June 1, 2022

From Self-Care to Super-App

Transformed five telco self-care apps into a regional super-app ecosystem across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco, driving a 31% increase in Monthly Active Users group-wide.

Task

Reimagining five telco self-care apps as a regional super-app ecosystem, expanding beyond connectivity into payments, loyalty, ride hailing, and everyday lifestyle services.

  • Strategy

    Design Direction, UX Strategy, User Experience Design

  • Design

    UX design

  • Client

    e& Group - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt

  • Team

    3 internal designers + 5 on-ground agency partners

  • Stakeholders

    Product, Engineering, IT, Group Leadership, Local Governments

01 // Project Overview

Reimagining five telco apps as a regional super-app ecosystem for e& Etisalat Group.

Across five markets, e& Etisalat operated self-care apps that did one thing: let customers manage their telco account, top up data, pay bills, and handle roaming. Functional, but limited. With telco growth slowing to 2–9% annually and technologies like Starlink disrupting the market, the group needed to transform its apps from utility tools into indispensable daily platforms.

The vision: Become the Careem or Uber of the region — a super-app per market combining telco services with payments, ride hailing, food ordering, loyalty programmes, and dedicated customer support, all under one roof.

02 // Challenges

The design challenge wasn't just adding features. It was coherence at scale.

Telco apps were becoming commoditised. Customers used them transactionally and left. Each of the five markets had its own cultural expectations, regulatory requirements, and service mix, meaning a flow that worked in Saudi Arabia needed significant rethinking for Afghanistan. The core tension: creating a world-class, consistent super-app experience while navigating five different governments, five different regulators, and five very different user bases, all simultaneously.

03 // The Strategy

The Strategy

I aligned with Strategy and M&A on which services were being considered or acquired per market, then defined the super-app experience around six pillars of the digital customer lifecycle, each with clear 2030 targets:

Digital Acquisition

Target:
 10–30% online sales
by 2030
Key projects:
 eSIM, Product Selection,
Checkout

Digital Engagement

Target:
300% increase in Monthly Active Users by 2030
Key projects:
Loyalty Programme

Digital Onboarding

Target:
80% of smartphone base on app by 2030
Key projects:
Digital KYC, Consent Management, App Tutorials

Digital Transactions

Target:
50% of MAUs transacting by 2030
Key projects:
Payments, Billing

Digital Care

Target:
70–80% of care interactions digital by 2030
Key projects:
Troubleshooting for Fixed Line, Postpaid & Prepaid

Digital Retention

Target:
<30% uninstall rate by 2030
Key projects:
App Churn Models in partnership with CVM
Mask group
Mask group-1
Mask group-3
04 // Approach

Every market required a different approach.

We combined on-ground workshops, design thinking, rapid prototyping in Figma, and in-market usability testing, navigating government collaboration and regulatory approval at every step, particularly for Digital KYC where compliance demanded as much diplomacy as design skill.

On-Ground Discovery

Remote research wasn’t an option. We ran in-market workshops across all five countries, embedding ourselves in each market to capture nuances that data alone couldn’t surface.

  • Each market required its own discovery sprint before design began
  • Workshops aligned product, engineering, IT and local teams simultaneously

Design thinking & rapid prototyping

Structured discovery sessions brought all stakeholders into alignment before any design work began, keeping iterations tight and feedback loops short.

  • Design thinking sessions run at the start of each pillar to align on goals
  • Rapid iteration cycles reduced the time between brief and validated design

Usability testing

Every major journey was tested in-market with real users, woven throughout the process, not saved for the end.

  • Audiences ranged from tech-savvy urban users in Saudi Arabia to first-time smartphone users in Afghanistan
  • Findings fed directly back into design iterations before development handoff.

Government collaboration

Regulatory approval was our most significant blocker, demanding patience and diplomacy as much as design skill.

  • Every design decision needed legal sign-off before moving to development
  • Collaboration with regulators shaped the final experience as much as user research did
0
Customer journeys designed and developed
0
e& country brands served
Market Status Timeline Key Features Added
Pakistan Launched 18 months Vouchers, Careem Rides, TV & Streaming, Loyalty & Gamification
Afghanistan Launched 20–24 months Jobs, Food Delivery, Vouchers, TV & Streaming, Loyalty & Gamification
Egypt Launched 14 months Vouchers, TV & Streaming, Loyalty & Gamification
Saudi Arabia In Progress — Vouchers, TV & Streaming, Loyalty & Gamification
Morocco In Progress — Vouchers, TV & Streaming, Ride Hailing, Food Ordering, Loyalty & Gamification

Super-App Screens by Market

A selection of screens from the super-app rollout across markets, showing the evolution from basic self-care to a full lifestyle platform.

05 // Super-App Screens by Market

01 Pakistan

A unified onboarding experience for 3 apps combined into 1 simple onboarding flow for all user types.

  • New user registration
  • Existing users (postpaid, prepaid, fixed, tourist lines)
  • Account linking
  • Consent Management
  • Deletion of account

02 Afghanistan

Revamped journeys to incorporate multiple sim types, payment methods and adjacencies.

  • Physical/E-Sim/Port-in
  • Postpaid, Prepaid, Tourist, FTTH, 5G
  • Recharge
  • Exclusive offers
  • Cart & Add on’s

03 Morocco

Multiple Accounts interoperability, seamless post login onboarding experiences.

  • Account link
  • Post login onboarding
  • Help & Troubleshooting
  • Customer Care

04 KSA

See exclusive account rewards, upgrade plan and pay your bills.

  • Downgrade/Upgrade Plan
  • TV, Streamling and Gaming
  • Offers & Rewards
  • Customer Care
  • Pay Bills
06 // Impact

Impact & Outcomes

0
Increase in
Digital Gross Additions

Across the group following Digital KYC implementation

0
Digital Transacting Users

following Consent Management rollout

0
Monthly Active Users

Increase across all markets selfcare apps

0
Decrease in call centre volumes

Through the rollout of the new Troubleshooting flow

07 // Reflection

Reflection

Shaping a super-app across five regulated markets meant navigating M&A timelines, government approvals, competing product priorities, and deeply different user expectations, all simultaneously. On multiple occasions, our research and testing revealed that services being proposed by M&A or required by regulators would create friction or distrust for users. We raised those findings, presented the evidence, and in several cases successfully influenced the direction of the product, not just the design of it.

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