5 years revamping OLX Motors’ UX
Executive Summary
The company
A Prosus’ company (AMS: PRX), OLX Motors Europe serves tens of millions of people buying and selling new and used cars every month. It holds #1 position in all its markets, growing 24% yoy, and bringing over $320M in ARR.
The problem
Despite OLX Motors’ undisputed commercial success, its product experience, specially on mobile, presented significant usability issues hurting core user flows and product scalability limitations hindering business growth.
My role
As Motors’ design leader between 2019-2025, I overcame internal resistance, brought cross-functional leaders to co-create a new product vision, crafted a UX strategy for a full product redesign, and steered it from concept to reality.
Impact so far (more to come in 2025+)
144% Higher App usage on B2B side.
93% Uplift on B2B daily engagement.
30% Higher B2C revenue.
28% Higher B2C search and filtering conversion.
The problem
Despite OLX Motors’ undisputed commercial success, multiple user research and analytics reports showed significant usability and product scalability issues hurting the business growth of the marketplace.
... more
The old product interface struggled with issues such as low success rates on core jobs to be done, poor mobile experience (with 40%+ non-responsive pages), confusing navigation, information overload, intrusive third party advertising, and more.
Approach
At joining the team, I addressed stakeholders' low UX awareness and undervaluation of design by building trusted relationships with them, opening doors for my team to demonstrate real impact.
First, by evidencing with data how the old UX hindered business growth. Later, by envisioning an improved product for users and the business.
Through hundreds of data analysis, prototypes, user tests and experiments, together with my team we secured buy-in, built cross-functional alignment, and launched a multi-year vision for redesigning the product.
Over 5 years of a true transformational journey, my team and I conducted extensive research and data assessments, crafted 200+ prototypes, run 30+ workshops with stakeholders, from associates to GMs and C-level, and put forward dozens of business cases for redesigning several product areas.
The Vision
Today, the experience vision is fully embraced by the company. Following its guidance, area by area the product is being revamped.
These are just a few designs out of 100+ structural and visual changes revamping the product's information architecture, navigation, visual language, user dashboards, personalization journeys and more.
Impact
The deployed redesigned areas have delivered a far better user experience and impressive business outcomes.
Higher usage of key B2B features on Apps
Uplift on B2B daily engagement on Apps
Higher B2C revenue
Higher B2C search and filtering conversion
“Whether crafting visionary strategies or driving impactful day-to-day results, Victor consistently delivers with excellence, focus, and a collaborative spirit”
VP of Product
“Under his guidance, we built and scaled a strong design organization and culture that delivers real impact to the business. None of this would have been possible without his vision, mentorship, and genuine care”
Head of Design
"The impact Victor had on the design team at OLX is undeniable. He dedicated every second of his time to ensuring Design had a seat at the leadership table—not as an afterthought, but as an essential, equal function, shaping vision and strategy alongside other teams."
Senior Product Designer
“When I saw the outcome I got a huge energy bump. You went through a lot of hard work, feedback, iterations and I am glad the process was not that straightforward, as the outcome is really great.”
OLX CEO at the time
Credits
Research and new designs crafted by Ana Simões, Ana Fazendeiro, André Dinis, Neuza Neves, Paulo Costa, Ed Ulrich, Iwona Szatkowska, Francisco Medina, José Ferreira, Mafalda Sequeira, Marta Costa, Guilherme Lobo, Miguel Santana, Florência Reyna, Gualter Amaro, Ruan Teles, Joana Miranda.
