Scaling Uganda's Largest Telecom App
Redesigning the journeys millions of customers rely on every day.
For many customers, the MyMTN app was the fastest way to buy data, manage their account and access digital services. Over time, however, the experience had become fragmented. New features were added faster than existing journeys were simplified, leaving common tasks harder to complete than they needed to be.
As Product & UX Lead, I worked with product managers, engineers and business stakeholders to redesign the app's highest-impact customer journeys. Rather than redesigning the entire product, we focused on the interactions customers used most often, reducing friction, improving transaction confidence and creating a more scalable foundation for future growth.
One insight shaped the entire project:
I started by believing navigation was the biggest usability problem. After reviewing customer journeys and testing key flows, it became clear that users generally knew where they wanted to go. What slowed them down was the number of steps, unclear transaction feedback and uncertainty during critical financial actions. The redesign shifted from improving navigation to reducing decision-making throughout the experience.
The Challenge
The MyMTN app had evolved into a collection of telecom and financial services with different interaction patterns and inconsistent user journeys.
Customers frequently encountered:
Long purchase flows for everyday tasks
Unclear confirmation during financial transactions
Inconsistent navigation across services
Friction introduced by legacy platform limitations
For the business, these challenges affected more than usability. Data bundle purchases are one of the app's most valuable customer journeys, making every abandoned transaction and support request a direct operational concern.
The challenge wasn't simply to modernise the interface.
It was to improve customer experience without disrupting a complex enterprise platform.
Design Constraints
Like many enterprise products, every design decision had technical trade-offs.
The redesign had to work within:
Legacy backend architecture with rigid APIs
Existing engineering dependencies
Tight delivery timelines
Cross-functional stakeholder requirements
Critical telecom and financial services that couldn't afford disruption
Instead of designing the ideal experience, I focused on creating the best possible experience within real-world technical constraints.
Design Strategy
Prioritising the journeys that mattered most
Rather than redesigning every screen, we identified the customer journeys with the greatest impact on both user experience and business outcomes.
These included:
Buying data bundles
Purchasing airtime
Viewing account balances
Completing transactions
Concentrating on high-frequency actions allowed us to improve the experience where customers interacted with the product most.
Reducing unnecessary decisions
The original bundle purchase journey required customers to move through multiple screens before completing a simple purchase.
Instead of adding new functionality, I simplified the existing flow by reducing unnecessary decisions, improving information hierarchy and revealing information only when it became relevant.
The bundle purchase journey was reduced from five steps to three, making the experience feel faster without removing essential information.
Design Decisions & Trade-offs
Some improvements that seemed straightforward weren't technically possible.
Certain screens remained separate because of backend dependencies, while real-time validation was limited by existing infrastructure.
Instead of forcing a complete redesign, we focused on improvements that delivered the greatest customer value while maintaining platform stability.
This project reinforced an important lesson:
Good product design isn't always about creating the ideal experience. Sometimes it's about making thoughtful improvements within complex technical realities.
Reflection
This project changed how I think about enterprise product design.
I began believing the interface needed better navigation.
By the end of the project, I realised customers weren't struggling to find features. They were struggling to complete important tasks with confidence.
That insight changed the direction of the redesign.
Instead of focusing on visual organisation alone, every design decision centred on reducing friction, simplifying decisions and making high-value customer journeys feel more predictable.
It reinforced a principle I continue to apply today:
The best product experiences don't ask users to think harder. They help them move forward with confidence.
Lets
design
build
create
incredible work together.
waymakandrew@gmail.com
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