Project overview
Background
Paramount+, an App partner of Sky wanted to increase the activation rate of their marketplace subscriptions. Activating an account involves creating an account with an email address and password. The proposed solution was to enable customers to partially create their account by sharing the email address associated with their Sky ID.
This was a 14-month project.
Customer problems
• Friction: current account creation process takes place across multiple platforms.
• Keyboard input: existing research revealed that customers found on-TV account creation "painful and long"
Business Goals
• Increase activation rate: currently 39% of new Paramount+ customers are not activating their accounts on the day of purchase..
• Onboarding new partners: an agnostic solution to be rolled out to other partners.
Scope and Constraints
Scope was mainly Prospect (New Customers) and Resubscribing (Unactivated customers).
Constraints related to
• Partially created account: starting point would be to only require an email address to partially create their account.
The Process
1. Brief analysis and AS-IS Journey
2. Journey mapping
3. Moderated user testing
4. Post-testing workshop & Refinement
Success Metrics
• Increase in Activation rate (currently at 39%): Paramount+ consider the activation rate as an indication of churn because customers need to activate their subscription to watch content.
• % of accounts created using Sky-verified email vs operator-verified email address: Ratio of customers who opt to share their Sky email id on TV to create their account vs those who opt to do this online.
Results so far (1 month post launch)
• Activation rate: this increased to 53%..
• % of accounts created using Sky-verified email vs operator-verified email address: 65% of customers who activated on purchase date had opted to share their Sky email address; the remainder activated online.
New Account creation
Original Account creation
The Process
AS-IS journey
As I was relatively new to the Commerce team, my first priority was to understand the current experience and sense-check the pain points identified in the brief as well as any other relevant pain points.
The most obvious pain point to the customer is having their account creation experience split across platforms (TV and web).
Current experience
After the customer has completed their subscription purchase; they're presented with a QR code which takes them to the sky.com website to create their account with the partner.
After creating their account on web, the customer needs to come back to the TV to search for the app partner (in this case Paramount+) and sign in to start watching content.
Web Sign in displays a QR code that redirects to web
TV Sign in displays an onscreen keyboard for credentials input.
Quite a lot of hoops for our customers to jump through just to watch their content! 🤯
Additional insights from existing research
The current journey had been tested 8 months prior to this project; these were some of the insights.
• Participants expected account creation to take 5-10 mins. (It took 15 mins)
• Participants expected that "Sign-in on TV " meant they could only watch on TV (No, It meant they could watch on any device).
• Participants struggled to remember the account creation instructions on the QR code screen (they frequently had to refer back to the TV to check instructions).
It was evident that the new account creation flow needed to be simplified and also do a better job of managing our customers' expectations.
Journey Mapping
"How might we design a seamless account creation process using Sky email addresses to keep customers engaged on TV while setting up partner accounts?"
Guided by the problem statement, I mapped out 2 proposed options to share with Product and the wider design team for consideration.
Proposal 1: Providing customers 2 opportunities where they could share their Sky email address (before and after their purchase)
Rationale: Asking before purchase is in line with other competitor apps where you create an account before purchasing a subscription (Jakob's Law).
Prompt 1 to share email address
Both CTAs allow the customer to progress to purchase
"Skip for now" however activates the 2nd prompt after purchase
Prompt 2 to share email address
"Use another email" activates the QR code route (current experience)
Pros
• Shortens the (perceived) time of account creation
• Scalable for other Partner apps who may require additional information upfront (e.g. date of birth, location).
• Minimizes the risk of drop-off by enabling customers to proceed even if they decline to share information initially
Cons
• Customers might not associate providing their Sky email address with account creation.
• May not accommodate customers who are in a different mindset, such as those who are not yet committed to making a purchase.
Proposal 2: Providing customers 1 opportunity to share their Sky email address (after their purchase)
Rationale: This would be in-line with the current experience. (Customer's current mental model).
Customer asked once after purchase
"Use another email" activates the QR code route (current experience)
Pros
• Asking after purchase feels more relevant and contextual.
• Preserves the customer’s existing mental model of the EntOS TV purchasing experience, avoiding disruption.
