xFi WiFi
WiFi, meet xFi.
How I helped make every xFi customer’s WiFi experience simple and smarter.
Responsibilities and impact
Sole lead for all connectivity experiences
Product strategy
Strategic communicator
Key research partner and observer
Lead stakeholder reviews/management
| WiFi seems simple, however it’s anything but…
With just a single reported connectivity issue, customer’s pNPS score dropped 55 points, while multiple issues dropped pNPS by 130 points.
Transparency helps, but too much confuses
Users value transparency of device on their network and being able to pause their internet access. However, crossing this fine line turns users off with experiences that are quickly deemed as “too techy.”
Perception ≠ reality, but that’s still on us
Users have many misconceptions of how WiFi works, often assigning perceived issues incorrectly to Xfinity devices and services. After all, the customer is always right.
Self help is appreciated…until it’s not
Users will look to troubleshoot when there’s issues, even if perceived in correctly.
But if not readily available and obvious, they will look for other support methods or, worse, become silent sufferers.
| Turning misconceptions into opportunities
We imagined homes where problems were spotted before users even identified them, and world-class help was readily available to help them find solutions.
We knew we could achieve this reality from a technical POV, but we needed to ensure this didn’t overstep customers’ boundaries.
Using abstract concepts personified through simple cartoons, we were able to solicit key guardrails around proactive experiences.
Participants were asked:
What was their first reaction?
What questions they had about the product?
How would they ever use or need it?
Which scenarios were most and least useful?
Research also showed what is obvious to us is not obvious to customers
For instance, the simple act of showing there was no internet service outage during a speed test experience — something that is fundamental to speeds being measured at all— significantly increased customers’ understanding and enjoyment of the result.
From this research, three experience tenets emerged to shapea truly helpful WiFi experience.
When being proactive, make sure these are moments that matter.
Distrust of service providers means we are already on the back foot. Additionally, lack of information about the social context of the household affects our ability to take action on behalf of the user.
Marketing and feature awareness are not proactive moments.
To counteract distrust and fatigue, Proactive WiFi needs to be respectful of customers’ time and avoid any perception of upsell (both monetarily and time)
No new ≠ good news
In the absence of clear status, customers will make assumptions which will often be misaligned or incorrect.
Combat this by embracing and delivering good news/status, even if it seems obvious.
| xFi WiFi in action
When a new device connects to a customer's home network, the Xfinity app responds with near immediate reassurance.
This simple moment builds trust in the xFi service, but also provides a path to more powerful WiFi tools within the app.
xFi continues to monitor customers’ home networks and action when any device’s signal is consistently weak.
Using powerful software from the xFi Gateway’s cloud, we know which devices are stationary in the home. If signals are poor, we can be confident that area of the home is in poor coverage and needs some help.