Leading a Cultural Shift to Stop Fraud

Digital Adoption

Design & Experience Strategy Lead (2022)

Challenge

Acquisitions were up. Cancellations matched them one-to-one. Fraud from outsourced sales had made growth unsustainable.

The mandate was urgent and ambitious:

“Within 30 days, we need a secure, internal onboarding system that ensures every contract is traceable—and we cannot lose our customers in the process.”

This was not just a UX challenge. It was a cultural transformation, shifting from analog outsourcing to a digital-first, trust-driven model.

Solution

As UX Manager, my role wasn’t to design screens—it was to align conflicting forces under extreme pressure:
Leadership, pushing for full mandatory biometrics.
Engineering, advocating for multiple additional steps.
Users, resistant after years of frictionless, paper-based service.
I reframed the debate: the question wasn’t “how much data can we demand?” but “how much trust can we earn?”
Through workshops, daily decision forums, and usability tests, I guided the team to a hybrid strategy:
New customers → Full verification from day one (INE + live proof).
Existing customers → Progressive verification: phone, email, and password as mandatory; biometrics introduced as optional, framed as enhanced security rather than obligation.
This approach balanced fraud prevention with customer respect. It also shifted the company mindset: onboarding was no longer about paperwork—it was about building a trusted digital relationship.

Execution

Delivering in 30 days required more than sprint planning—it demanded orchestration across silos. I facilitated collaboration between legal, engineering, and operations, cutting through bureaucracy without losing compliance.

Key leadership decisions

Lean onboarding: removed attempts to overload the flow with upsells, addresses, and surveys.
Strategic framing: reframed verification as customer protection, not corporate control.
Respect for loyalty: refused to force 5M+ existing customers into re-verification overnight.

By turning conflict into collaboration and anchoring every discussion in long-term trust, I kept the team focused on impact over urgency.

UX decisions Guided by one principle—reduce fraud while keeping friction proportional to user context—we:

Replaced legacy account-number logins with phone OTP as the new entry point.
Added email for account statements and recovery.
Introduced device biometrics for secure and fast access.
Simplified the vendor platform’s face recognition and INE scan steps to reduce friction.
Placed biometric steps at logical, lower-friction moments: mandatory for new customers at service activation, optional for existing customers at payment flow with a security rationale.

Pilots & validation

Usability tests with 8 participants forecasted potential drop-off.
10,000-user “friends & family” pilot validated adoption among existing users.
7-day pilot in Iztapalapa confirmed new users perceived verification as standard and non-intrusive.

Despite stakeholder pressure, every feature launched on time. The only element staged progressively was user adoption itself.

“This flow feels standard for these kinds of contracts. I was surprised it wasn’t there before, and doing everything on paper didn’t give me much confidence.”

Ricardo, 33 years old

Interviewed user

Impact

Verified 4.75M users (phone + email) and 2.8M biometrics (INE + live proof).
Achieved a 95% reduction in fraud from contractor-led sales.
Increased app downloads by 25%, cementing it as the primary digital channel.
Completion rates: 70% within 3 months, reaching 95% by Q2.

But the real impact went beyond metrics:

For the first time in 12 years, the company owned its contracting process end-to-end.
Design led the way in replacing a broken sales culture with a digital-first, trust-based one.
This identity layer became the foundation for new revenue streams, from credit to digital marketplace services.
Design leadership replaced a broken sales culture with a digital-first, trust-based one.

Learnings

This initiative proved that design leadership is about orchestration, not just execution. By reframing the problem from fraud to trust, I turned a 30-day crisis into a lasting transformation.

Key learnings:

Aligning stakeholders is less about consensus and more about reframing priorities around trust.
Respecting existing customers builds deeper loyalty than enforcing compliance.
Design can lead culture change when framed not as control, but as empowerment.

Legacy

While fraud prevention was the driver, the new identity layer unlocked broader opportunities:

Credit services for over 1M users.
Household-level marketplace segmentation.
Progressive Digital Identity, opening the app to anyone—not just telco subscribers—fueling exponential growth and new revenue streams.

