Visible eSIM
What is eSIM? An eSIM, or embedded SIM, is an industry-standard digital SIM that allows you to activate a cellular plan from your carrier without having to use a physical SIM.
The opportunity
Why bring eSIM to Visible? The head of the Verizon Consumer Group described the initiative as a "touchless, digitally-led experience." And getting eSIM to Visible would be a natural fit as the nation's first all-digital carrier.
With that, and as a technology-inspired solution coming from the top, it was apparent this was high effort; would it be high impact? Do customers want this? Was this a nascent table-stake feature? Mart Cagan's article
"Customer Inspired; Technology Enabled" immediately came to mind.
My role
I was the Design Lead on a cross-functional team alongside a fantastic PM and Engineering Lead. I worked with Apple, Verizon, and Visible engineers to build an industry-leading eSIM customer experience leveraging the latest technology.
People and data
We know our activation experience is confusing and is driving Care volume, but we aren't sure why. There is an off-screen experience when a customer receives their SIM Kit, new device, or both.
We needed ethnographic research to understand what our customers were experiencing. Diary studies revealed several key insights:
- People weren't activating immediately. They would let the package that arrived via Fed 2-day delivery sit on the counter. It would get lost in the day-to-day.
- Customers didn't remember our thoughtfully crafted instructional copy on how to activate in the upper and lower funnel.
- Customers didn't understand the SIM kit or thought the SIM was already in the device.
- Customers didn't read the included instructions that arrived with the SIM kit. The people who read the instructions or were savvy enough to pop the SIM card into the device were experiencing technological issues.
We started understanding why many of our members created accounts and didn't activate them. They simply couldn't. Anything from defective SIM cards to APIs failing and the native app not firing the proper UI.
The motivation of these customers started to wane over time, mishandled support tickets, and the fact that our devices come unlocked created a perfect storm for our potential customers to go with another provider.
The value prop that initially resonated with a potential customer needed to align with their activation experience without succumbing to an already known lack of motivation in the industry for consumers to switch phone service providers.
The existing activation experience raised a concern that we were at risk of being able to meet our growth goals.
There was an opportunity to improve on the promise of delivering an industry-leading experience for our customers. More importantly, with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we could offer an all-digital activation experience from your location, improving public safety at a crucial time.
Visible eSIM task flow
Outcomes and Industry quotes
The most streamlined installation (and most impressive) I have experienced is on Visible," said Luna. "The app automatically detects you have an eSIM-enabled smartphone, you enter the IMEI number, and it tells you whether that phone is available and downloads the eSIM right through the app. The user doesn't have to do anything other than click on buttons.
—Linda Hardesty | June 2021,
Fierce Wireless
...it's the eSIM support that's probably the most eye-catching. In fact, it kind speaks to the heart of why Visible exists."
—Monica Alleven | February 2021,
Fierce Wireless