Led the design and research of Verizon's Refer a Friend feature making the referral process simpler and more user-friendly to improve engagement and satisfaction. The initiative success criteria aims to result in a 35% increase in successful referrals, a 25% boost in user retention, and a 20% drop in referral abandonment rates.

My Role: Lead Product Design (Research, Design, Testing, and Implementation)
Team: A Product Owner, SMEs, Customer Experience Manager, Stakeholder Rep, and Engineers

Overview

Currently, Offer Portal SMS campaigns - allows us to send messages to Verizon Wireless customers, prompting them to buy/upgrade cloud; the link in that message contains a link to the offer portal, which has the receiver's MDN embedded; so when they click it, the offer portal can check their MDN and verify they are already a VZW customer, and therefore skip all prompts to log in and simply present them with a list of plans to buy.

The problem

Low click-through rates of only 3-5%
High opt-out rates of about 20%
Technical issue such as broken links
Lack of Personalization - Non-tailored messages lead to a 18% lower response rate, as users feel disconnected from the offer.

"How might we design a RAF feature that leverage current cloud members, provide incentives to invite friends, increase visibility, enhance user engagement, and drive referrals?"

Replicating the Offer Portal experience is impossible for RAF because we can only embed the referee MDN in an offer portal link if the referrer can provide that MDN when generating a referral; but... - The business does not want referrers to have to look up MDNs in advance; they want us to provide a link, which the referrer can then put in an SMS (a native feature of their mobile device, which we have no visibility of), and thus send to at least one (but preferably many) people in their address book.

Business Goal

Develop a RAF feature that allows a Verizon Cloud members to invite Verizon customers with no cloud subscription.
To increase referrals in comparison to current stats and enhance usability.
Currently, we are missing a chance to increase our member database and ultimately generate more business.

Project Kickoff & Requirement Gathering

The Refer a Friend feature aims to drive user acquisition by enabling existing users to invite their network in exchange for rewards. This initiative will focus on creating a seamless referral flow, clear incentive structures, and tracking mechanisms. Key deliverables include a user-friendly referral interface, integration with reward systems, and analytics for performance tracking. We will prioritize ease of use, transparency, and alignment with user engagement goals.

The team discussed the available metrics around referrals to determine why a large portion of users who visited the referral landing page did not share their unique referral links. We aligned with the business and technical team on timeline, constraints, objectives, and workflow with the scrum team.

Persona

Current Verizon Wireless customers | Referee: VZ Customer with Premium Cloud Account  |  The Referred: VZ Customer without Premium Cloud Account | iOS & Android

How it works.
• A Verizon Premium Cloud member is eligible to invite 10 Verizon customers with no Premium Cloud Account by sending a unique referral link.
• When a friend that's referred begins a paid subscription after a free trial period, the referee gets $10 off their bill for a month
• Referee is eligible to send 10 referrals for a year totaling $100 in credits

Constraints
1. Work with the Cloud team to understand the solution for Offer Portal SMS campaigns (See what's transferrable flow/journey/design wise)
2. Provide a solution that's feasible for the 11/21 release

Upon the first launch, we will work with the analytics team using these metrics to measure success.
1. How many referrals a user has sent
2. how many of those got redeemed and by whom
3. Which of the "redeemed" still have cloud 30 days later
4. Which of the "redeemed" still have cloud 60 days later

Researching the Problem via Survey

In addition to the data already collected, we conducted a survey sending emails to premium members. 
• Sent out email debriefing incentives of RAF to premium members
• Email open rate: 14%
• Survey ran for a week

Survey: Understanding Refer a Friend Usage Among Verizon Premium Members

Awareness
Are you aware of Verizon's Refer a Friend program?
Yes / No
Ease of Use

Have you tried using the Refer a Friend feature?
Yes / No
If no, why?
Didn’t know how to use it
Too complicated
Never needed to refer anyone
Incentives

Do you feel the referral rewards are appealing?
Yes / No
What would make the rewards more attractive?
Higher monetary rewards
Additional services or discounts
Other: [open text]
Motivation

 What’s your main reason for not referring friends?
I don’t know anyone who would be interested
No personal benefit
Don’t feel comfortable referring
Other: [open-ended]

Key Results Summary

Awareness Gap
40% of respondents were unaware of the Refer a Friend program.

Ease of Use:
Among those aware, 35% cited difficulty understanding or using the feature.

Incentives
50% felt the rewards were not compelling enough, with most preferring higher monetary benefits.

Motivation Barriers
30% mentioned not knowing eligible friends, and 20% felt the rewards didn’t justify the effort.

Recommendations
Enhance program visibility through targeted communications.
Simplify the referral process with step-by-step guidance.
Reevaluate reward structures to align with customer preferences.
Provide alternative incentives, like exclusive perks or service upgrades.

User Flow

Guiding users through inviting friends and redeeming rewards.

Key steps include:
Access the Feature: Users find the RAF option in the app's rewards section.
Generate Referral Link: Users create a unique referral link or code.
Share with Friends: Users share the link via email or SMS.
Track Referrals: Users monitor referral status (e.g., pending, successful) in a dashboard.
Redeem Rewards: Once friends join and meet the criteria, users receive and redeem rewards.