What began as a fraud-prevention initiative became the backbone for Totalplay’s evolution into a multi-service digital ecosystem.

Leading a Cultural Shift to Stop Fraud

Digital Adoption

Design & Experience Strategy Lead (2022)

Challenge

Acquisitions were up. Cancellations matched them one-to-one. Fraud from outsourced sales had made growth unsustainable.

The mandate was urgent and ambitious:

“Within 30 days, we need a secure, internal onboarding system that ensures every contract is traceable—and we cannot lose our customers in the process.”

This was not just a UX challenge. It was a cultural transformation, shifting from analog outsourcing to a digital-first, trust-driven model.

Solution

As UX Manager, my role wasn’t to design screens—it was to align conflicting forces under extreme pressure:
Leadership, pushing for full mandatory biometrics.
Engineering, advocating for multiple additional steps.
Users, resistant after years of frictionless, paper-based service.
I reframed the debate: the question wasn’t “how much data can we demand?” but “how much trust can we earn?”
Through workshops, daily decision forums, and usability tests, I guided the team to a hybrid strategy:
New customers → Full verification from day one (INE + live proof).
Existing customers → Progressive verification: phone, email, and password as mandatory; biometrics introduced as optional, framed as enhanced security rather than obligation.
This approach balanced fraud prevention with customer respect. It also shifted the company mindset: onboarding was no longer about paperwork—it was about building a trusted digital relationship.

Execution

Key leadership decisions

Lean onboarding: removed attempts to overload the flow with upsells, addresses, and surveys.
Strategic framing: reframed verification as customer protection, not corporate control.
Respect for loyalty: refused to force 5M+ existing customers into re-verification overnight.

By turning conflict into collaboration and anchoring every discussion in long-term trust, I kept the team focused on impact over urgency.

UX decisions Guided by one principle—reduce fraud while keeping friction proportional to user context—we:

Replaced legacy account-number logins with phone OTP as the new entry point.
Added email for account statements and recovery.
Introduced device biometrics for secure and fast access.
Simplified the vendor platform’s face recognition and INE scan steps to reduce friction.
Placed biometric steps at logical, lower-friction moments: mandatory for new customers at service activation, optional for existing customers at payment flow with a security rationale.

Pilots & validation

Usability tests with 8 participants forecasted potential drop-off.
10,000-user “friends & family” pilot validated adoption among existing users.
7-day pilot in Iztapalapa confirmed new users perceived verification as standard and non-intrusive.

Despite stakeholder pressure, every feature launched on time. The only element staged progressively was user adoption itself.

“This flow feels standard for these kinds of contracts. I was surprised it wasn’t there before, and doing everything on paper didn’t give me much confidence.”

Ricardo, 33 years old

Interviewed user

Impact

Verified 4.75M users (phone + email) and 2.8M biometrics (INE + live proof).
Achieved a 95% reduction in fraud from contractor-led sales.
Increased app downloads by 25%, cementing it as the primary digital channel.
Completion rates: 70% within 3 months, reaching 95% by Q2.

But the real impact went beyond metrics:

For the first time in 12 years, the company owned its contracting process end-to-end.
Design led the way in replacing a broken sales culture with a digital-first, trust-based one.
This identity layer became the foundation for new revenue streams, from credit to digital marketplace services.
Design leadership replaced a broken sales culture with a digital-first, trust-based one.

Learnings

This initiative proved that design leadership is about orchestration, not just execution. By reframing the problem from fraud to trust, I turned a 30-day crisis into a lasting transformation.

Key learnings:

Aligning stakeholders is less about consensus and more about reframing priorities around trust.
Respecting existing customers builds deeper loyalty than enforcing compliance.
Design can lead culture change when framed not as control, but as empowerment.

Legacy

While fraud prevention was the driver, the new identity layer unlocked broader opportunities:

Credit services for over 1M users.
Household-level marketplace segmentation.
Progressive Digital Identity, opening the app to anyone—not just telco subscribers—fueling exponential growth and new revenue streams.

What began as a fraud-prevention initiative became the backbone for Totalplay’s evolution into a multi-service digital ecosystem.

