The problem we keep seeing
Most firms design services in a room full of people who are not vulnerable. They make assumptions about what customers need, build solutions based on those assumptions, and then test them with customers after the fundamental design decisions have already been made.
Co-testing is not co-design. Asking a vulnerable customer whether your solution works is very different from asking them what they need before you have built anything.
We are continually seeing firms that have invested in journey redesign but still have journeys that break down for customers in vulnerable circumstances. The reason is almost always the same: they designed services for vulnerable customers without involving vulnerable customers in the design.
What this is
Inclusive Design is our core methodology. It is a sprint-based vulnerable customer journey mapping approach, structured around four stages and built on co-discovery and co-design with vulnerable customers.
Each stage delivers standalone value. You can commission one stage or all four. They build on each other, but you do not have to commit to the full sequence up front.
The 4 stages
How we move from vulnerability insight to lasting operational change.
-
Stage 1: Discover
We work with vulnerable customers and your teams to understand customer needs and identify where foreseeable harm currently exists across journeys. This is lived experience discovery, not desk research. We map vulnerable customer journeys against your Vulnerability Ambition. The gap between the two is where the value sits.
-
Stage 2: Design
We take the gaps from discovery and co-design solutions with customers and your teams. Ideas, typically people and process changes, are generated together. Ideas are conceptualised by the people who will use them and the people who will deliver them. Nothing is designed in isolation.
-
Stage 3: Prototype
Rapid rounds of prototyping the best concept to reduce risk and uncertainty. This is where you find out whether something works in practice, not just in theory. It is cheaper to learn here than after delivery.
-
Stage 4: Deliver
The proven concept is implemented. With the co-design team, we measure and communicate impact (“you said, we did”), capture lessons learned and revisit the vulnerable customer roadmap to identify the next priority.
Who this is for
- Firms that know their journeys are not working for customers in vulnerable circumstances but cannot pinpoint exactly where or why.
- Firms that have redesigned journeys internally and want to validate them with the people who actually use them.
- Firms that want to move beyond compliance and build services that genuinely work for everyone.
- Firms that want to listen to lived experience customers but do not know how or when.
How it works
Each stage runs as a sprint, typically four to six weeks. We recruit vulnerable customers, facilitate the sessions, and work alongside your teams throughout. This is not an outsourced discovery that arrives as a report. Your people are in the room and learning by doing.
Typical duration: 4 to 6 weeks per stage.
What you get: Varies by stage. Discovery delivers evidenced customer journey insight and gap analysis. Design delivers solution concepts. Prototype delivers validated concepts. Pilot and Deliver leads to results, communications, lessons learned, and next steps.
In practice
A UK energy supplier knew their debt journey was not working for customers with mental health conditions. Internal data showed lower resolution rates for these customers, but nobody could explain why.
In discovery, we sat with customers who had been through the journey. The insight was not where the firm expected it. The journey itself was broadly functional. The problem was the first communication customers received when they fell behind on payments. The language, the tone, and the timing all assumed a customer who was choosing not to pay. For someone in a mental health crisis, that first letter shut the door before the conversation had started.
In design, we worked with customers and the firm’s communications team on vulnerable customer journey redesign for that first touchpoint. In prototyping, customers told us it felt like the firm understood their situation rather than judging it.
After delivery, resolution rates for customers with mental health conditions in the debt journey increased by 23% within six months.
We thought the journey was the problem. It turned out to be one letter.
Your questions answered
Some of the practical points organisations often ask us about.
-
Most of our engagements fall between £20,000 and £80,000, depending on scope, duration and the number of services involved. A Vulnerability Review sits at the lower end, while a full Inclusive Design sprint with Vulnerability Strategy sits at the higher end. We scope every engagement individually, so the investment reflects what you need. Let’s talk about where you are, and we can give you a clear picture of what’s involved.
-
From one month for a focused Vulnerability Review to six months or longer for engagements that include an Inclusive Design sprint and Operational Embedding. Most engagements run for two to four months. The timeline depends on the scope of the work, the number of customer journeys involved, and how quickly your teams can engage with the process.
-
No. A Vulnerability Review is designed to meet you where you are, whether you have an established vulnerability framework or are starting from scratch. What helps is access to the right people: someone who can open doors to vulnerable customers, frontline colleagues, and the data across your systems. We will guide you on what we need.
-
Yes. Every service is designed to deliver standalone value. Many clients start with a Vulnerability Review to understand where they are, then decide what comes next based on what the review surfaces. The pathway is the ambition, not a requirement.
-
Training builds awareness. Our work builds capability and changes outcomes. An Inclusive Design sprint works directly with your vulnerable customers, the colleagues who serve them and others who enable the journey, such as product designers or digital teams, to redesign how your services actually work. The result is not a training module but embedded changes to journeys, processes and ways of working that deliver measurably better outcomes for vulnerable customers.