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Q&A with giffgaff's CTO
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Steve McDonald
6:50
If you’ve not bought a phone in a while, you might not have seen it, but improvements to this are one of the first victories of a new way of working that we moved into in 2019. Previously, there were three results that someone could run into when they applied for a phone on a pay monthly basis. If they were accepted or declined, then they knew where they were, but the third state, referral, was where it got tricky. For people whose credit history wasn’t a clear decision, their application was manually checked, and if they were successful at that stage, they’d have to apply again, and get an automatic approval.
Following interviews with members and direct feedback, we’ve improved the design through careful iteration. There will always be people whose applications we need to check, but in the case where someone is referred, they now no longer need to go through the entire application process - we will pre-fill their order with all of their previous information, allowing a much smoother checkout. We’ve seen people much more likely to get the phone they want when using this process.

Key to iterative development though is that improvements can always be made, and we want to keep making them - so make sure you’re feeding back on the community about pain points you’ve seen and they’ll form problem statements for the product teams to solve.
Will Templeton
6:52
Hey folks, if you've got any last-minute questions, get them in now - we'll be needing to wind down around 7pm. Thanks so much for your questions so far :)
cool 1
Angelfiad
6:54
5G Will 5G be available on GiffGaff & will we need to buy a new phone?
stephenjk
6:54
Can you share your plans on 5g now that o2 have launched their g5 network?  When can we expect 5g coverage and phones?
Steve McDonald
6:54
From a Technology perspective, we’re already gearing up to support the launch of 5G on giffgaff. We’re working hard to make sure that all of giffgaff’s infrastructure can make the best use of 5G as it rolls out, and we’re testing directly with members as well. That way, when we launch 5G as an option to buy, it’ll work for you right out of the gate in a way that works for everyone on giffgaff who wants it.

I’d love to be able to give you a sneak preview of our launch date, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for that - watch this space.
suppers_ready
6:57
When will giffgaff begin providing access to itemised usage? The data has to be collected for billing purposes so why can't it then be presented to the customer? There is much evidence across the forum that most other mvnos do this, some who have been in operation for a shorter time than giffgaff.
Steve McDonald
6:57
We’ve done a lot of work over the past couple of years to bring our charging system and main site closer together, as historically the integrations between the two have been somewhat limited. We are now in a position where it’s technically possible to make this data available across all our systems. There would still be a fair bit of work though to present this to members. We’ll be doing more Q&As in the future with other areas of the business who might be able to give you a peek at whether this will be in our future roadmap.
Sy
6:58
If you got locked in at HQ over night, which staff members (from any team) would you choose to be stuck with?
Steve McDonald
6:58
I'm pretty much locked in at the moment, and Roxy and Will are pretty good company!
Andy
7:01
Hi, I'm wondering when you will be creating a family account so one user can control and pay for the whole family SIM's?
Steve McDonald
7:01
We’ve had a lot of members tell us that this is something that they want and it is proving to be quite a significant piece of work so we have decided to tackle it in smaller bits. Our new Beta app offers the ability to switch accounts, which is our first step in getting closer to family or linked accounts.

Have a look at our Beta app and tell us what you think: https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33030662-be-part-of-testing-our-new-b...
Tina
7:03
Are giffgaff planning to look at the gap in the market with O2s classic PAYG rate disappearing.  Is there any plan to explore a more competitive PAYG rate through Telefonica's giffgaff subsidary?  My mother does not have a smartphone and would move to giffgaff if the PAYG rates were better (she is currently with Tesco but gets free credit with each top up)
Steve McDonald
7:03
This is a question more for our Marketing folks, but I’ll make sure that I pass on your thoughts. I know that we’re always looking at our place in the market and how we can make sure that we’re giving great value to members, but my role is more about making sure we can deliver future goodybag and pricing changes smoothly and well, rather than specifically what those changes are.
Sy
7:04
Will you be attending the 10th anniversary party on December 7th?
Steve McDonald
7:04
I'm on Dad duty but I'll be following along at home when I can.
richybhoy36
7:04
Hi will Giffgaff ever implement the lend us a quid ??
Steve McDonald
7:04
Never say never - we’ll always prioritise what we work on based on what members want as a whole and the value it gives to everyone who uses giffgaff. You might remember that we experimented with a project called Credit Cushion towards the end of last year, which would have achieved some of these goals. A big part of our working style is based on experimentation, and what we learned from that implementation is that it wasn’t quite working for members in the best way. Your feedback on the forum and through things like giffgaff Pioneers will really help us shape new products and features like this in the future.
Sy
7:06
Thanks for chatting to us this evening!
Steve McDonald
7:06
Thank you, it's been awesome to hear from you all - I've really enjoyed it.
Will Templeton
7:09
Thank you everyone for joining us - there'll be another Q&A with a member of our leadership team coming along in the next few months. If you're coming to our 10th birthday party in December, we'll be running one in person there as well. Thanks again for all your questions!
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