💡 TL;DR
Time Warner Cable Residential Services needed a UX partner to create a responsive ecommerce website to support a completely new product offering targeting cord-cutters. My team worked with the TWC product team through discovery, user research, and design to deliver an interactive prototype shared with the TWC c-suite and used to gather further market validation.

Background

Time Warner Cable (TWC), the second largest American telco, engaged my team to provide user experience, research, and strategy services. This project was with the Residential Services Product and Strategy group.

The Problem

A sales UI to combat cord-cutting

TWC was exploring a new way to sell cable and internet services. Specifically, product strategy wanted to give customers more control in the purchase flow.

Why this problem matters

Traditional telcos have hemorrhaged customers as new streaming services surface. Consumers are frustrated to have to pay for content they don't want or need. NewCo was an exploration of how to give consumers the ability to build a package including only the content they want.

Custom packages would build consumer confidence during the checkout flow and allow more direct comparisons to other streaming services.

Our Process

My role

I led a six member design team. As lead, my role was:

• Design an approach and create a scope, schedule, and resourcing model
• Develop a partnership with the client stakeholders including product and development teams
• Provide overall direction on project deliverables
• Plan and lead internal and external workshops and collaborative design sessions
• Advise on planing and analysis of user research

Discovery

The Discovery phase included a several workshops, stakeholder interviews, and market research, and visual brand exploration. The objective was to build an understanding of the new product strategy and market.

Alignment Workshop

The alignment workshop achieved three main objectives:

• Insight – Decide on appropriate participant segmentation for research in preparation for recruiting and begin to gather questions and assumptions to validate during the research.
• Technology – Continue the conversation around communication between design and TWC development teams as well as uncover technical questions requiring further exploration and definition.
• Design – Document the current purchase process, listing pain points, opportunities for innovation, and questions of feasibility.

Technical Assessment

The Technical Assessment achieved three main objectives.

• Integration of EUI and TWC team to build clear lines of communication between design and development to streamline buildout process
• Analyzed Adobe Experience Manager for compatibility with recommended JavaScript Libraries, CSS preprocessors, build tools and responsive grid framework to better understand interaction considerations
• Worked with TWC developer team to define performance goals for desktop and mobile across different network speeds.

Visual Exploration [Moodboards]

Moodboards are a tool to illustrate and define a visual style used to inform the design strategy and implementation. The heart of television is the emotional bond we share with the characters. Large images of the characters remind us of their great stories and build anticipation for more stories to come. Bright, beautiful color fields further enrich emotional experiences.

User Research

Planning & Facilitation

We facilitated eight 90-minute contextual inquiry in-home sessions using a TWC stakeholder as an observer/note-taker. Observing participants in their natural environment using their own equipment and devices allowed for richer more honest data. The research activities achieved three main objectives.

• Understand Millennial and Gen X “Cord-Cutters,” “Cord-Nevers” and “Cable Subscribers” motivations for cable purchases
• Provided insight on behaviors and context around how people purchase and consume television and video content
• Identified unmet needs and opportunities for future product offerings

Analysis & Reporting

The team provided a formal report and presentation to TWC divided into three components.

• Insights and themes common to the target audience
• Feedback and opportunities for the proposed product offering
• Feedback and opportunities on the current ecommerce experience

Design

Sketching & Conceptual Wireframe

The design phase began with several design studios with the team sketching to understand how to visualize the new product strategies. Through several rounds, the concepts were culled and the best were formalized into draft wireframes to share with the client.

Visual Design & Prototyping

In total, the team designed 14 segments of the end to end flow with desktop and mobile mockups.

Desktop

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Mobile