Sports · Subscription · Research
Uncovering why families weren't upgrading — and reframing the free-to-premium experience around what the research actually said.
After downloading the NCSA app, 67% of users never entered a premium membership — yet premium accounted for 86% of college commitments that were both academic and athletic fits.
I led the research effort end-to-end: customer usability sessions, sales-team ride-alongs, stakeholder interviews, and an A/B test that translated the findings into a 10% lift in premium enrollment.
67%
Free users who never upgraded
the problem we started with
10%
Lift in premium enrollment
after full rollout, two months in
8%
Lift in A/B test
10% of the membership pool
Project at a glance
Company
NCSA (Next College Student Athlete) · IMG Academy
Industry
Sports · Recruiting · Subscription
Product
NCSA mobile app — free & premium experience
Phase
Discovery · Research · A/B test · Rollout
My role
Lead UX Researcher
Methods
Usability testing, stakeholder & sales-team interviews, A/B testing, synthesis
Partners
Sales, marketing, product management
Output
Research synthesis, opportunity areas, validated recommendations
The Context
NCSA helps prospective college athletes get recruited — the premium tier is where the real value lives: direct messaging with coaches, the path-to-college task list, and the coach-activity report. The free experience teased these features but mostly hid them behind greyed-out states.
Leadership feared that exposing pricing in-app would scare families away. The research told a different story — opacity, not price, was the conversion blocker.
The problem
Why aren't free NCSA users upgrading to premium — and what would the free experience and the sales conversation need to look like for at least 10% more of them to convert?
That single target — a 10% lift — became the bar every recommendation had to clear, in test and in rollout.
Methodology
01
Tested the existing free-member flow with parents and student-athletes — captured first impressions, dead ends, and assumptions about pricing.
02
Sat with sales reps as they walked families through memberships — surfaced the real script, the objections, and the moments families dropped off.
03
Worked with the product partner and marketing leadership to understand the fear of in-app pricing and align on what we could safely test.
04
Tested original vs. redesign with 10% of the membership pool, then expanded to 100% — measuring premium enrollment over two months.
Voices from research
"I thought NCSA was free to a point, but becomes subscription-based once the profile is complete."
— Brian, NCSA parent
"I have a standard account. I'm not aware of what the premium memberships offer."
— Trevon, NCSA student athlete
"The membership options are hidden under this swoosh logo. We don't want to scare away potential members by our prices being too high."
— Internal stakeholder
Key findings
01
The swoosh icon hiding the membership options tested as invisible. Families assumed the app was the product — not a preview of it.
02
Empty membership boxes signaled what users didn't get. They didn't communicate why the upgrade was worth it.
03
When pricing was paired with monthly installment options, families engaged more — not less. The fear of sticker shock was overblown when the payment structure was visible.
04
Once families could see plans on their own, reps spent less time explaining tiers and more time tailoring to budget — a faster, better conversation.
Research recommendations
01
Replace empty 'you don't get this' boxes with plan cards that lead with benefits. Pair pricing with monthly installment options so families could self-evaluate fit.
02
Bring the login and onboarding surfaces into parity with the NCSA / IMG Academy brand refresh — research showed the dated visual layer eroded trust before users reached the value prop.
03
Research showed families wanted to evaluate plans on their own before a sales call. Move the membership entry point out from under the swoosh icon and onto the home surface.
04
Partnered with sales leadership on training and a refreshed conversation guide so reps could adapt their script to a self-serve-aware family.
What we measured
Provide clear visibility into what each premium tier offered — measured via in-app navigation to the enrollment surface.
Target: at least 10% lift over baseline within two months of full rollout.
10% of the NCSA membership pool saw an 8% lift in premium enrollment in the test window.
After two months at 100% rollout, premium enrollment was up 10% — meeting the target.
What changed for sales
"I changed my whole script. It's easy to adjust the plan based on their budget, and I can get through explaining what membership offers which features quicker."
— NCSA sales rep
Notably: zero complaints from the sales team about surfacing pricing in-app, once the monthly installment options shipped alongside it. The fear that drove the original design didn't survive contact with the data.
Reflections