ROLE

Lead Product Designer

TIMELINE

Apr 2019 - Oct 2019, Aug 2020 - Dec 2020

TEAM

Product Owner, Delivery Manager, Designer, Development, QA

Growing Optik TV Daily Orders from 200 to 2,500+

Reducing Customer Call Times by 33%

I designed a native mobile experience to replace a failing web portal causing negative app reviews and support calls. I conducted research to identify customer pain points and multiple rounds of user testing to validate designs. This grew daily orders from 200 to 2,500+, made mobile the primary channel, and reduced app complaints by 70%. The success of this project led to me becoming the lead designer for TV products (Optik TV & Pik TV) in the My TELUS App.

CONTEXT

Optik TV Allows Customers to Customize and Swap Channel Bundles Within Their TV Subscription

Optik TV is a customizable TV subscription built around theme packs (curated channel bundles) and Premium Selections (Netflix, HBO, etc.). Customers pick a base plan, then build their lineup from there.

You can swap content of equal value at any time without changing your monthly bill or add additional content at a cost. A built-in Rightsizing feature automatically bundles channels into cheaper packs or adjusts your plan tier so you always get the best deal.

PROBLEM

A Failing Web Portal

The existing web portal for managing Optik TV subscriptions was a dying legacy platform. Customers experienced confusing workflows when editing their subscriptions and encountered submission errors that forced them to call support to complete their orders. The My TELUS App linked out to this experience, and customers complained the app wasn't working properly, negatively affecting the app's reputation.

This created an opportunity to redesign the experience as a native feature within the My TELUS App, providing customers with a modern, reliable platform for Optik TV management.

RESEARCH

Uncovering the Customer's Frustrations

We analyzed support calls, interviewed agents and found three consistent pain points:

The experience forced users to manage their theme packs, then premiums and finally channels. This "guided" approach felt more annoying than helpful.

When Rightsizing occurred, users see "We swapped Theme Pack A for Theme Pack B" with no context as to why, leaving customers confused.

Backend failures pushed users to "Please Contact Support" with no context on what went wrong or what to do next.

Mapping Customer’s Thoughts

DESIGN & VALIDATION

Validating Our Designs with User Testing

We validated our initial designs with a mix of 10 existing Optik customers and non-Optik users. They were asked to complete various tasks, from understanding their current plan, making changes to their current subscription and confirming their changes.

Testing Summary

Users understood their plan and monthly costs immediately

Theme pack and premium cards required more time to interact with compared to the channel list. We made the add and remove actions more prominent to improve clarity

Rightsizing notifications initially surprised non-Optik users, but they understood the change and reasoning after reading the new messaging

SOLUTION

Rolling Out the New Designs

View Your Subscription

I designed a native subscription view directly within the My TELUS App, allowing customers to view their current plan, monthly price, full channel line-up, and individual channel details without being redirected to the web portal.

Manage Your Line-up

To address the restrictive guided flow, customers can now browse all content and modify their line-up freely in any order they choose. Content can be swapped for equal value items or added as paid add-ons with clear pricing updates, giving customers control rather than forcing them through a rigid sequence.

Cart and Checkout

I added a persistent cart that tracks changes and displays the updated monthly price throughout the session. Customers can review all changes before submitting their order, providing transparency.

Rightsizing

To address customer confusion around automatic plan changes, I redesigned the messaging to provide clear context explaining why changes occurred and confirming customers receive the best price.

During design, we also discovered the system wasn't downsizing plans to save money as advertised. Working with engineering, we fixed backend errors that prevented proper rightsizing, significantly reducing error messages customers encountered.

IMPACT

Growing Optik TV Daily Orders from 200 to 2,500+

Before the native experience, the web portal averaged around 250 orders a day. Daily mobile orders from the new experience grew from around 200 at launch to 500+ within weeks, eventually reaching 2,500+ during the 2020 lockdowns. Mobile quickly became the primary channel for managing Optik TV, with support agents recommending customers use the My TELUS App instead of the web portal to manage their subscriptions.

The success of this project led to me becoming the lead designer for TV products across the app, which included Pik TV and a second iteration of Optik TV in summer 2020.

OPPORTUNITY

Opportunity for a Second Iteration

After launch we got a chance to go back and improve the product. A round of external research and customer feedback pointed to gaps that went beyond basic functionality.

What We Heard

Hard to discover new or trending content

Unclear which content was already owned vs. available to add

Difficult to track changes made within a single session

No indication of when updates would actually show up on the TV

How We Approached It

Spotlight Section - A curated area for featured and trending content, paired with universal search and genre filtering so the full catalogue felt easy to explore.

Tracker Widget - A persistent tracker showing how many items you own in each category. Tapping on it opens your current lineup.

Dynamic Cart - A cart that only logs changes in this session with price updates, so customers always know what they were committing to.

Simpler Checkout - Collapsed the full channel list to reduce noise, only show the final line-up, and added copy explaining when updates would go live.

ITERATION 2

Design Improvements

After launch we got a chance to go back and improve the product. A round of external research and customer feedback pointed to gaps that went beyond basic functionality.

REFLECTION

A Rare Chance to Iterate

We tested the second iteration with 10 participants. Key findings showed that Optik-specific terminology still confused non-Optik customers, and several participants expected removed items to disappear immediately from the Selections page rather than remain visible. We incorporated this feedback into the final release.

It's uncommon to launch a major feature and get another chance to improve it within the same year. Development was still underway when I transitioned off the My TELUS App team, with the release following in spring 2021. I reached out later for results, but it was too early for meaningful data.

The most rewarding part was introducing motion to the Optik experience. I focused on making it purposeful, using animation to communicate what was happening in the interface rather than adding it as decoration.