Julián Garnica

Leading a Cultural Shift to Stop Fraud

Digital Adoption

Design & Experience Strategy Lead (2022)

Challenge

Acquisitions were up. Cancellations matched them one-to-one. Fraud from outsourced sales had made growth unsustainable.

The mandate was urgent and ambitious:

“Within 30 days, we need a secure, internal onboarding system that ensures every contract is traceable—and we cannot lose our customers in the process.”

This was not just a UX challenge. It was a cultural transformation, shifting from analog outsourcing to a digital-first, trust-driven model.

Solution

As UX Manager, my role wasn’t to design screens—it was to align conflicting forces under extreme pressure:

Leadership, pushing for full mandatory biometrics.
Engineering, advocating for multiple additional steps.
Users, resistant after years of frictionless, paper-based service.

I reframed the debate: the question wasn’t “how much data can we demand?” but “how much trust can we earn?”

Through workshops, daily decision forums, and usability tests, I guided the team to a hybrid strategy:

New customers → Full verification from day one (INE + live proof).
Existing customers → Progressive verification: phone, email, and password as mandatory; biometrics introduced as optional, framed as enhanced security rather than obligation.

This approach balanced fraud prevention with customer respect. It also shifted the company mindset: onboarding was no longer about paperwork—it was about building a trusted digital relationship.

Execution

Key leadership decisions

Lean onboarding: removed attempts to overload the flow with upsells, addresses, and surveys.
Strategic framing: reframed verification as customer protection, not corporate control.
Respect for loyalty: refused to force 5M+ existing customers into re-verification overnight.

By turning conflict into collaboration and anchoring every discussion in long-term trust, I kept the team focused on impact over urgency.

UX decisions Guided by one principle—reduce fraud while keeping friction proportional to user context—we:

Replaced legacy account-number logins with phone OTP as the new entry point.
Added email for account statements and recovery.
Introduced device biometrics for secure and fast access.
Simplified the vendor platform’s face recognition and INE scan steps to reduce friction.
Placed biometric steps at logical, lower-friction moments: mandatory for new customers at service activation, optional for existing customers at payment flow with a security rationale.

Pilots & validation

Usability tests with 8 participants forecasted potential drop-off.
10,000-user “friends & family” pilot validated adoption among existing users.
7-day pilot in Iztapalapa confirmed new users perceived verification as standard and non-intrusive.

Despite stakeholder pressure, every feature launched on time. The only element staged progressively was user adoption itself.

“This flow feels standard for these kinds of contracts. I was surprised it wasn’t there before, and doing everything on paper didn’t give me much confidence.”

Ricardo, 33 years old

Interviewed user

Impact

Verified 4.75M users (phone + email) and 2.8M biometrics (INE + live proof).
Achieved a 95% reduction in fraud from contractor-led sales.
Increased app downloads by 25%, cementing it as the primary digital channel.
Completion rates: 70% within 3 months, reaching 95% by Q2.

But the real impact went beyond metrics:

For the first time in 12 years, the company owned its contracting process end-to-end.
Design led the way in replacing a broken sales culture with a digital-first, trust-based one.
This identity layer became the foundation for new revenue streams, from credit to digital marketplace services.
Design leadership replaced a broken sales culture with a digital-first, trust-based one.

Learnings

This initiative proved that design leadership is about orchestration, not just execution. By reframing the problem from fraud to trust, I turned a 30-day crisis into a lasting transformation.

Key learnings:

Aligning stakeholders is less about consensus and more about reframing priorities around trust.
Respecting existing customers builds deeper loyalty than enforcing compliance.
Design can lead culture change when framed not as control, but as empowerment.

Legacy

While fraud prevention was the driver, the new identity layer unlocked broader opportunities:

Credit services for over 1M users.
Household-level marketplace segmentation.
Progressive Digital Identity, opening the app to anyone—not just telco subscribers—fueling exponential growth and new revenue streams.

What began as a fraud-prevention initiative became the backbone for Totalplay’s evolution into a multi-service digital ecosystem.