Designing intuitive experiences

AT&T’s Opportunity Marketplace

I led design efforts on AT&T’s The Opportunity Marketplace (TOM), an internal social learning platform that enables employees to connect and collaborate across departments, and to gain practical experience working on projects in target skill areas.

Collaborating with a small cross-functional team, I contributed to the initial release and continued deploying new features and enhancements quarterly over 8 years.

In 2015, AT&T was in the middle of a workforce transformation, preparing employees for technical jobs of the future. We set out to address multiple challanges people were encountering at the time: bridging the gap between learning and practical application of skills, fostering collaboration across corporate silos, and supporting internal hiring.

As the sole designer for much of my time on the team, I had to provide quality solutions quickly across multiple projects. I relied heavily on established design systems, market research, heuristic evaluation, and informal testing to ensure a baseline level of quality. Recurring satisfaction surveys served as an important feedback loop to gather insights and drive new development.

The Opportunity Marketplace (TOM) was released in 2016 to enable AT&T’s labor strategy. Key features included an internal freelance services marketplace (think Fiverr or Upwork), social networking capabilities (like LinkedIn), and focused messaging to drive a culture of continuous learning and development.

“We are very fortunate to have Mathew as our designer. I can’t stress enough how valuable his skills are, not just to TOM, but to AT&T. He is doing a wonderful job and is an irreplaceable asset to the team. His work is crisp, clean, and professional. I’m proud to have Mathew on the team.“

Asifa Alisic

Requirements Manager at AT&T

“Mathew has become the go-to designer on our team. He is often commended for his approachable, can-do demeanor. I’m very happy he’s on the team. He always has a positive attitude and he does a fantastic job working with everyone. I look forward to everything Mathew will accomplish.“

Mike Lemen

Associate Director of Technology at AT&T

CREDITS

Product Owners: Mike Lemen, David Brown, Betzalel Anolick, Thomas Pepe Product Owner Delegates: Amir Alisic, Asifa Alisic, Mark Burns Scrum Masters: Angie Fisher, Wendy Young, Katie Wiseman Software Engineers: Bryan Strassner, Thomas Barker, Nathan Edwards, Gavin Bedell, Giannis Fikas, Drew Schnagl, Vidal Uson, Natalie Yu, Marli Wickliff, Kyle Hawk and many, many others…

AT&T’s Personal Learning Experience

The Personal Learning Experience (PLE) is AT&T’s internal learning managmenet system. My collaboration with the team started in 2016, when I helped to design new features for an upcoming major release.

An updated PLE was released in February of 2017 to AT&T’s over 250,000 employees. The updates were well received, with our client team going on to win a Gold Stevie Award for Human Resources Team of the Year. I took on the role of lead designer that same year, working independently or supporting the work of 1-2 junior designers at any given time.

I continued to lead the design of PLE for 7 years, collaborating with the team to deploy five major releases annually.

In 2019, I was asked to redesign the application from the ground up. Leadership was considering third-party solutions and wanted to see our team’s vision for the future of PLE. I tackled the bulk of the redesign, collaborating with key stakeholders to include desired functionality and enhancements. Our ultimate goal was to present a streamlined, competitive solution, showcasing AT&T’s dedication to employee development.

I conducted extensive market research and facilitated focus groups for user feedback. User interviews were conducted across multiple user groups to validate our solution. Ultimately, the redesign was a success, garnering buy-in from our client’s leadership team and enabling us to continue developing PLE. We continued to enhance the platform over time, eventually winning a Silver Stevie Award in 2023 for Achievement in Online Training.

“Mathew creates designs for the Personal Learning Experience (PLE) that are clear and intuitive, enabling people to quickly find the training they need to be more effective in their work. His work has already greatly improved the user experience for tens of thousands of PLE users every day. Utilizing a design thinking methodology, he conducts surveys, usability testing, and market research. He also uses his background as a software engineer to assist developers, ensuring the end product meets the highest standard for our users. Mathew embodies our company culture every day with his passion for user-centered design.“

Betzalel Anolick

Associate Director of Technology at AT&T

CREDITS

Product Owners: Mike Lemen, David Brown, Betzalel Anolick, Thomas Pepe Product Owner Delegates: Amir Alisic, Mariah Moscketti, Monsurat Bello Scrum Masters: Jessica Goodwin Designers: Andre Jolivette, Arnold Rosario, Cassidy Treiber, Yoon Kim, Jessalyn Cheng Testers: Bilkis Kahn Software Engineers: Michael Maher, Scott Lewis, Tyler Ryan, Jeremiah Rohwedder, Rama Raychoti, Kyle Gifaldi, Drew Schnagl, Vidal Uson, Natalie Yu and many, many others…