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ABOUT
Largest beer manufacturer in the world
INDUSTRY
Food & Beverage, Consumer Apps, Tech
OCCURRED IN
2018
KEY TAGS
UX ResearchProduct DesignMobile
The Cost of Skipping Research
A coupon app. A beverage giant. A redesign gone wrong.
What is Pedida de Hoje
A coupon-based app backed by a major beverage brand. Pick a bar, grab a coupon, show it to the waiter — simple in theory.
Get the coupon
Choose your pedida and get a coupon
Show it to the waiter
Redeem at the bar and enjoy discount
The Challenge
The project shifted from a coupon app to a full bar guide, with three goals:
Local Pubs and Restaurants
Expanded visibility and measurable revenue growth
Digital App Users Community
More control, convenience, and tailored offers
Partner Beverage Company
Stronger market share and sustainable engagement
But the first mistake came early:
Mateus Garcia
Product & Operational Leader
We need to update fast — no time for UX studies
First mistake! 👈
The Process
The client pushed us to skip research and go straight to development. We shipped fast — but without validating a single user need.
Symbol
A fresh symbol to the new product vision
Places
Restaurants and bars searchable by location and deal
Preferences
Genre and beer type filters to personalize discovery
This satisfied the stakeholder. It didn't satisfy the users. Second mistake! 👈
What goes around comes around
Within a week, ratings dropped from 4 to 2 stars. Users weren't just disappointed — they were vocal.
before launch
“Really useful for finding daily discounts. Saved me a lot of money”
After launch
“Used to love the coupons, now it's just a clunky restaurant finder”
Our stakeholder called us saying:
Alexandra Stravisky
Head of Digital Product
Users are complaining a lot… what's going on?
Getting Back to Basics
We went to Fortaleza — home to 58% of our users — and talked to customers, bar owners, and field teams.
Bar owners
End users
Operational team
Bar owners
End users
Operational team
Three things surfaced immediately:
Waiter incentives
Tips (10% of bill) discouraged waiters from promoting the app, since coupons reduced their earnings
Price Gap
Real-world test: users saved 38% — 3 beers + snacks for R$28 vs. R$45.50 without the coupon
Manual validation
Paper coupons caused fraud, harming inventory, user experience, and reporting.
Deliverables
With research grounding our decisions, we shipped three key changes:
Coupon Authentication
Faster, fraud-proof validation for waiters at the point of sale
Consumption Awareness
Showed users how much they saved, making the app's value tangible
Results
After several iterations, the product recovered — both in numbers and in trust.
From 2★ to 4.2★
The redesign brought users back — ratings recovered, invites grew, and coupon generation climbed steadily through the year
Social invites boost
WhatsApp and Facebook sharing lifted invites by ~20%
Coupon growth
Coupon generation rose steadily Jan–Jul after the redesign
Rising sign-ups
New registrations grew throughout the year despite optional onboarding
Final Thoughts
Every shortcut has a cost. Here's what we learned the hard way:
Skipping research costs users
Nearly 1/3 churned — a direct result of shipping without validation
Going native doubled our workload
Native approach doubled our work. A hybrid app could have saved time and money
One person cannot wear every hat
Wearing PO and design hats simultaneously exposed real limits
No one delivers alone. This project was tough — but it shaped how I think about research, constraints, and long-term impact.