Shifting from Utility to Experience
Verizon is the dominant player in US home connectivity services. But its product teams prioritized production logistics over user needs. This major telecom was not taking accessible hardware seriously.
Aruliden had done award winning design work but was relegated to the end of the product development process, vastly limiting their ability to incorporate customer experience.
Verizon assumed that CX could be layered on after manufacturing with content and support services.
They tried Fixes via manuals and firmware updates for years including multi million dollar contracts to vendors for instructional content and in-person installation calls—too little, too late. This was years of complacency through multiple product cycles delayed or negative reviews from customers.
Cost of inaction:They were facing an unbreakable pattern, increased product costs, high service volumes, costly installation, vocal and frustrated customers, and missed differentiation.
Scope of my work
Delivered CX audits and collaboration tools for client product teams
Created setup complexity score to forecast and reduce user issues
Built self-setup standards and accessible experience guidelines
Initiated CX workflows that are now part of Verizon's ongoing process planning
Bringing Empathy Into the Heart of Telecom Hardware
Impact for customers, the client, and the agency
That’s what we achieved when I reshaped Aruliden’s partnership with Verizon, expanded both the client's design process and the agency’s strategic role.
When I arrived at Aruliden, we were seen by our largest client as a “style-first” design shop—polished, yes, but peripheral to core product decisions. Verizon’s home connectivity division was caught in a legacy process that worked backwards from shipping dates, with minimal user testing and zero alignment across business, design, and CX functions. Usability problems were fixed post-facto, often through dry text manuals or firmware updates, driving up costs and frustrating customers.
In just 90 days, I led a set of experience audits, delivered usability frameworks, and developed new collaboration tools that brought accessibility and human factors to the forefront. I introduced:
Services
Experience strategy
Accessibility design
Strategic planning
Contributors
John Phillips
Ella Thibodau
Eric Call
Mary Chimenti
10% faster product development.
Fewer service calls.
A 20% increase in deal size.
Project deliverables
Device self-setup standards
guidelines that streamlined setup and reduced reliance on professional installation
New product device complexity scoring
a complexity and usability framework for early-stage product evaluation
Accessibility guidelines for in-home connectivity
ensuring cross-functional input on inclusive device design
Comprehensive on-device indication guidelines
A unified approach to on-device indications, improving usability across Verizon’s full device family
Verizon saw a 10% reduction in development timelines, fewer support calls, and cost savings across both hardware and service operations. And for Aruliden, the shift was transformational: the client expanded our remit, increasing ongoing deal sizes by 20% and adopting CX workflows we initiated as standard operating practice.
This work didn't just solve immediate issues—it changed how the client builds. And for Aruliden, it proved that great design can serve business, customers, and internal teams at once.
Customer Lead Process
To combat entrenched practices, we introduced the Customer Lead Process, a comprehensive framework that redefined goals, roles, and sequences. This new process integrated business units with industrial designers and CX experts early in the design phase, requiring cross-departmental sign-offs before advancing development. This ensured every device met our new customer-centric standards and brought the CX team into strategic roles from the start, allowing for early anticipation and mitigation of potential user issues.
Process design
User observations
Scenario planning
Reimagining Device Setup Design
A key initiative, the Setup Score, was developed to assess and enhance the setup design process, ensuring new devices met a standard for ease of use before final design approval. By involving device teams early in scenario testing, we fostered a shift from a technician-first to a customer-first mindset, significantly enhancing the unboxing experience. This tool, along with the Self Setup Experience Standards, aimed to improve first impressions and reduce customer frustrations, reinforcing the cultural shift toward empathy in design.
Device complexity worksheets
A Future of Empathic Design
This journey with Verizon has been more than a sequence of projects; it represents a profound shift towards empathic design. By centering the customer in every decision, Verizon is setting the stage for a future where their connectivity devices intuitively meets user needs. Our ongoing efforts to refine and expand these strategies ensure Verizon not only leads in connectivity but also in customer satisfaction and loyalty, marking a new era where empathy drives innovation.
