DriveLine AI

DriveLine AI: Location Intelligence Platform

DriveLine AI was a Central Florida ad tech company building a location intelligence platform for automotive dealerships and marketing agencies. The platform used real-time geolocation data to deliver targeted ad campaigns and foot traffic reporting. I joined as a Product Design Consultant and worked across three distinct phases over two years.

6 weeks · 2021

DriveLine needed a working MVP to validate the product and pitch investors. I worked directly with the CTO in a fully async collaboration, no meetings, no standups, just a Slack design stream and daily momentum.

The scope covered user flows, information architecture, geo-fencing map UI, report builder, and a reusable component library built for developer handoff in Zeplin.

The MVP shipped on schedule. DriveLine used the designs to secure $1M+ in venture funding and onboard their first customers including Cold Stone, Pinkberry, Baja Fresh, and Universal Studios. Customer base grew 1100% following launch.

Dev hours saved: 60-70 hrs

Rework cycles avoided: 0 post-handoff interruptions

First-pass alignment: 90%+ with 1-2 revisions to sign-off

Client satisfaction: 4.8/5

8 weeks · 2022

Following the MVP success, DriveLine shifted focus toward power users and advanced data visualization. The brief became ambiguous, the team was exploring solutions without a clear problem to anchor them. Concepts included a heat mapping component and advanced audience segmentation tools, none of which reached production.

The team also expanded during this phase, adding developers including a frontend engineer based in Ukraine during a period of significant instability. The frontend/backend skill mismatch created daily dev callbacks and required multiple design walkthrough workshops. Meetings increased. Design output did not.

Zero designs from this phase were implemented.

Dev hours saved: Negative, daily callbacks added overhead

Rework cycles: 8-10+ meaningful interruptions across 8 weeks

First-pass alignment: 50-60%, multiple walkthroughs before resolution

Client satisfaction: 3.5/5

12 weeks · 2022-2023

A new Product Manager joined the team and took ownership of the product direction. Weekly 1:1s were introduced alongside structured Figma review cycles. Each major feature, Admin Dashboard, POI Manager, Geo-fence UI, generated 40-50 Figma comments requiring full resolution before any forward movement.

Comment resolution became its own iteration cycle. Features that should have taken one week took two. The feedback loop was unstructured and the sign-off criteria were never clearly defined. Design velocity slowed significantly and the bottleneck was misattributed to design output rather than the feedback process itself.

Engineering eventually moved forward independently. None of the V1 designs shipped into production.

Dev hours saved: Negative, comment overhead consumed sprint capacity

Rework cycles: 6+ full cycles across 3 features

First-pass alignment: 40-50%, PM feedback layer required constant re-alignment

Client satisfaction: 3.5/5

DriveLine dissolved in 2024. The MVP we built together remains one of the cleanest engagements of my career. The phases that followed are an honest record of what happens when product discipline breaks down as a team scales. Same designer. Different conditions. Different outcomes. That distinction is what these metrics are for.