Background

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The Skype product team at Microsoft was looking to better understand three types of Skype Users (Free, Paid & Churned) in the midst of COVID in order to drive engagement, increase retention and provide an international view of their customer base. To address their needs I conducted in-depth interviews in the US, oversaw interviews in India, and advised on the quantitative survey to follow. 

Through the qualitative portion I was able to define unique behaviors, needs, pain points, and motivators across Skype users. The most important finding being that Skype is easy to use and highly accessible worldwide but unreliable. This explained why its main use case was for friends and family and not used professionally. Knowing this prompted Skype to focus on improving video quality while also identifying which features to highlight with customers in order to have a better experience and improve engagement.