At a glance
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62
key metrics in the measurement framework, across 28 segments
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14
journey steps, from notice to stay, in seven phases
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8
customer insights, from interviews with customers and prospects
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9
design principles for the future state, such as Assured and Human
The brief
BT was under-indexing in the SME market and wanted to launch a professional tier of broadband, built on Business Broadband with extras such as security and multi-site management, to win and keep more small businesses. Our task was to design the service end to end.
The challenge
The product was not live yet, so research had to start from how businesses experience broadband today. Many of the people who look after it are not technical. BT's own research showed price was the biggest barrier, and that Broadband Pro had to stand apart from BTnet, BT's leased line, so customers would not trade down.
My role
My experience department at Born ran this work. I set the experience strategy and led the research and workshops with the team.
I articulated it through a vision and measurement framework, customer insights, a service blueprint, a future customer journey and a design backlog.
What we did
- Reviewed BT's existing research, from usage and attitudes and SME security studies to quantitative research on Broadband Pro.
- Ran immersion, vision, front stage, back stage, ideation and prioritisation workshops with BT teams.
- Interviewed customers, prospects, employees and stakeholders.
- Built a measurement framework: one vision, seven phases, 14 journey steps, 62 metrics and 28 segments.
- Mapped an end-to-end service blueprint, front stage and back stage, with opportunities prioritised with BT.
- Brought a future journey to life and turned it into a design backlog.
Immersion
We started with what BT already knew. Its research said reliability matters more than speed to smaller businesses, that trust is hard won (“Once bitten, twice shy,” as one customer put it) and that a mid-tier package mixing value, speed and security had strong appeal.
Vision and measurement
A workshop set the vision: “To be the IT partner of choice for the best product ecosystem and expert service delivery, made specifically for SMEs.” Beneath it, the measurement framework ran from seven phases (learn, buy, get, use, support, leave and recommend) and 14 journey steps, from notice to stay, down to 62 key metrics and 28 segments.
Customer research
We interviewed seven BT Broadband customers and five prospects for 90 minutes each, from businesses of 8 to 175 people in sectors such as jewellery, legal and construction. Eight insights came out, from “Speak to me at the right level” and “Manage my expectations from the get-go” to “Make it easy for me to renew” and “Make the exit experience as good as the entry”.
One customer summed it up: “We just want it to work and not worry about the numbers.”
Service blueprint
The blueprint mapped every phase: actions front stage and back stage, what works and what does not for customers, the desired journey, opportunities and KPIs.
Nine design principles shaped the future state, such as “Assured: give me the confidence it will work” and “Human: treat me like a human, not a number”. With BT, we sorted opportunities into MVP, future and for further consideration, from a plain-language comparison tool to separate support for low and high urgency issues.
Future journey
To show the service from the customer's side, we visualised a future journey for one archetype, “Just Make It Work”: an office manager in a business of 50 or more people. “Looking after the broadband at work is just one of the many things I do. I'm no tech expert.”
It mixed MVP features, such as a price comparison and online checkout, with future opportunities: a hardware demystifier, engineer tracking, a fast-track support add-on, renewal at the click of a button and a referral programme.
Design backlog
Finally, we translated the future-state requirements and opportunities into a design backlog: the first work list for the design phase, ready to be refined into stories in sprint planning.
Everything was set out with such clarity, and it was great to see the project team engaging in all tasks. The team have always made us feel like we've been in good hands.
The result
One shared picture of Broadband Pro to inform its first release: a vision and measurement framework, eight insights, a blueprint with prioritised MVP opportunities, a future journey and a design backlog for the teams.