Collaborated with the scrum team to focus on designing intuitive UI components, ensuring seamless backend integration, and implementing referral tracking with real-time updates.

Wireframe & LoFi 

Having gathered and synthesized data from the kickoff and research, I created low-fidelity wireframes to establish layout and navigation, focusing on key screens like referral entry and sharing options. Feedback was gathered from stakeholders and the scrum team, followed by refinements to add detail and address usability concerns.

HiFi Mockups

After a series of demos, feedback, iterations, and approval of the LoFi mockup, I began leveraging the VZ Design System components to create HiFi mockups and interactive prototypes.

Refer a Friend Process | iOS

Refer a Friend Process | Android

The Referree Receives a RAF Notification | iOS

The Referree Receives a RAF Notification | Android

Testing what's designed thus far

We put some testing plans in motion on UserZoom. The primary goal is to evaluate the user experience and effectiveness of the "Refer a Friend" feature prototype. We want to understand how easily users can refer a friend, how intuitive the UI is, and identify potential pain points in the referral process.

Research Questions

Can users easily find the "Refer a Friend" option within the app/site?

Do users understand how to use the feature without additional guidance?

How easy is it for users to refer a friend?

Are there any barriers or frustrations in the referral process?

Do users feel confident that their referral was successfully sent?

How satisfied are users with the overall process and design?

Findings / User Feedback

Is there a limit to the amount of referrals I can send in a specific timeframe?

Where do I keep track of those that'd redeemed my refer link, do I get an email or some sort of notification each time?

How do I use the points I get from referring someone?

I may be more motivated to send out this referrals if the incentive is more attractive.

Feature is a bit buried, and had to go dig for it.

Target Audience

Demographics: Active users of the app or website, aged 18-45, tech-savvy, and familiar with referral programs.

Behavioral criteria: Users who have not yet used the referral feature, but are regular users of similar services.

Methodology

Task-Based Usability Testing: Observing users as they interact with the "Refer a Friend" feature prototype.

Moderated Sessions: Conducting remote testing through UserZoom with a facilitator guiding participants.

Platform: UserZoom’s usability testing platform (prototype link shared via email).

Recording: Screen recording, voice recording, and task completion status.

Metrics Collected: Time to complete task, success rate, error rate, and subjective satisfaction ratings.

Testing Success Rate

Task Completion Rate: ≥85% of participants complete the tasks successfully without guidance.

Usability Satisfaction: ≥80% of participants rate their experience positively (via open-ended feedback).

Task

Find the Referral Feature Find the "Refer a Friend" button or link in the app menu.
Success criteria: Participants should easily locate the referral feature without guidance.

Referral Process:
a) Referral via menu:
Success criteria: Participants can complete the referral process with minimal assistance, fill out the required fields, and send the referral.

b) If a friend is not eligible, select another friend from your contact list
Success criteria: The user can change to a different contact and is confident in how to do it.

Post-Referral Feedback
Confirm that your referral was successfully sent and that you understand the next steps (reward tracking, referral status, etc.). Success criteria: The user feels confident that the referral was completed and understands the reward system.

Tasks Flow Introduction (5 min):
Briefing participants on the test objectives. Main Tasks (10-20 min): Participants will complete the 3 primary tasks outlined above.

Debrief (5-10 min):
Ask follow-up questions about user experience, satisfaction, and any suggestions for improvement.

Iterative Design Process

Leveraging the feedback from our prototype usability testing to enhance the design.

Key areas:
1. More incentives as $10 per invitee = $100/yr (connecting with the business to discuss if there's a possibility to increase this as a result of the initial survey) 
2. Begin feature to the referral tracking process
3. Design for other entry points (email, message center)
4. Menu items missing

Wireframe & LoFi

Referrer Receives a Notification | iOS

Referrer Receives a Notification | Android

Increased Incentives 

A decision was made by the business to increase the incentive to $20 per referral for a limited time, totaling $200 for 10 eligible referrals a year. This is due to our findings that a high percentage of users say they may be inspired to refer members to the cloud services if the incentives are attractive enough to use towards their bill. 

Takeaways

This was a collaborative project with a cross-functional team. While I would've loved to see how things progressed per the success criteria we'd set - my contract ended with Verizon right after this project. I truly enjoyed the requirement-gathering sessions, design demos, surveys, stakeholder feedback, and data gathered during survey and usability testing. These gave us valuable insights into some analytics that I synthesized and leveraged to make the experience seamless and hopefully increase leads and generate more business.

I enjoyed how the features on this project were split into PI(s), and the dev team worked simultaneously on development as the design was tested and refined. There were times when stakeholders' feedback or answers were slow, affecting our initial timeline, but the team was able to pick up some backlog items to leverage the slow time. Overall, we overcame some challenges, moved some scenarios to post MVP (blue sky), and worked closely together to accomplish the business goal.

Note: I had to redesign most of these screens as I do not have access to the native Figma files. I replicated some of the images because of pixelation. Some of the images I used in this case study are from a free image library at pexels.com and are not a representation of paid images that are on the Verizon app.