On-Demand Services
Jun 20, 2025
Service Marketplace
Pocket Wrench began as an early-stage product concept developed in collaboration with founders based in Tampa, Florida, where long commutes and car-dependent lifestyles make vehicle maintenance a frequent frustration. The founders had a clear intuition: people spend too much time waiting at repair shops for routine services that don’t actually require a physical garage. My role focused on shaping the product from the ground up starting with discovery, market research, and UX strategy before moving into interface design. Early work centered on understanding user pain points, evaluating existing competitors, and helping the founders clarify how the product could realistically fit into both users’ lives and the broader automotive services market.
Through interviews, persona development, and scenario testing, we identified busy professionals and families as the most viable initial audience. These users have limited time and are high motivation to avoid wasting time at traditional repair shops. This research directly informed key product decisions, including intentionally limiting early offerings to essential, repeatable services such as fluid changes, brake work, tire services, and roadside assistance. Avoiding complex or high-risk repairs helped keep the experience focused, scalable, and operationally realistic. From there, I designed and iterated on the core user flows across multiple service types, continuously refining the experience through usability testing and close collaboration with the founders.
I designed and prototyped the full end-to-end experience, covering service selection, location confirmation, mechanic profiles and ratings, scheduling, pricing clarity, and checkout. Alongside UX and visual design, I also supported early brand decisions, helping establish a cohesive look and feel that aligned with the product’s positioning. The result was a polished, investor-ready prototype that the founders could confidently use for pitch competitions and funding conversations. Pocket Wrench was a six-month engagement that blended UX strategy, business thinking, and hands-on design, and remains a strong example of my ability to collaborate with founders and translate early ideas into a clear, testable product vision.
