Research

The research combined competitive analysis, a user survey, user interviews, and usability testing — aimed at understanding the full experience: how users discover eSIM, what stops them from adopting it, where uncertainty shows up during purchase, and what they need once it's active.

Competitor analysis

The research started by comparing Monobank, Kyivstar, Vodafone, Airalo, and Lifecell on purchase channels, onboarding information, number transfer, tariff selection, device setup, and payment options — to spot common patterns and gaps.

User survey

A 25-question survey with 108 respondents was run to understand eSIM adoption, awareness, and past experience. The headline finding: 58% of respondents don't currently use eSIM, and of those non-users, 39.7% said the reason was simply not knowing how it works.

User interviews

16 interviews were conducted — 11 with existing eSIM users, 5 with people who didn't use eSIM yet but were open to it — to understand the reasons behind the survey patterns and see how people actually used eSIMs day to day.

The interviews surfaced recurring friction around device compatibility, number selection, purchase cost, and eSIM recovery. They also surfaced needs that went beyond the purchase flow itself: people often treated eSIM as a second number for security, travel, or backup connectivity, wanted to manage family members' mobile accounts, and wanted more control over automatic payments.

Personas & customer journey maps

Research findings were synthesized into a core user persona and Customer Journey Maps, connecting individual usability issues to the bigger picture. The journeys highlighted recurring moments of uncertainty: losing connectivity, discovering eSIM as a fix, transferring an existing number, completing setup, and recovering access. They also pointed to opportunities for clearer education, guided setup, better transfer communication, and stronger confirmation states.

Defining the opportunities

Research findings were turned into "How Might We" questions to translate recurring problems into design opportunities — around eSIM discoverability, clearer purchase and transfer flows, more control over payments, and simpler ongoing management. These became the foundation for brainstorming solutions.

Problems & solutions

01 — Low awareness of eSIM

Most non-users didn't know eSIM was even available. 39.7% of non-users said it's because they don't understand how it works. Only 5.8% of actual users discovered it through the Monobank app itself — most heard about it elsewhere.

Solution: Monobank previously used story-style banners to highlight features, but had since removed them. We brought eSIM stories back to Home and Profile, and added one directly to the Other Payments top-up flow.

02 — Lack of clarity around eSIM costs

Users didn't understand what the eSIM price was actually made up of. Checkout showed one total price, but didn't explain that part of it was the service fee and the rest was already a starting balance on the eSIM. Users assumed the full price was just for the service itself, so after buying, they'd top up the balance again — not realizing they already had funds sitting there from the original purchase.

Solution: Showed the future balance, service cost, and total cost as separate, labeled line items at checkout.

03 — Unclear device compatibility

Users also didn't understand whether their devices supported eSIM. There were cases where a user transferred their number to eSIM, only to discover afterward that their device didn't support it. There were also cases where the device did support eSIM, but installation failed — because the app wasn't updated. Device compatibility information sat on the last screen of the purchase flow, in small text, and users didn't notice it.

Solution: Added a confirmation on the first screen of the eSIM purchase flow, showing whether the device supports eSIM, doesn't support it, or needs an app update.

04 — Lack of control over auto-renewal

We also asked users what concerns them about enabling autopayment, and what discourages them from turning it on. 45% of interview respondents and 80% of survey respondents said it's important for them to confirm the charge before autopayment happens, so they can stay in control — in case the tariff price changes, or their plans simply change.

Solution: Added an optional confirmation step before each renewal payment.

05 — Limited functionality for managing additional numbers

25.7% of users top up two numbers monthly, 8.6% top up three. Several wanted a way to manage family members' numbers too — one already tracks her father's and son's balances manually.

Solution: Let users add multiple numbers, request extended access to another person's account, and approve or decline those requests.

06 — No option to remove a number or eSIM

Users couldn't remove added numbers or delete their own eSIM. Not raised by users directly — it surfaced while auditing the existing flows, and it's a clear usability gap: no way to undo a mistake once a number is added.

Solution: Added the ability to remove numbers and permanently delete an eSIM.

07 — Low awareness of SIM-to-eSIM transfer

Through interviews and testing, we found that awareness of number transfer from a physical SIM to eSIM is very low — only 4% of survey respondents and 9% of interview respondents knew this service existed. Those who did know about it ran into problems: users generally struggled to figure out where to find the feature, and also didn't understand that transferring a number from another operator would make them a Lifecell subscriber.

Solution: Made transfer a separate, visible action, and split the flow for Lifecell vs. other operators.

08 — Insufficient verification during number transfer

The most serious issue found — not raised by users, but surfaced while testing the flow directly. Anyone with someone else's number and brief phone access could transfer it to their own eSIM, since verification was just an SMS code and a call confirmation. Nothing told the person that transferring made them the new legal owner. The stakeholder called this out as the most important finding of the project.

Solution: Replace SMS/call verification with PUK-code verification, restrict transfers to numbers already on the user's device, and clearly state that completing a transfer makes the user the new owner.

Scoped out: eSIM recovery after device loss

Losing a phone with an active eSIM is just as painful to recover from as losing a physical SIM — 16% of interviewees had faced this. Left in the backlog since it depends on carrier-side changes outside Monobank's control. One quick idea proposed: include recovery details in the post-purchase email.

Usability Testing

After the solutions were built into interactive prototypes, usability testing checked for remaining issues and validated the redesign. Testing covered five core scenarios — eSIM discovery, eSIM purchase, number transfer, eSIM removal, and extended access management — measuring time on task, errors, misclicks, and task success.

Results

  • 92–100% task success across 5 of 5 core flows

  • 0 errors across 5 of 5 tested flows

  • 100% task success for number transfer and extended access flows

Key improvements
The strongest improvement was seen in the eSIM purchase flow:

  • Task success: 0% → 92%

  • Errors: 6 → 0

  • Misclicks: 4 → 1

Number transfer flow — faster, with a 100% success rate maintained

  • Average time on task: 82 sec → 70 sec

  • Errors: 0

  • Task success: 100%

These two flows — purchase and transfer — were also the ones with the most friction going into the project, so the biggest gains landed exactly where they were needed most.

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