue that trend long into the future.

Highlights:

One opportunity provided with this project was the design team’s ability to not only provide expert advice, but to work with a completely separate development company dedicated to building their own white-label products to institute some of the app experience improvements. While working with outside service providers was common, our typical project relied on our in-house development team for execution. By working together with the development partner, we were able to not only provide great experience practices but also gain insight into challenges not often faced by our team. It is my belief that we never stop learning, and each hurdle faced only goes to improve our skill sets. Through our collaborative efforts, all parties involved were able to collective solve challenges and provide the client with the keys to their success.