SaskTel

SaskTel is Saskatchewan's leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provider, serving 1.2 million customers across the province with over 3,300 employees and generating more than $1.2 billion in revenue. As a Crown corporation competing against national telecommunications giants, SaskTel faces the dual challenge of meeting rising customer self-service expectations while modernizing legacy systems built over decades.

The central challenge was a digital experience that could not keep pace with rising customer expectations. A single platform attempted to serve both consumer and business audiences, resulting in compromised experiences for both. The mySASKTEL portal, mobile app, sasktel.com, and third-party payment system operated as disconnected silos, yet customers perceived them as one unified experience. When transitions between systems felt jarring, especially around billing and payments, it eroded trust and forced customers to call support.

Research revealed critical friction points: bills were difficult to interpret, the mobile app suffered technical glitches that destroyed confidence, and navigation used internal terminology that didn't match customer mental models. SaskTel needed more than cosmetic updates. The organization required a foundation-first digital transformation, but internal capacity was constrained and the pace of change demanded dedicated design expertise working inside the organization.

SaskTel engaged zu through a staff augmentation model, embedding design resources directly into product teams and agile workflows. Rather than operating as an external vendor, zu designers attended standups, retrospectives, and sprint planning sessions as integrated team members, leading customer experience strategy while collaborating with internal development, product, and marketing teams.

The work followed a phased evolution strategy, the mySASKTEL Consumer Evolution. The first phase split the platform into dedicated consumer and business experiences, then rebuilt information architecture using card sorting and tree testing. Core tasks like billing, data usage tracking, and account management were prioritized, ensuring the platform served actual customer needs first.

User research drove every decision. zu conducted heuristic evaluations, competitive analysis, usability testing, and journey mapping to identify friction and validate direction. Prototypes were tested with real users before development, catching issues early and saving implementation costs.

The second phase addressed communication and personalization. Complex billing data was distilled into simple visual representations showing customers exactly what they owed and why. Data limits were visualized with intuitive metaphors to explain throttling. The third phase focused on ecosystem unity, designing API integrations to keep payments inside the mySASKTEL interface so customers never felt lost.

Beyond the customer portal, zu improved frontline staff tools. An admin dashboard gave service representatives visibility into the customer experience and consolidated key actions, reducing call times and errors. The mobile app received a comprehensive audit, prioritizing technical reliability over new features and modernizing visual design to meet user expectations.

Throughout the engagement, zu contributed to SaskTel's design system, ensuring consistency across touchpoints. Detailed documentation and collaborative sessions enabled internal teams to implement designs confidently, even as priorities shifted.

The unified platform now serves over 250,000 customers and empowers 700+ employees with streamlined tools. By fixing billing clarity, improving self-serve functionality, and eliminating jarring transitions, SaskTel moved from confusing utility to transparent partner. The embedded staff augmentation model proved essential, building trust and delivering research-backed design leadership through a complex, multi-year transformation.