MY ROLE
Product Design Intern
COMPANY
TIMELINE
Jun 2025 – Aug 2025
I worked in Digital Merchandizing Experience
PRODUCT TEAM
The Digital Merchandizing Experience team (DMX) is one of CarMax’s product teams who’s mission is to bring CarMax’s lot to life online.
They do so using the Car Details Page(CDP)
This page is viewed by both CarMax associates and customers serving as one of the most visited pages on carmax.com with millions of viewers per week.
Today, CarMax has a one size fits all experience
THE PROBLEM
These car pages are the exact same even though these vehicles are so different. It’s in those differences that there is an opportunity to craft an iconic, best-in-class merchandizing experience where one size doesn’t fit all.
I focused on Electric Vehicles & Pickup Trucks
DEFINE SCOPE
There are significant gaps in lead submit rate or progression conversion between EV and truck page viewers when compared to similar customer populations. If we can close those gaps by just 5% each, that would represent a $9.5M annual opportunity for CarMax.
Used several channels to learn about customers
DISCOVERY
Had 10 customer interviews
Did 50 user tests with prototypes using UserTesting
Released several surveys using Ethnio
8 interviews with CarMax associates
Performed a competitive analysis
Studied behavioral data on carmax.com using FullStory
On the EV side
"I don't know if I'm looking at apples to apples when seeing an EV versus a gas car." - EV Shopper
“I'm always educating EV customers about everything they need to know.” - Sales Associate
On the truck side
"I just bought a piece of land and needed a truck to haul lumber to build my home, but I also had a camper and wanted to tow while traveling." - Truck Shopper
Pickup truck shoppers buy tucks for specific jobs.
IDEATION
Needed solutions that empowered customers
After seeing how manufacturers do this best, I got ideas on paper.
Tested these solutions fast using AI workflow
ITERATION
I used Chat GPT to synthesis the discovery findings and engineer prompts to then feed into Figma Make which created fully interactive designs that were ready to test on User Testing to gather feedback and iterate fast.
After iterating on these tests, I created high fidelity prototypes on Figma.
We wanted to test this live on carmax.com
FEASIBILITY
So we partnered with our stakeholders to manage the legal side, work around data, and build a test quickly.
Given the short time frame and data availability constraints we made a major feasibility trade off…
After focusing on trucks and several design jams with CarMax’s product team, we were…
Ready for lift-off.
For the first time ever…
LIFT-OFF
We tested a vehicle specific car page on carmax.com.
This new truck specific content includes three highlighted truck specs along with a carousel of cards displaying truck specific information to help the customer decide if this is the right truck for their job.
This ran as a 50/50 A/B test along with an intercepting Ethnio survey to see what more do truck shoppers want.
With this test we hope to learn…
High engagement and positive results
WHAT WE’RE SEEING
WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE SAYING
Great feedback directly from customers
This customer interview is from an Ethnio intercept paired along with their live Fullstory session.
The customer is a a truck shopper who landed in the test group of the A/B test
In the survey, we asked customers what information matters most in their purchasing decision. Features & Specs rose to the top, with 49 unique shoppers leaving comments detailing specific truck capability wants.
NEXT STEPS
Documented all the work for the team & future
We started exploring and documenting improvements within the first week of the test.
And don’t worry the electric vehicles weren’t forgotten.
THANKS FOR READING
