LI GARDNERResearch • Design • AI experience
Royal Mail / Mobile product / Customer retention

Reframing the critical design challenge to improve customer retention.

The brief was a broad UI refresh. I challenged it and refocused the work on the service journey most likely to influence customer behaviour — a sharper target, a tighter MVP and a faster route to evidence.

Royal Mail welcome-screen design from the project presentation, recreated on a phone beside parcels
Project screen design in an illustrative mockup
4.6App Store rating, with up to 90% positive customer sentiment
Up to90%Increased lead time to market
3 vs 12Months to MVP (instead of 12)
My role
Design Lead
Type
Consulting + Delivery
Duration
9 months total (2021)
Focus
Customer retention · Mobile product · Tracking · Digital self-service
Design
Product design · Native mobile · Accessibility · Design system
Research
Journey-based user research · Usability testing

What I did, in four moves

  1. 01 ChallengeSituation

    Challenge the predefined solution.

    Royal Mail was tackling a retention problem with a broad UI refresh. I challenged that direction: changing the interface alone would not fix the parts of the experience that drive customer behaviour.

    Shifted the brief from “refresh the UI” to “fix the journey that matters”.

  2. 02 DefineTask

    Define where design can move the needle.

    Using customer research and behavioural evidence, I prioritised tracking and registration over a broad redesign.

    A tighter MVP, less unnecessary scope and a clear way to test customer value.

  3. 03 MakeAction

    Lead from research to product design — and ship faster.

    • Established an end-to-end research-to-design flow
    • Introduced native registration
    • Improved tracking
    • Strengthened accessibility
    • Built a reusable component foundation

    Insight turned into prioritised decisions, prototypes and tested journeys.

  4. 04 TransformResult

    A new way to design and deliver for a legacy brand.

    The work changed more than the product: a more integrated discovery-and-delivery model, a reusable design foundation and clearer governance for public-facing experience decisions.

    MVP in 3 months, not 12. Rating up nearly 3 stars to 4.6. Up to 90% positive sentiment.

From customer insight to shipped experience

The research-to-design flow I established

  1. Customer need
  2. Research & evidence
  3. Priority journeyTracking + registration
  4. Product design
  5. Test & refine
  6. DeliveryMVP in 3 months
  7. Measure & improve
Supported by a strong design foundation
Design principlesReusable componentsQuality controlDual-track discovery & delivery
My contribution

What I owned

  • Defined the critical design challenge
  • Designed the MVP
  • Established the research-to-design flow
  • Owned quality control for public-facing designMaking sure customer-facing experiences were consistent, usable, accessible and appropriate before release.
  • Built a scalable design foundation
  • Established dual-track discovery and delivery
Methods, frameworks & toolkit

How I worked

  • Journey-based user research
  • Evidence-led prioritisation
  • Information architecture
  • Native mobile prototyping
  • Usability testing
  • Design principles
  • Component library / design system
  • Dual-track discovery & delivery