Enabling connectivity for everyone with
‍Superhero Program

PRODUCT DESIGN • RESEARCH

Introduction

Airtel is the second largest telecommunication service provider in India with a subscriber base of 321 million. A brand that touches 2 in every 3 new mobile customers in the country.* In 2020, I worked with the acquisition team to create a channel for making telecom reach people in need.

*data as per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Sep 2020 – Feb 2021

We created a digital experience enabling existing customers, shop-front partners and employees help their connections with Airtel's services. They were labelled as 'Superhero' for others.

My role
Team
Timeline

Design: Conceptual product development, UX concepts, Visual Design, Prototyping
‍
Research: Co-designed research plan; conducted interviews and synthesized research

Design: Vatsala Mehra, Preiyal Bhalla, Sourav Sarkar
‍
Research: Srishti Mehrotra, Avinash, Neha
‍
2+ Product managers

July 2020 - August 2020

Overview of the program
Jump to solution ↓

Problem

A large chunk of Airtel's customers walk into retail stores for most services, e.g. a simple prepaid recharge. Due to covid lockdown; customers had no avenue to service their telecom needs, hence, we were losing them.

Moreover, in June 2020, digital experience also started breaking and 91% of the Superheroes' activity was decreasing. They went from helping their communities to only immediate family and friends.

The Users of Superhero

For the MVP, my role focussed on targeting the majority contributors, i.e., regular customers and partners.

Key Takeaways from primary qualitative
research

To examine the severity of Superhero’s decreased activity, my team partnered with a research consultancy BIAS from New Delhi to conduct a qualitative research, interviewing ~30 participants enrolled in the program.

  • Most users reside in tier 2 (developing) cities and small towns or rural villages. Only some reside in tier 1 (urban) cities.
  • For partners, rewards over recharges was an avenue for earning, since their regular stream of livelihood was impacted due to the Covid lockdown.
  • For regular customers, help was initiated on account of family-oriented responsibilities. Reward intention played faintly for them.
  • Explicit tag of being a ‘Superhero’ as well as earning through rewards was the motivation for many.
  • All users required transparency from in exchange of their significant time and effort.

Breakdown of the problem

🏆 Less rewarding

Superheroes were dropping off due to insufficient discounts. Specially, for our shop-front partners who wished to earn an extra salary.

🥱 Boring and spammy

Superheroes often forgot to come back to it. Moreover, daily reminders from Airtel was spamming their inboxes.

☹️ Effort intensive

Information about the program was disjointed and spread across multiple touch-points on the app.

problem statement

I devised a problem statement which will target the program's ease of use, Superheroes' interest in helping others and their involvement in the program.

How might we motivate a Superhero to help his extended connections with all telecom services.

Design Goals

Experience review with participants allowed us to streamline our focus areas.

Simplicity

Cut the clutter. Focus on enabling Superheroes complete their helping tasks quickly.

Engagement

For Superhero to keep coming back to the program, he/she has to be actively involved.
E.g. engaging UX copy.

Motivation

Create desire within Superheroes to help others.
E.g. Highlight altruism and monetary benefits, since they serve as task starters.

Stakeholder Goals

  • Increase customer base, i.e. >2 acquisitions per a Superhero: Superheroes were majorly in small towns and cities - where people live in communities. Therefore, it was incredibly possible to leverage community aspect to expand our audience.
  • Expansion of services: Monetize on the existing customer behavior and let Superheroes help others with all telecom services in the program.

Concepts we created and tested

Enabling Superheroes to service all telecom needs like postpaid, DTH (Direct-to-home television) & broadband on top of prepaid recharge for their connections. We also addressed a strong need for incentives, and decided to give rewards ranging from Rs. 10 - Rs. 50 on each help a Superhero does for others.  
‍
My team conducted first sprint to devise two concepts that addressed pain points from the primary research. During the second sprint, we conducted a usability testing with hi-fi prototypes to recognize our Superheroes' affinity towards one of the two concepts.
Concept 1: Focus on Intent
Why intent? So that superheros complete tasks quickly > leading to faster acquisitions.

