2024Construction / PropTech
Construction Tech Platform
Five roles. One data backbone. A multi-party construction platform built for the Japanese market.
- UI/UX Design
- Product Strategy
Designing BTAXI — A Ride-Hailing Ecosystem for Cambodia.
Led product design and project coordination for a full ride-hailing ecosystem — Rider App, Driver App, and Admin Panel — built for the Cambodian market. Managed the team, shaped product strategy, and executed localization from the ground up.
[01]IMPACT & SUMMARY_
3 APPS DELIVERED. iOS RELEASE BLOCKED BY CLIENT ACCOUNT STATUS.
Project Status
Handoff Ready
Rider App, Driver App, Admin Panel fully delivered to devs
iOS Pending
Blocked by client-side Apple Developer registration
Designed and coordinated the end-to-end delivery of a full ride-hailing ecosystem for the Cambodian market. While Android builds are testable, final iOS product acceptance is currently paused pending client-side corporate registration with Apple.
Executive Summary
- The Challenge: Launching a triple-surface ecosystem (Rider, Driver, Admin) for a multilingual market on a bootstrapped startup budget, without legal access to local banking APIs (ABA Bank).
- The Solution: Pivoted from a high-risk custom build to utilizing pre-built GPS infrastructure, redirecting design resources into deep localized UX and smart manual payment workarounds.
- My Role: Dual-hatted as Lead Product Designer and Project Manager—owning the full design lifecycle while coordinating cross-functional engineering timelines.
[02]THE PROBLEM_
THE PROBLEM
ONE MARKET. THREE APPS. NO ROOM FOR OVERENGINEERING.
An early-stage ride-hailing startup cannot afford to build core navigation and booking infrastructure from scratch. Furthermore, strict regulatory and legal blocks prevented the integration of Cambodia’s primary payment gateway (ABA Bank) for the MVP stage.
[03]DISCOVERY & APPROACH_
DISCOVERY & APPROACH
COMMODITIZING CODE TO PROTECT THE RUNWAY.
As Project Manager, I enforced a ruthless MVP strategy: treating GPS and booking engines as commodities by using pre-built source code. This critical decision saved the budget and allowed us to focus entirely on local trust and script validation.
Technical Adaptation
- Typography Optimization: Specially tuned Noto Sans Khmer to eliminate character stacking failures on low-mid tier Android hardware.
- Visual Localization: Designed custom tuk-tuk iconography to establish instant cultural familiarity over generic car assets.
- Workaround Architecture: Sidestepped the banking API restriction by engineering a semi-manual QR top-up flow utilizing user screenshot verification.
[04]KEY OUTCOMES_
KEY OUTCOMES
LEAN INFRASTRUCTURE. PRODUCTION READY.
Independent Product Consultant — contracted directly by the founders to architect the ecosystem. Operating outside a traditional agency structure required extreme autonomy, forcing me to dual-hat as both Lead Designer and Project Manager.
As designer: Owned UX/UI across all three surfaces (Rider, Driver, Admin), executing highly technical localization decisions for Khmer script.
As PM: Coordinated the external dev team, enforced the lean MVP strategy, and managed client expectations to shift the project from a high-risk custom build to a viable market-ready product
[05]Reflection_
Reflection
01
Invest Selectively: Use pre-built infrastructure for commodity functions; reserve bespoke design energy exclusively for localized differentiation.
02
Script is Technical: Localization is not just text translation. Handling complex scripts on lower-end devices requires deep layout stress-testing.
03
Administrative Risks Are Real: Client-side legal and account blockers can stall a project just as fast as technical bugs. Product designers must anticipate external operational dependencies.