National Savings and Investments
Digital Transformation
PROJECT
Strategy & proposition
Digital platforms
Future service vision
ROLE
Experience Design Director
AWARDS
Multiple Digital Impact Awrds
URL
NS&I is unique. 169 years old, government-backed, savings bank. They manage 207 billion pounds for 25 million savers, one in three people in the UK.
One of their much-loved products, Premium Bonds, is owned by over 23 million people.
Background
I have been working with NS&I for over 10 years. In that time, I’ve been key in helping them come out of the post office, move to online platforms, and, more recently, establish a vision for future services and user experiences.
The transformation has been challenging. As you can imagine, an organisation of this scale and history will have a huge number of obstacles to overcome in terms of legacy systems, processes, and incomplete data sets.
The journey so far
To do my work justice, I will give you a high-level overview of the projects I’ve led and been part of. You can drill down into some specific projects to see more about the processes and outcomes.
1.0- My part in the story
As well as leading all aspects of digital design across all product lifecycles, I have been the glue between the organisation and its third-party suppliers. I have managed to embed myself within the organisation to direct and influence all design decisions in the digital space.
2.0-Personas
The first task was to understand the different types of savers and their needs. Working with NS&I, we commissioned research to look at attitudes to saving.
Using a Customer Jobs To Be Done framework we conducted market analysis, quantitative fieldwork research with 1500 participants, and qualitative interviews with 30 candidates across the UK.
We developed attitudinal personas, which gave us a lens by which we could understand the varied audiences and ensure their attitudes, behaviors, and emotions were factored into every design decision.
3.0-A single source of truth
As part of a bigger digital transformation, NS&I is going through I was leading on multiple streams of work involving their brand in general as well as multiple digital touchpoints.
We amalgamated a huge amount of research, including CSAt surveys, Jobs To Be Done interviews, SEO, market analysis, and a series of stakeholder workshops to create a comprehensive set of UX principles and designed an extensive atomic, Global Design System which we tested thoroughly to ensure flexibility to stretch across different digital touchpoints
3.0-NS&I.com
This was one of the first major projects to get NS&I started on its transformation journey.
The existing customer-facing website was dated and limited in terms of information. The architecture and navigation were not in a good place.
We decided to redesign the site based on business needs and user insight.
4.0-Mobile applications
NS&I has two separate mobile applications, one for banking functionalities and one for checking Premium Bond Prizes. We started with the banking app. It has been quite a slow process. Getting started with an MVP three years ago and it’s still quite a bit away from perfect. The agile process is ensuring that key features are added with every new release.
CASE STUDY COMING SOON
5.0-Future vision
Now the organisation is embarking upon its total transformation journey to completely overhaul its digital services.
Lots of research, conceptualisation, and testing helped us define and design a digital Experience Framework which formed the vision for future experiences and functionalities.
CASE STUDY COMING SOON
WHAT DID THE CLIENT SAY?
I worked with Kardo in my role at NS&I. His experience and perspective was absolutely invaluable. What makes him really stand out though is his genuine passion for solving his client's problems as a partner. His working style is not to arrive with an off-the-shelf solution but to listen, challenge, adjust, and stand next to you in what is often a battle to improve the approach to customer experience in an organisation.
Mercedes Clark-Smith
Head of (Service) Design and (Strategy) Validation at NS&I