This is the story of a critical product issue that quietly escalated into a full-blown customer experience crisis and how your product/ops team solved it.
Between February and April 2025, the Think School support team started receiving an unusual surge in customer complaints on the Communication Masterclass platform. The most common problem? Users couldn’t log in. Every single day, the support inbox was flooded with over 100 emails, the majority of which were about users unable to access their course simply because they had forgotten their passwords.
This may sound small but it created a ripple effect that began to affect everything.
On the surface, users were frustrated. They had paid for a premium course, were eager to learn, but got stuck at the very first step: logging in. Under the surface, the internal support team was overwhelmed constantly responding to repetitive tickets, delaying responses to more important issues, and wasting time on problems that should never have existed in the first place. Morale was dropping. Productivity was getting hit. And the customer experience was taking a measurable nosedive.
That’s when the Product Ops team decided to run a proper investigation.
Using the 5 Whys framework a classic root cause analysis tool used in operational excellence the team started peeling back the layers of the problem.
Why were users unable to access the course? Because they were entering the wrong passwords or couldn’t remember the one they had set.
Why were they forgetting passwords? Because the system demanded complex ones with capital letters, numbers, symbols and users were already managing too many passwords across platforms.
Why did we require such complex passwords? For security to ensure only the paying user got access.
Why was the platform relying solely on password-based access? Because that was the default authentication method built into the system during the initial development phase.
Why couldn’t we try a more user-friendly method? That’s when the team realized something crucial a mobile-based OTP login flow could offer the same level of access control and security, without any of the password friction.
This insight became the breakthrough.
The team designed and implemented a mobile-based OTP login system, where the user simply enters their phone number, receives a 4-digit OTP via SMS, and logs in instantly. No password needed. No need to remember which email was used. No need to reset credentials when logging in from another device.
And the results were immediate.
Support queries related to login dropped to zero. The login success rate shot up, even for returning users. Users who had previously dropped off due to access issues were now coming back. In fact, the course completion rate increased by 15–20%, thanks to the smoother experience and reduced frustration. On top of that, because users were now verifying their mobile numbers, the system could send reminders and nudges via SMS further boosting long-term engagement and course completion.
This wasn’t just a small fix. It was an end-to-end resolution of a recurring operational bottleneck one that improved CX, reduced internal pressure, and boosted the core business metric that matters most: course completion.
Your job now is simple:
Imagine you’re presenting this to the senior management team at Think School.
Prepare a 2–3 minute update that explains:
- Why this issue was more dangerous than it seemed
- How your team solved it end-to-end
- And why this is one of the most important “small wins” that enabled Think School to scale its educational product without burning out its team
When you’re done hit record. Let’s go.
