Carrier Activation

Enhancing carrier activation across every market.

46.4%faster setup21.7%quicker verification

Overview

For this initiative, I spearheaded a comprehensive investigation into Sendcloud's carrier connection and management experience. Collaborating closely with UX Research, Engineering, and relevant product teams across multiple international markets, I defined and executed an extensive analysis of the existing carrier activation user journey. This directly informed the creation of a phased strategy for immediate tactical improvements and a robust long-term product direction, demonstrably improving efficiency and user satisfaction.

Carrier Activation product interface screens

Problem

Carrier activation and management journeys are critical touch points in the user journey, where we convey significant value to the user. However, the existing approach suffered from significant scalability issues and growing complexity. This led to inconsistencies and inefficiencies across various markets and a vast library of carriers. This suboptimal experience resulted in decreased user satisfaction, reduced operational efficiency, and a dramatic rise in customer support requests. Critically, these challenges also hindered new user conversion.

Objective

Our goal was to express the sheer scale of the problems faced in this area, by identifying and quantifying the issues within the carrier activation journeys, using our insights to convey their impact on key business metrics such as new user conversion, customer support costs, and the adoption of our own carrier rates, while aligning with the company's strategic goals.

Approach

Data Synthesis

With such a complex problem to solve, encompassing multiple markets and a vast library of carriers we determined our best course of action would be to narrow our focus based on our available data.

Stakeholder Workshops

With the most problematic carriers and markets identified, we kicked off a series of workshops, each focused on a particular market, where we analysed the user journeys alongside stakeholders specialising in said market.

Customer Engagement

To gain a deeper understanding of our customers' processes, we performed remote interviews, watched countless recordings and consulted our customer support team.

Problem Definition & Escalation

At this point we could accurately identify both the scale of the problems we faced, and how they were impacting the business financially. This was reported to leadership

Ideation

While the problem and cost were alarming, it wasn't until we synthesised our findings into an idyllic concept and provided a visual comparison that we started to gain traction

Iterative delivery

Once engaged, we scaled the long term vision down to actionable iterations which could be delivered within 6 week cycles. This was broken up into three larger projects, focused on key areas but relatively separate areas, meaning they could be worked on simultaneously.

Publication

The publication of these findings was key to adjusting a number of long-held assumptions. It resulted in a new mindset when it came to assigning engineering resources, and while this took some time, iterations began appearing on our roadmap.

Results

Quantified Problem Scale

Publication of the true scale of issues within the carrier activation journeys, providing a clear financial and user experience impact to leadership and adjusted long-held assumptions.

Measurable Improvement in Key Metrics

Achieved a 46.4% reduction in time to add a carrier and a 21.7% reduction in time to verify a user's own contract

Immediate Pain Point Resolution

Delivered a series of short-term fixes addressing critical user pain points.

Strategic Roadmap Development

Defined a longer-term strategy broken into multiple iterations, planned for delivery within 6-week cycles

Learnings

Impact of Data-Driven Insights

The power of data synthesis and quantification in effectively communicating the business impact and scale of complex problems to leadership

Stakeholder Alignment

The critical role of cross-functional collaboration and specialised workshops when analysing complex user journeys across diverse markets.

Data-Driven Prioritisation

Gained deeper proficiency in utilising a mixed-methods research approach (quantitative analytics like Hotjar/support tickets with qualitative customer visits) to robustly prioritise over 100 issues based on their true impact, complexity, and user reach.

Data + Vision = Traction

How combining quantitative data and synthesizing findings into an 'idyllic concept' to provide visual comparisons can significantly accelerate stakeholder buy-in and project traction.

Iterative Strategy Reduces Complexity

The effectiveness of breaking down a large, complex problem into actionable, independent iterations for simultaneous and sustained delivery.

Advocacy and Persistence

The necessity of actively publishing findings and advocating for change to shift organisational priorities and ensure roadmap integration.