AT&T: New Product Development Support

Background

AT&T had recently launched AT&T CallVantage Service, a major new initiative to deliver a full complement of Voice over IP (VoIP) services to consumers. This was a highly strategic effort for AT&T at the time; according to then AT&T Chairman and CEO David Dorman, “VoIP is the most significant, fundamental new technology shift in telecommunications in decades.”

Business Problem

Callan Consulting’s involvement with AT&T’s VoIP new product initiative began when the product was in its very earliest stages of definition and development. The technology promised to provide a revolutionary new set of services, but many features would not be instantly familiar to consumers, thus creating the challenge of how to best package and communicate the value of the product and its new capabilities.

Solution

Callan Consulting assisted AT&T by performing new product development services in two respects. First it coordinated a series of new product development research efforts, beginning with consumer feature/functionality assessment of early-stage product prototypes in a usability lab setting. Multiple rounds of testing with product iteration in between yielded a significant improvement to the product in a very condensed time frame, in addition to a wealth of understanding of how to communicate the value of the new features to customers.

Callan then took the findings of these studies and worked with the new product development team to develop content to describe the product, features, and functionality, ultimately creating all content on the product website as well as all documentation including printed usage and installation guides and online FAQs.

Results

The product entered a consumer trial stage shortly after this engagement, with strong reviews from customers for both the website and the documentation. The strength of the customer feedback was instrumental to AT&T’s decision to launch a new VoIP offer in key markets across the nation.

Further, AT&T’s satisfaction with Callan Consulting's new product development services performed for the trial prompted them to retain Callan Consulting to perform the same role coordinating, editing, and developing all customer-facing content for the consumer launch of the product and beyond.

Client Feedback

“Callan Consulting has been instrumental in assisting AT&T to create a compelling and ubiquitous representation of the VoIP service and its advanced features across AT&T’s websites, web portal, and various types of literature.”