The Problem

Freedom Mobile is a Canada wide budget mobile provider. Their prices can't be beat, but their data coverage can be difficult to understand, with customers often opting to go with a more expensive provider to ensure they're covered.

We conducted primary and secondary customer research to better understand this problem space.

1. Customers were apprehensive about Freedom as a new provider.

“I want friends to tell me Freedom works. If they travel to and stay in same places as me, I feel very assured.”

2. Coverage is the biggest barrier for new customers.

“It’s just one of those things you don’t know what you are signing up for until you see it for yourself.”

3. Comparing offers between providers is arduous but required.

“I have at least 15 tabs open to properly research and compare providers to make sure I find the best deal.”

4. There is currently no reason for loyalty in the telecom space.

“I will switch if another provider offers me a lot of data for a cheaper cost.”

Our Vision

To build trust with the Freedom business stakeholders and establish our strategic direction, I led the design team through a collaborative design phase based on these insights. Our goal was to rapidly reimagine an e-commerce and member experience that was simple, relevant and trustworthy.

I took a narrative design approach to ground the team in the member journey, leading them to create design concepts for core screens and develop innovative solutions to our key customer pain points. Ideas included a data-informed coverage map and the ability to test drive a plan to gain trust with prospective customers and, to establish loyalty with existing members, a personalized year in review.

View InVision Prototype

Design thinking workshops

Following the rapid design phase, I led design, tech, data and product stakeholders through “Sprint Zero”, a series of design thinking workshops that allowed us to collaboratively align on the goal of the project, map the primary user journey, sketch innovative ideas and prioritize features of the new experience.

I would continue to lead similar workshops throughout the project at the beginning of each sprint as a way to align on the experience and collaboratively brainstorm creative solutions.

Frame

First, we determined a concise vision statement for the project: Simplify the way Canadians experience wireless. With that in mind, we captured risks and problems that might stand in our way of this goal, reframing them as How Might We statements and grouping these into opportunity areas.

Empathize

Together we determined that customers, a group that includes prospects, new members and established members, were the primary user of the experience. I led the group to map the customer journey to understand how user needs shift as customers mature, and to align on the overall flow of the experience.

Ideate

With an understanding of the experience and the customer, I led the team through a 4-part sketching exercise. Everyone, non-designers included, sketched a number of ideas that would help Freedom meet their long-term goal, choosing one to refine. We presented and gathered feedback for these refined sketches, voting on specific features we thought would best solve our customer problems.

Define

Finally, I facilitated a story mapping workshop to form a shared understanding of customer goals based on the established journey, determining key user activities for each goal and prioritizing features for each activity.

Using this list of prioritized features, the big ideas from our sketches and the thinking from our original strategic vision, I worked closely with the product team to plan our sprints and build a backlog for the Freedom Mobile Member Experience redesign.

Member Experience & Design System

To ensure we met our Back to School deadline, we leveraged an agile design framework to plan and track our work. When assigning work, I took a collaborative design approach that paired UX and UI designers to work together to deliver screens, each providing their expertise when required.

I also oversaw the creation of a responsive design system, resulting in a cohesive user experience and efficient design and development processes. Our design system is modern and accessible while remaining true to the established Freedom brand. It was also flexible enough to have been leveraged as a baseline system for other brands within the Freedom ecosystem.

Adherence to our design system, along with effective ways of working, allowed us to meet our deadline and deliver nearly 100 unique screens throughout the Learn, Browse, Buy and Manage flows, ultimately creating a digital experience that simplifies the way Canadians experience wireless.