Allows users to complete helping tasks within a few clicks with overall focus on task completion. Provides concise and true information throughout the journey; with simple visual design.
Concept 2: Focus on Motivation
Why motivation? So that superheros are motivated bring a superhero > so that program isn’t mundane and shows a purpose with being a Superhero.

As suggested by insights, this concept uses altruism and monetary rewards at multiple touchpoints in the user journey. Guide the users, just as a real 'Superhero' would do; with an elaborate visual design.

Remote Usability Testing Results

→Users like being called ‘Superheroes’

→Users actually want to help people

→Users want rewards too

UT suggested that concept 2 was preferred by users; since it re-iterated the tag of being a ‘Superhero’.

To our surprise, altruism was
a greater cause for most users to enroll in the program than reward.

Some users did show excitement around rewards, and were likely to help people, given adequate rewards.

Users speak: Pride matters

Post testing, we adopted the PET design tools, to include persuasion, emotion and trust elements into the experience. These tools also helped us tap into the humanitarian side of Superheros by making them feel “proud” about their actions.
Incredibly grateful to my team for introducing me to research, testing and PET analysis process. See our UT and analysis report.

Solution: Outcome Highlights

Each highlight captures an aspect of the Superhero experience. It calls out which design goal it adheres to, the targeted pain point and the solution.
design goal: Engagement, Motivation

Gamification

So that Superheroes are motivated to continue being a superhero
Pain point
Helping others is a cumbersome task.
solution
→ Allow superheroes to engage in a gameplay. They start their journey as a ‘Hero’. As they complete tasks, they progress through levels to upgrade to a ‘Superhero’!

→ At each step in the program, the screens guide them with tips towards obtaining the next level.
design goal: simplicity, Motivation

Simpler bite-sized tasks

So that Superheroes complete tasks quickly
Pain point
Earning rewards only through recharge.
solution
→ To reduce friction, we introduced small tasks across all telecom services, under each level. Now they could recharge for a friend, refer broadband service or get them started with DTH and get rewarded real time.

Each task rewards them with cash or credit in their Airtel Payments Bank wallet.*
design goal: simplicity, Motivation

Dashboard

So that Superheroes can track their tasks and rewards.
Pain point
Hard to keep track of each helping task; specially tasks done for close connections as a favour. With lockdown, this number grew.
solution
→ An easy and accessible dashboard which lets Superheros track their task status and rewards earned. They can complete pending tasks and even send reminders to friends.

→ A leaderboard to foster engagement. Moreover, motivate their longevity in the program by showing success story of their friends through leaderboard. Superheros can compare ranks and challenge other Superheros in the area!
design goal: Engagement, Motivation

Gamification

So that Superheroes are motivated to continue being a superhero
Pain point
Helping others is a cumbersome task.
solution
→ Allow superheroes to engage in a gameplay. They start their journey as a ‘Hero’. As they complete tasks, they progress through levels to upgrade to a ‘Superhero’!

→ At each step in the program, the screens guide them with tips towards obtaining the next level.

Currently in beta

At the moment, this experience was not rolled out to enough audience to gauge quantifiable data. However, in 3rd round of testing as well as stakeholder feedback, the program achieved..

✅ Simplicity ✅ Motivation

Reflections

  • Challenges of designing at scale
    Telecom serves everyone! This brings with itself a greater challenge to design for specific problems for an audience ranging millions.
  • Customer insight is king
    Team was very attached to the traditional discount at checkeout experience. However, a customer test video convinced them otherwise.
  • Bringing delight into an essential service
    I felt the need to study direct and indirect motivations of users who are not so digital savvy, i.e., those users who make minimal efforts to make their service work for them.
More from me...
Superhero Research
Mixed Methods Research • Usability Testing
One Airtel Plan
Digital Experience Design • Visual Design