Journey / Transformation

Journey · Transformation

Prepaid eSIM Activation

Extending eSIM capability to prepaid customers within a decade-old legacy platform.

Extending eSIM capability to prepaid without disrupting a 10+ year legacy system

Customer Journey

Service Design

Legacy Systems

Cross-functional

Illustration of a digital eSIM activation journey across purchase, preparation, activation and connection.

Overview

Role

Lead UX/Product Designer

Lead Product/UX Designer

Brand

Vodafone

Focus

Customer Journey Acquisition & Activation

Methods

Journey Mapping · Workflow Design · Workshops · Prototyping · Usability Testing

Journey Mapping, Workshops, Prototyping, Usability Testing

Outcome

Enabled 100% digital self-service activation · Unlocking New Market Opportunities

Timeline

Q2-Q3 2025

Q2-Q3, 2025

The Challenge

Supporting prepaid SIM activation required extending a capability originally designed for postpaid customers.

The experience needed to fit within an established platform while remaining intuitive for customers and practical for the business.

We had to balance regulatory requirements, technical constraints, and a seamless customer experience.

Supporting prepaid eSIM activation required extending a capability originally designed for postpaid customers.

The experience needed to fit within an established platform while remaining intuitive for customers and practical for the business.

We had to balance regulatory requirements, technical constraints, and a seamless customer experience.

Supporting prepaid SIM activation required extending a capability originally designed for postpaid customers.

The experience needed to fit within an established platform while remaining intuitive for customers and practical for the business.

We had to balance regulatory requirements, technical constraints, and a seamless customer experience.

Business Requirements

Enable eSIM capability for prepaid customers

Maintain security and compliance standards

Reduce support contacts and activation friction

Leverage existing platforms

Challenges

Legacy platform limitations impacting the eSIM journey

Lack of knowledge or documentation about the legacy system.

Regulatory and identity verification complexity

Ensuring a seamless experience across channels

Risks & Constraints

Legacy Platform

Built on a decade-old architecture with limited technical documentation and tightly coupled systems, making change difficult without affecting existing customer journeys.

Multi-System Ecosystem

The activation journey spanned multiple platforms, each with different capabilities, patterns, and constraints that required careful coordination.

Regulatory and Verification

Identity verification and payment validation introduced mandatory requirements while preserving a seamless activation experience.

Delivery Risk

Changes had to support both successful activations and edge cases without introducing unnecessary friction or increasing support demand.

My Role

What I owned

End-to-end UX and product design across the purchase and activation journeys — from problem framing and stakeholder alignment through to interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing. I defined the design boundaries by mapping legacy system constraints early, led workshops to align product, engineering, and operations, and owned all design decisions across the happy path and edge cases.

What others owned

Engineering led technical architecture decisions and defined what was and wasn't possible within the legacy system. Product managed scope, delivery priorities, and stakeholder sign-off. Operations owned post-activation support processes and contributed domain knowledge during alignment workshops.

My Approach

Understand

Researched the current journey, customer needs, pain points, and technical constraints to establish a clear picture of the problem space before any solution work began.

Align

Facilitated workshops to align stakeholders on goals, constraints, and opportunities — establishing shared understanding across product, engineering, and operations.

Design

Designed and iterated journey flows and interfaces with a customer-first lens, working within the boundaries defined during alignment.

Validate

Tested with users and stakeholders, refined based on feedback and data.

Key Decisions

Before

Fragmented, complex journey with multiple steps and handoffs.

No SIM Selection Step

SIM selection didn't exist

Anticipating SIM Delivery

Delivery / pick-up

Activate With Physical SIM Details

After

Simplified, guided journey designed for prepaid customers.

SIM Selection Step

Activation Immediately After Order Submission

Activate With QR Code Or eSIM Details

Reduce Unnecessary Friction

Reduced steps and removed unnecessary decisions.

Increase Confidence Through Guidance

Used plain language and visual cues to improve confidence.

Design for Scalable Reuse

Integrated with existing platform components to reduce risk.

Support Every Journey State

Addressed edge cases and error states to reduce support contacts.

Validation

We validated the concept through usability testing and stakeholder reviews across key touchpoints.

Qualitative Insights

Users found the journey easier to understand and complete

Clear guidance reduced uncertainty around eSIM activation

Improved confidence in the identity and payment verification process

Key Results

100%

Task completion in usability testing

80%

Increase in confidence in activation process

Positive

Stakeholder and user feedback

Outcome & Impact

The redesigned journey was validated by testing and stakeholder approval and is now ready for implementation. It improves the prepaid customer experience while working within legacy and regulatory constraints.

Prepaid eSIM Capability

Reduced the wait time for connectivity from days (mail) to minutes (digital delivery) with 100% digital self-service activation for eSIM.

Reduced Friction and Support Contacts

Optimised the flow so that even with necessary re-entry points, users felt confident to continue.

Compliant Experience and Secure

Mandatory identity and payment verification maintained throughout the activation flow without introducing unnecessary friction.

Unlocked New Customer Segments

Unlocked new commercial opportunities for travellers and broader dual-SIM users.

AI in my practice

AI tools supported my work in research synthesis, journey mapping, content drafting, and exploring design options — accelerating iteration while keeping human-centred design thinking at the core.

Tools used

Figma AI

UserTesting

Microsoft Copilot

Figma AI

Used to accelerate early exploration of component variants for the SIM selection step before refinement and review.

UserTesting AI

Used to summarise participant observations and compare findings against manual qualitative analysis during usability testing.

Microsoft Copilot

Used to rapidly synthesise workshop notes and technical constraint documentation into draft alignment summaries, allowing more time to validate requirements with stakeholders.

Tools used

Figma AI

UserTesting

Microsoft Copilot

AI in my practice

AI tools supported my work in research synthesis, journey mapping, content drafting, and exploring design options — accelerating iteration while keeping human-centred design thinking at the core.

Tools used

Figma AI

UserTesting

Microsoft Copilot

Figma AI

Used to accelerate early exploration of component variants for the SIM selection step before refinement and review.

UserTesting AI

Used to summarise participant observations and compare findings against manual qualitative analysis during usability testing.

Microsoft Copilot

Used to rapidly synthesise workshop notes and technical constraint documentation into draft alignment summaries, allowing more time to validate requirements with stakeholders.

Tools used

Figma AI

UserTesting

Microsoft Copilot

Reflection

This project reinforced that simplicity is achieved through deliberate design decisions, not by removing complexity. Working within a decade-old legacy platform required balancing customer needs with technical constraints, regulatory requirements, and delivery realities. The biggest lesson was the importance of defining clear boundaries early, allowing the team to focus on solving the problems that mattered most while avoiding unnecessary complexity and rework.