Biometric Verification for Digital Market Entry

Telefónica, operating under the Movistar brand, needed to enter the Chilean mobile market but faced a critical constraint: no budget or timeline to build a brick-and-mortar store network. Their strategy required a completely digital approach—customers would receive their new phones and activate service remotely through biometric contract signing.

As Director overseeing Trust products, I recognized this as both a business opportunity and a product transformation challenge. The deal represented significant ARR potential, but delivering required modernizing a legacy acquisition into an enterprise-grade solution.

I worked directly with Movistar leadership, our product development team, and client stakeholders to outline a three-phase approach that would enable rapid market entry while progressively improving the user experience and product capabilities.

The 7-Step Experience: Users received their new phone with pre-programmed Movistar service locked until contract completion. The biometric workflow guided them through face-to-ID verification, matching their facial biometrics to their government-issued ID card, and capturing their signature—all on the device itself. This seamless experience met government mandates, protected against fraud, and enabled immediate service activation.

As Director of UX for Trust products, I took direct ownership of modernizing OnSite ID to meet enterprise requirements. This meant going beyond typical directorial oversight to hands-on design and product strategy work.

This combination of strategic direction and hands-on execution enabled rapid transformation of an acquisition product into an enterprise solution that not only met Movistar's needs but established OnSite ID as a scalable offering for other major telecoms.

Conversion Success: The modernized workflow improved verification completion from 73% to 81%—an 8-point lift that directly translated to more activated customers and increased revenue for Movistar. This improvement came with minimal task time impact (+3%), meaning users completed verification more successfully without significantly longer sessions.

Business Impact: The Telefónica Movistar deal now accounts for over 5% of Trust's overall annual recurring revenue, representing one of the department's most significant client relationships. The success validated our three-phase approach and demonstrated the value of strategic product modernization.

Market Validation: The successful deployment sparked interest from Virgin Mobile Chile for a similar solution, confirming the market demand for enterprise-ready biometric verification in the telecom sector. OnSite ID transformed from an acquisition asset into a proven enterprise product with pipeline opportunities.

Government Compliance: The solution met all Chilean regulatory requirements for biometric contract signing while providing a user experience that mainstream consumers could complete successfully. This balance of compliance and usability became a key competitive differentiator.

Product Transformation: Most importantly, the project transformed OnSite ID from a legacy acquisition with strong underlying technology into an enterprise-ready product. The modernization established patterns and standards that could be applied to other Trust products and positioned Sovos for future telecom opportunities across Latin America.

Acquisitions require intentional modernization: Strong underlying technology (like OnSite ID's biometric SDK) isn't enough for enterprise success. Legacy UI, unclear instructions, and minimal accessibility considerations prevent adoption. Systematic modernization transforms technical capability into market-ready products.

Phased delivery enables rapid market entry: The three-phase approach let Movistar launch on schedule while we progressively improved the experience. Phase 1 enabled market entry, Phase 2 improved conversion, Phase 3 created enterprise sustainability. This beats "wait until perfect" every time.

Client collaboration drives product excellence: Working directly with Telefónica Movistar throughout development ensured the solution met real-world requirements. Their feedback shaped instructional design, flow improvements, and accessibility enhancements that benefited all future deployments.

Regulatory compliance as design constraint: Government mandates for biometric verification initially seemed limiting but actually focused the design challenge: how do we meet strict requirements while maintaining high conversion? The constraint forced creative solutions that improved the overall experience.

Conversion lift without time penalty: The 73→81% conversion improvement with only +3% task time impact proves that better UX doesn't mean slower UX. Clear instructions, visual guidance, and accessibility improvements helped users complete verification more successfully without making the process tedious.

One success creates market momentum: Virgin Mobile Chile's interest following the Movistar deployment demonstrates how reference customers accelerate B2B sales. The visible success story became more valuable than any pitch deck—it proved the solution works at scale with a recognized brand.