Vodafone Subscription Marketplace
UX/UI Case Study
Project Brief
In order to further increase their reach within the telecommunications and entertainment industry, Vodafone began working on a strategy to streamline and consolidate the way their customers consume digital services. A huge increase in the purchase of digital subscriptions within the last two years had created a need for customers to be able to effectively manage an increasing number of monthly bills. Vodafone saw this as an extremely valuable business opportunity to be able to provide their customers with a ‘one stop shop’ for subscribing to and managing their digital services all through one hub with one Vodafone bill.
User Research
Meetings were conducted with stakeholders to align with corporate vision and ensure the value proposition was effective enough. Research was conducted in order to understand what customers prioritised when choosing to purchase a digital subscription.
Consumer Priorities
With the wider team it was also discussed how we could provide added value to the proposed offer and create a unique selling point. Potential content providers were analysed to gain an understanding of current promotional offers and how they could be combined to provide greater savings.
Research was also conducted in order to evaluate the requirements of customers and what they felt was missing from current solutions. A number of participants were asked numerous questions based around their decision making process when purchasing subscriptions and where they felt the customer experience needed improvements.
Household Segments accross Vodafone EU4 markets
Italy
Great Britain
Germany
An analysis of digital content providers was carried out in order to understand target markets and further grasp their individual requirements. From the findings we were able to create hypotheses around the types of digital content which would appeal to specific target audiences and adapt strategies accordingly.
Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis was key to understanding the benefits and limitations of the current digital landscape. Similar platforms were evaluated based on the effectiveness of their user journeys, content and overall value proposition. This allowed us to identify gaps in the market and present an experience to the customer that was yet to be achieved.
How We Might
The How We Might technique was employed to delve deeper into how we could develop a best-in-class product that stood out from competition. Numerous factors were analysed in order to find ways to increase value from both a customer and a partner point of view. It was discussed how strategically placed content promotion could appeal to audiences and drive conversions for partners. It was also considered how we would go about consolidating bills from various different partner subscriptions into one user friendly mobile bill that could be managed from the subscription marketplace platform.
How we might create value for consumers to benefit from the subscription marketplace
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Regular turnover of content offers so this needs to be refreshed on a regular basis
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Discount on offers, or Vodafone credit to be used elsewhere
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Get customers to return by integrating with MVA or finding a way to book mark url to phone
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Customer needs to know there is seasonal offers, like offer of the month, or daily offers
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If a customer did not finalize the activation journey - go and remind them what they can have for the future
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Consolidated billing & simplified sign-up flow
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Customer should get recommendations related to offer as well. If they have Netflix, they should know what to watch on Netflix.
How we might create value for consumers to benefit from the subscription marketplace
-
Regular turnover of content offers so this needs to be refreshed on a regular basis
-
Discount on offers, or Vodafone credit to be used elsewhere
-
Get customers to return by integrating with MVA or finding a way to book mark url to phone
-
Customer needs to know there is seasonal offers, like offer of the month, or daily offers
-
If a customer did not finalize the activation journey - go and remind them what they can have for the future
-
Consolidated billing & simplified sign-up flow
-
Customer should get recommendations related to offer as well. If they have Netflix, they should know what to watch on Netflix.
How we might create value for digital content providers
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Integrate marketplace into the initial customer device set-up journey
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Have a portfolio of credible partners to provide a case study
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Offer attractive commercials for initial 12 months in order for us to establish base - 1 year free!
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Allow them to tailor who sees their offer
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Provide good reporting
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Simple contracting approach
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We have the billing relationship, customer relationship, distribution channel (retail) and network to help partners bring their services to market.
How we might differentiate from other leading subscription providers
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Subscribe longer or to several offers and save more (flexible offers)
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Cover all key content categories (i.e. music, movies, gaming, spots, fitness, reading etc)
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Keep optimising the home page based on performance
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User ratings
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Lifestyle questions to understand more about the customer
Customer Journey Development
After establishing a strong enough value proposition and gathering an in depth understanding of the target demographics, initial customer journey maps were mocked up. This allowed for a further understanding of how the customer would typically be aquired and their potential conversion process. Journeys were assessed and broken down into advantages and disadvantages to allow for potential improvements.
Initial customer journeys also served the purpose of understanding where Vodafone would need to intervene in order to communicate with the customer and the accompanying technical limitations. Numerous calls with stakeholders and the backend team were required in order to recognize what was feasible and realistic for the MVP.
After a number of revisions following an in depth feasibility assessment, a typical customer journey was outlined to present to stakeholders and illustrate how users would go from discovery to conversion. The journey highlighted the customers ability to combine subscriptions from different partners in order to achieve discounts through Vodafone.
User Flow
Once the typical customer journey had been defined and approved by stakeholders, a user flow for the subscription activation process was outlined. This included potential entry points, login processes and redirection to partner sites in order to activate subscriptions. A cancellation user flow was also defined in order to illustrate the process of a customer cancelling a subscription.
Lo-Fi Wireframes
Once the typical customer journey had been defined and approved by stakeholders, a user flow for the subscription activation process was outlined. This included potential entry points, login processes and redirection to partner sites in order to activate subscriptions. A cancellation user flow was also defined in order to illustrate the process of a customer cancelling a subscription.
Iterated designs (After stakeholder meetings)
User Testing
User testing was conducted via UserZoom which allowed us to watch and listen while users interacted with the prototype. All participants were encouraged to talk through their thought process at each stage which gave us the opportunity to see how they interpreted key elements like navigation and language. Specific tasks allowed us to gain feedback on features we were previously unsure on, while A/B testing provided us with actionable results.
A mix of qualitative and quantitative data was collected and drafted in to a results document along with a number of pain points/recommended actionable changes to be presented to stakeholders.
In order to validate ideas and justify design decisions, user testing was carried out which allowed us to develop an insight into how customers interpreted the proposition. One of the main goals of the user testing session was to gather users’ first impressions of the proposed idea. Another essential goal was to evaluate the user experience of the key journeys within the platform.
A test plan was put together in order to align stakeholders with key testing points and ensure success factors were defined. The test plan also served to provide information regarding the method, target audience and user tasks.
Designs
