Vodafone

Introduction

Vodafone is one of the world’s leading telecoms and technology companies, connecting over 300 million customers globally through mobile, broadband, and digital services. In the UK, millions of people rely daily on Vodafone’s networks and digital products — from paying bills and topping up, to broadband, TV, and the MyVodafone app.

At the heart of this digital ecosystem is Vodafone’s Design and Content Chapter: a lean, multidisciplinary team of 12, tasked with creating seamless, user-first digital experiences at scale. Their mission is clear: put customer needs above all else and validate every design decision with real users.

But delivering against this mission came with challenges. With no dedicated research specialists on the team and a growing demand for rapid iteration, the team needed a way to embed research into everyone’s role — empowering designers, writers, and SEO specialists alike to test, learn, and iterate quickly.

To meet this challenge, Vodafone turned to Ballpark.

“The fact that Ballpark had so much capability — wireframe testing, five-second tests, templates — it actually speeds up your ability to do different kinds of testing. Even copy testing."

The Challenge — Research at Scale Without a Research Team

Vodafone’s design and content team sits at the heart of the company’s digital experience — responsible for journeys used by millions of customers across mobile, broadband, and enterprise services. Yet despite this scale, the team itself is small: just twelve people covering everything from UX design and content to SEO.

Without a dedicated researcher, they faced a familiar challenge — how to maintain quality and insight at the pace the business demanded. Traditional methods like in-person interviews or agency-run testing simply couldn’t keep up with the speed of iteration needed for digital products that serve millions daily.

“We have a lean team — everyone’s hybrid. Designers, writers, even SEO specialists are encouraged to speak to customers.”

At the same time, the team was in the middle of a huge transformation: replatforming Vodafone’s digital ecosystem onto a brand-new tech stack. Every part of the experience — broadband, mobile, billing, support — was being reimagined. The scale of that change demanded faster, more distributed ways of validating ideas before they went live.

The Approach — Lean, Continuous Testing with Ballpark

Ballpark became the backbone of Vodafone’s design validation process — a lightweight yet powerful layer that sat naturally within the team’s agile workflow. Instead of waiting for scheduled research cycles, designers and writers could now test live concepts as they worked: from early-stage wireframes to final copy.

Using Ballpark’s ready-made templates and AI-assisted setup, the team could launch studies in minutes — no specialist input required. They experimented with a mix of five-second tests, preference tests, and copy comparisons to understand how users perceived content and interacted with new layouts. The feedback loop that once took weeks could now happen within a few days in the same sprint.

The tool’s simplicity also made it inclusive. Designers who hadn’t run research before could confidently create and share tests, review data together, and discuss what to refine next. It turned research into a collaborative exercise rather than a specialist hand-off — something embedded in the creative process rather than bolted on at the end.

“Ballpark is quick. You can do many little small tests, then go for that big test to gain a better understanding.”

The team blended these unmoderated Ballpark studies with in-store conversations and customer intercepts, combining speed with depth. This hybrid model allowed them to check early signals online, then confirm insights face-to-face — creating a rhythm of continuous learning across digital and physical channels.

Over time, this approach reshaped the team’s mindset. Testing wasn’t a stage to complete; it became an everyday habit — the default response to uncertainty and the foundation for evidence-based design decisions at scale.

Impact: Transforming core journeys for millions of users

Ballpark has been central to several of Vodafone’s largest digital transformations, from reimagining its broadband sign-up experience to rebuilding mobile journeys on a new technology stack. The team used Ballpark throughout each stage — validating early wireframes, testing content variations, and comparing visual treatments before moving into live A/B experiments.

“We entirely redesigned our broadband journey last year. The initial tests were done in Ballpark — it gave us the hunches we needed before launching.”

Those early hunches paid off. The broadband relaunch doubled Vodafone’s digital product share, confirming that fast, iterative research could lead directly to measurable business outcomes.

After each Ballpark round, the team layered insights into controlled A/B tests, refining one element at a time — headlines, imagery, or call-to-action placement — to pinpoint what actually drove conversion.

The same approach shaped Vodafone’s new mobile purchase and support journeys, where Ballpark results guided layout, content, and tone decisions before in-store testing with real customers confirmed the direction.

Even naming exercises benefited. When launching a new connectivity product, internal teams leaned toward technical labels like 4G Backup. But Ballpark results showed customers preferred Always Connected — a phrase that spoke to peace of mind rather than infrastructure.

“When we tested names like ‘WiFi Rescue’ and ‘4G Backup’, most people actually picked ‘Always Connected’. It made us think differently about what we call our products.”

Together, these examples show how a lean testing culture, powered by Ballpark, allowed Vodafone’s small design team to shape experiences used by millions — and to prove, with data, that design decisions grounded in user feedback deliver real impact.

Cultural Shift — From Assumptions to Evidence

The biggest transformation wasn’t just in outcomes — it was in mindset. Vodafone’s team built a culture of evidence-based design, where every assumption is tested, and every designer feels responsible for user understanding.

By sharing Ballpark insights across other business units, they’ve shown stakeholders how qualitative research leads directly to better outcomes. Testing is no longer an optional step; it’s part of how decisions get made.

"If you just stay within your bubble, it’s not going to go anywhere. You have to bring other disciplines in and help them see the value of research."