INTERNET BACKUP

 
 

opportunity

At its core, AT&T connects people to greater possibility. We have a unique opportunity to provide our fiber customers with access to the internet during broadband service outages using their wireless network.

Through a connection to a smartphone hotspot, we can provide internet backup services. This is a step in providing a converged experience for AT&T customers and ensure our AT&T Guarantee to internet access.

APPROACH

The Internet Backup MVP was initially formed by product and marketing research outside of Design Technology’s standard design process. Design Technology was originally scoped to design and assess the setup experience in the Smart Home Manager app, but uncovered significant customer friction related to the overall product experience itself beyond the scope of the setup flow.

HOW MIGHT WE

How might we design an experience allowing customers to easily set up Internet Backup?

MY ROLE

This was an 8-week discovery project. My role was the design lead, working closely with a researcher, a program manager and two designers. The designers built artifacts for testing, participated in research activities, and collaborated on presentations to read out to leadership. We were also actively involved in creating recommendations for marketing and development opportunities that were customer desirable.

Example of prototypes that were tested

 

RESEARCH & testing

  • An unmoderated survey of 94 AT&T Fiber customers who experienced an internet outage in the last five months to better understand their circumstances.

  • An unmoderated Broadband CX PULSE survey of 1,221 customers with questions about Internet Backup.

  • A moderated prototype concept test of the SHM setup experience with 9 AT&T FIber customer participants (3 AT&T Wireless and 6 competitor wireless customers).

  • Prototype testing with customers revealed a number of core challenges with the original MVP configuration of the Internet Backup feature.

In conjunction with the prototype test, two surveys of AT&T customers provided additional perspective on how customers feel and act during an internet outage. These findings further defined potential challenges for an internet backup product, and shaped the recommendations for product refinements.

 
 

recommendations

Enhanced MVP recommendation

Due to the number of friction areas customers identified, the initial MVP configuration was not deemed to be a customer-focused solution. Business, feature, and marketing enhancements were identified to address some of the core friction points.

 

Design insights

Business policy

  • Limit to AT&T dual-play customers

  • Zero-rate hotspot data usage during an internet outage

Product features

  • Use wireless account data to confirm customer eligibility

  • Enable network device prioritization at setup for devices to remain connected

  • Reduce hotspot device set up from 
5 to 1 to simplify the setup process

Marketing

  • Don’t market as “seamless” due to reliance on customer actions

  • Only market to tech-savvy, dual-play customers

 

outcome

The AT&T 5G Innovation Studio is developing two potential solutions that could connect customers automatically to a backup session during an outage. This work is in the early prototype and technical feasibility testing stages but may solve additional customer friction areas identified with the MVP.

Avoided $3M in development costs and a year of roadmap items by identifying usability issues and leading product to pursue another technology solution.

By intervening, product was able to launch an industry-leading solution rather than achieving market parity.