Context

Metro by T-Mobile is T-Mobile’s largest prepaid brand, serving a value-driven, mobile-first customer base. I lead design for the Metro web experience—including authenticated service and e-commerce flows. Since our team merged with the Metro App team, I’ve contributed to app flows, collaborated with app leadership, and supported cross-platform alignment by sharing brand context, connecting the right people, and facilitating design workshops across the unified team.

Our customers

Metro customers are primarily mobile-first, price-conscious users who often rely on flexible payment options. With 80% of users on mobile web and a high rate of phone number turnover, it's common for accounts to be closed and reopened without penalty—offering users financial flexibility that’s critical to their needs.

The majority of Metro’s 1.8M monthly payments are "Pay as Guest" transactions, often made using voucher PINs—prepaid cards purchased in retail stores like Walmart. These behaviors reflect a need for simplicity, anonymity, and accessibility.

Compared to Postpaid customers, Metro users tend to be:

  • Lower income and credit tier

  • Less likely to be married (1–2 lines per account)

  • Older, less digitally fluent, and more financially strained

  • More likely to use lower-tier Android devices

Despite overlapping behavior, Metro and Prepaid attract different customer profiles. Prepaid users are typically older, higher income, and more educated, reinforcing the importance of maintaining both brands to meet the needs of distinct user groups.

User research has defined three shared customer archetypes across Metro and Prepaid:

  • The Practical

  • The Phone-First

  • The Busy

Across all groups, the biggest pain points center on account access and management, followed by payments—issues that represent both risk and opportunity. While some challenges stem from systems or business limitations, many are resolvable through UX improvements.

What makes my time on Metro unique?

In the 4 years I’ve worked on Metro,

  • The team has grown to 10 designers and shrunk to just me.

  • I’ve spent time building & establishing new relationships with Product, Engineering, & Marketing.

  • While working on other T-Mobile products, I still oversee Metro and am available for consultation & review as the subject matter expert.

Key skills

My role

I’ve been lead designer and responsible for all experiences and cohesion on the Metro Service web experience since I joined T-Mobile in 2021; driving design quality, mentoring teammates, and ensuring consistency across flows. Throughout that time I’ve contributed to e-commerce web work, and in September 2024, I fully took over ownership as team needs evolved. Today, I lead both sides of the experience, shaping how Metro shows up for its customers end to end.

How I’ve mentored

I’ve had the opportunity to mentor not just designers, but also product managers and engineers throughout my time on Metro. It’s been a key part of my growth as a leader — evolving from onboarding and delegation into building a stronger, more collaborative design culture across the organization.

 

Designers

My growth working with other designers has been a journey from onboarding, to delegating, to mentoring.

I view this distinction as a journey from sharing resources, to assigning & reviewing work, to creating a dynamic design culture.

Mentoring a designer looks like:

  • Extending support at a holistic design level

  • Meeting the designers where they are at

  • Taking feedback & creating new process

  • Scheduling reviews & workshops

  • Creating a culture where designers learn from & support each other

  • Fun & engaging design activities

  • Discussing design trends & learnings separate from work

For me, mentoring designers isn’t just about reviewing files — it’s about creating a team culture where people feel supported, challenged, and continuously learning.

 

Product

We often think of mentoring as just other designers, but I’ve done a lot of mentoring with our product partners on how to work with UX and understand our significance. When I joined Metro, the service side product team was new to working with UX. In addition to designing flows, I used stakeholder meetings as opportunities to coach product on involving UX earlier, giving structured feedback, and understanding our role in driving clarity and user advocacy.

One example: I worked closely with a service PM who initially dominated design reviews with stream-of-consciousness feedback. Through gentle reminders in meetings and a direct 1:1 conversation, I helped establish better collaboration norms. Over time, he became a trusted partner and vocal UX advocate—actively participating in stakeholder workshops and helping socialize our work across the org.

This relationship deepened my understanding of product’s business drivers, which helped me shape stronger cross-functional strategies on future projects.

 

Engineers

Mentoring engineers has been less about direct instruction and more about building better ways of working together. I’ve tried creating Slack channels, Figma walkthroughs, and redline documentation — some of which gained traction, and some that didn’t stick.

The most meaningful shift came when I approached devs directly and asked: What makes working with UX hard? That honest feedback unlocked so much — helping me better understand backend limitations and how to design around them. It also helped me identify the devs who wanted to partner more closely with design, including those who later joined my stakeholder workshop for Guest Payments.

I’ve learned that mentoring engineers often means listening first, then designing better communication systems that work for both sides. I’m still iterating on this, but the traction is real — and growing.

 

Challenges

Product collaboration

Main challenge: Projects frequently paused midstream due to unclear scope or shifting priorities.
Solution: I introduced project tracking and roadmaps to give visibility into status, and began defining scope upfront to reduce ambiguity and align earlier.

Ongoing issues: A lack of clarity, inconsistent intake, and limited transparency.
Ongoing response: I continuously reinforce the value of structured intake, advocate for early alignment, and create space for more transparent cross-functional planning.

Engineering collaboration

Main challenge: Technical limitations of the backend and biller frequently restrict what’s possible.
Solution: I created and maintained a prioritized backlog to capture updates and improvements as dev capacity allows.

Ongoing issues: Engineers are sometimes unengaged or unresponsive in early stages.
Ongoing response: I’ve invested in increased communication, including 1:1 outreach and asking devs to share specific UX pain points—building empathy and surfacing technical insights that improve our collaboration.