The problem we keep seeing
Firms jump into activity without defining what good looks like. Someone commissions training. Someone else redesigns a form or collects vulnerability data. All of it was well-intentioned. None of it joined up.
The result is pockets of good practice that add up to a customer journey that inconsistently meets customers’ needs. Staff in different teams describe the firm’s approach to vulnerability differently. Leadership cannot articulate what they are trying to achieve beyond good outcomes.
Without a shared definition of what you are working towards, every initiative could be pulling in different directions.
What this is
The Vulnerability Ambition is a one-page direction document that defines what good looks like for vulnerable customers in your organisation. A single, clear vulnerable customer strategy statement that everyone in the business can point to.
Alongside it, we create “what does it mean for me” role cards: short, practical documents that translate the ambition into what it means for key roles and teams across the organisation. A clear articulation of what the Ambition means for key roles.
Who this is for
- Firms at the start of their journey who need a reference point before they begin designing or commissioning work.
- Firms with pockets of good practice that need pulling together into a coherent direction.
- Leadership teams who can describe what they do not want (regulatory action, reputational damage) but struggle to articulate what they are aiming for beyond good outcomes.
How it works
We work with your Executive Team to define your ambition. It is two structured engagements that result in a document that gives a line of sight between your tasks for the day, your vulnerable customer ambition and your corporate mission.
We challenge comfortable language. If your ambition could belong to any firm in your sector, it is not specific enough. If your frontline teams cannot explain it in plain English, it is not clear enough.
Typical duration: 2 to 4 weeks, including stakeholder engagement.
What you get: A one-page Vulnerability Ambition document and a set of role cards tailored to your organisation to support communication and embedding.
The Ambition is intentionally lightweight. It is designed to be used in the moment for strategic and operational decisions and during the design of products and services. When you move into an Inclusive Design sprint, the Ambition is what you design for. What survives that test becomes the foundation of your Vulnerability Strategy.
In practice
A mid-size lender had been working on vulnerability for three years. Different teams had done good work, but there was no shared definition of what they were collectively trying to achieve. Customer operations described their approach one way. The digital marketing team described it in another way. Risk had a third version.
We facilitated two sessions with eight Board members. The one-page Ambition that came out of it was the first time anyone had written down, in plain language, what the firm was aiming for its vulnerable customers.
The role cards were what made it stick. The Head of Collections saw exactly what the ambition meant for his team. The Chief Risk Officer saw what it meant for hers. The same ambition, translated into their world.
“We had been doing good things. We just had not agreed on what we were doing them in pursuit of.”
Chief Customer Officer, Lending Firm
Your questions answered
Some of the practical points organisations often ask us about.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.