52% Increase in Trial Starts
Project Overview
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Role: Senior Product Manager (Packaging, Billing and Support)
Company: Philo (Live TV Streaming Service)
Scope: Increase Trial Starts
Team: 1 Android engineer, 1 product designer
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​Background
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With the introduction of our FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) product, we also enabled Universal Search on platforms like Roku. Universal Search allows users to search for a piece of content on their device, and if that content is available in our product, they can watch it immediately—without creating an account or paying. This flow created a new acquisition entry point.
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Problem
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Users who entered the experience through Universal Search were considered uncredentialed. These users could browse and watch our freemium catalog, and upgrade to the premium (paid) product at any time. During the upgrade experience, a user had to:
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Enter an email using the TV remote
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Navigate through multiple screens
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Complete the billing steps
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All of these steps resulted in 50+ clicks before the user could start a trial.
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Hypothesis
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If we reduce friction in the FAST → Paid upgrade flow on TV devices by addressing value communication, input complexity, and billing steps, then upgrade completion and trial start rates will increase meaningfully.
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Approach
​Working closely with the Android engineer, we identified the three largest friction points and iterated through solutions.
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1. Introduce Value Prop Before Upgrade Flow
Users previously had no context for why they should upgrade—only that the selected content required a paid plan.
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Solution: We added a Value Proposition screen as the first step to clearly communicates what benefits come with upgrading.
Impact: Increased clarity + reduced drop-off before users even attempted the flow.
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2. Add Quick Sign-In with Amazon
Typing an email using a Fire TV remote is a major friction point and primary conversion killer.
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Solution: Leverage “Quick Sign-In with Amazon”. This flow immediately retrieves the user’s email from Amazon and eliminates typing entirely.​
Result: Significantly reduced abandonment on the credential step + reduce the amount of taps users have to make.
3. Simplified Billing Flow: Direct to Amazon Billing
Original billing required multiple intermediate steps.
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Solution: We streamlined the entire flow by skip redundant screens + taking users directly to Amazon billing​
Impact: A dramatic reduction in effort + improved conversion completion.
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Results
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After running multiple A/B tests we saw an overall 52% increase in trial starts from the uncredentialed FAST flow to our paid product.
Additionally, we saw a huge reduction in clicks (50+ → 5+).
This enhancement materially improved subscription acquisition without requiring new content, new marketing, or new incentives—only UX and funnel optimization.​​