Cons
• Could lengthen the (perceived) time needed for account creation.
• May not accommodate partner apps that require more upfront information from customers.
Below is a more exhaustive illustration of the 2 proposals.
It's important to express that the Customers would only partially create their account, enabling access to content on TV. When trying to access content on non-TV devices, they would prompted to set a password via a magic link provided by Paramount+ (this was confirmed by Paramount+).
The Product Manager favored Proposal 1 as it supported future partnerships requiring additional upfront information (such as date of birth) during account creation.
Engineering initially raised concerns about technical feasibility, particularly scenarios where the EntOs (Glass operating system) couldn’t create an account. To address this, I organized a session with Engineering and Product, clarifying that Sky would share customer details with the Partner, who would handle account creation.
Once aligned across Product, Engineering, Design, and Copy, we proceeded with moderated user testing for Proposal 1.
Moderated user testing
The testing was conducted within a tight timeline (recruitment and testing completed within 10 days) due to shifts in the structure of our Research department. This made clear and transparent communication essential.
To support this, I collaborated with the Research team to design a cross-disciplinary UXR kickoff workshop. This workshop not only aligned the Researcher with our goals but also provided an opportunity to gather feedback on participant recruitment criteria.
Based on this, the recommendation from Research was to also test Proposal 2 along with Proposal 1.
The workshop also created a space to build upon our research questions and testing hypotheses.
Executive summary across both journeys
• Participants were unsure if they were "signed in" to Sky or Paramount+.
• Most participants understood that the email came from their Sky account.
• Some users didn't understand how to complete their account set up (i.e it wasn't clear they would still need to set a password if they tried to watch content on a non-TV device)
• Users prefer to provide email after viewing the offering but before inputting their payment details.
• Users wanted a clearer delineation between their purchase and the account creation journey.s
• Mixed reactions about being asked to share their email a 2nd time (some liked the 2nd request as it was to double check, others only wanted to be asked once).
Following the testing, the Product Manager informed us that, due to Paramount's legal due diligence, they were required to include an additional screen before customers could access content. This screen aimed to manage expectations around the account creation process—a consideration we had already addressed through carefully crafted copy.
In response to this new requirement, we organized a post-testing workshop to align on how best to integrate Paramount+’s screen into our flow while incorporating the insights gathered from the testing.
Post-testing workshop & refinement
Paramount+ were legally obliged to include this screen after a customer has consented to sharing their email address.
We had already managed this by presenting this success screen to the customer after they consent to sharing their email address.
There is a duplication of messaging across both screens.
The post-testing workshop was a cross disciplinary effort involving Product, Design, Research and Copy. Unfortunately Engineering were unavailable to attend.
During the session, Research presented the testing insights, and each discipline took notes through the lens of their respective expertise.
Journey screens were printed and displayed on a whiteboard, allowing the group to gather around and collaboratively review the flow. Together, we identified potential changes to incorporate both the research insights and the newly required Paramount+ screen.
Participants shared that they preferred being asked to provide their email after reviewing the available plans but before making a payment. They also emphasized the need for a clearer distinction between “Purchase” and “Account Creation" processes.
To balance these insights with the requirement for Paramount+’s new legal screen, we agreed to move the account creation prompt to after the purchase. This adjustment placed it closer to the legal screen, providing better context for the customer and aligning the process more seamlessly with their expectations.
For customers who preferred not to share their email, a fall back path would be the QR code screen which would give them the flexibility of inputting another email of their choice.
REFLECTION
This project gave me the opportunity to take a more active role in user research, as the Research team had limited capacity at the time. I welcomed the added responsibility because it brought me closer to the user and deepened my understanding of their needs. The tight timelines also allowed me to draw on my stakeholder management skills, ensuring alignment and momentum throughout the research phase.
Key takeaway
Navigating the complex landscape of Commerce: This meant managing multiple stakeholders; including the team at Paramount+ who had their own solution to the design challenge. In addition to aligning with internal teams at Sky, I had to balance these external expectations. My open and transparent communication style proved especially valuable here, helping to build trust, clarify constraints, and guide everyone toward a shared outcome.
