Casestudy

Rebooting a Customer Journey

Challenge

The Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC)—a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in residential spaces—sought to expand its operations into Washington state. They faced several challenges, including understanding how to engage with new customers effectively, transitioning from transactional to relational interactions, and updating their outdated website.

Problem

In close collaboration from the BDC’s Head of Product, we identified three key problem areas for this project:

1. Engagement Strategy: BDC lacked a holistic strategy for engaging with potential customers in Washington state, leading to a fragmented and inconsistent approach.
2. Customer Relationship Shift: The organization aimed to move from transactional interactions to longer-term relationships as trusted partners, necessitating a shift in their operational and communication strategies.
3. Outdated Website: BDC's public-facing website had become obsolete, failing to serve customers adequately and featuring outdated content that didn't align with their evolving goals.

Approach

Upon joining the project, I immersed myself in the climate tech space and as much of the BDC’s historic projects. In order to build on previous efforts, I proposed that we conduct a reasonable strategic research project to inform our strategy. The study involved 12 participants that representing diverse demographic and psychographic profiles. We aligned on a methodology including an interview format, supplemented by moderated resonant testing of the current site, and a card sort exercise as the best method to generate the desired insights.

Outcomes

Following the study, I conducted a thorough analysis of the findings. I was able to identify some clearly actionable tactics to improve the user experience through a website design, including changes to the content strategy and leveling up some of the interaction and visual design. During the analysis, patterns also emerged around 4 clear customer archetypes. I worked with the Head of Product to codify the archetypes, and we began socializing these to the larger organization.

As the archetypes solidified, I positioned them as generalizations of segments of their potential customers that represented a common stage on the path to a fully electrified home. I also ensured that they were not merely a strategic deliverable, but a target that teams could action against. I also identified opportunities for business expansion, should the BDC decide to lean in to a given archetype.

Finally, I lead the redesign of core pages of The Switch Is On’s Washington site in alignment with the research insights. In addition to a bolder take on visual design, we leveraged the homepage to capture more leads from potential customers. We also made changes to the content strategy to provide entry points that aligned with customer needs.

Impact

The launch of the revamped homepage in Washington state marked a successful transition, evidenced by increased lead generation and improved SEO rankings. The introduction of customer archetypes facilitated better understanding among team members, enabling them to address to customer needs more effectively. Additionally, ongoing socialization of these archetypes continues to guide BDC’s long-term relationship-building strategy with customers.

 
The collaboration with BDC exemplifies how strategic research and customer-centric design can drive impactful outcomes. By aligning organizational goals with user insights, we not only addressed immediate challenges but also laid a foundation for sustained growth and customer satisfaction in the decarbonization journey.