TSB — Retail Banking App

TSB — Retail Banking App

Savings journey reskin

Savings journey reskin

Savings journey reskin

TSB needed to grow customer savings balances ahead of a strategic business milestone. I led the end-to-end redesign of the entire retail savings journey, shaped and designed in a 2-day Hot House with senior stakeholders, ready to be built and shipped within weeks.

My role: Lead UX / Product designer

Format: 2-day Hot House + build

Scope: Full savings range, iOS and Android

Status: Live

Impact

+61%

Week-on-week sales increase

+61%

Week-on-week sales increase

23→30%

Start-to-submit conversion

23→30%

Start-to-submit conversion

19→29

Weekly sales, first week post-launch

19→29

Weekly sales, first week post-launch

2 days

Concept to signed-off design

2 days

Concept to signed-off design

My role

Design lead

Sole designer across the full savings journey product selection, application flow, and confirmation states

Design lead

Sole designer across the full savings journey product selection, application flow, and confirmation states

Hot House facilitation

Worked in real time with product, commercial, and engineering stakeholders over 2 intensive days

Hot House facilitation

Worked in real time with product, commercial, and engineering stakeholders over 2 intensive days

Rapid prototyping

Designed and iterated at pace, presenting and refining concepts with decision-makers in the room

Rapid prototyping

Designed and iterated at pace, presenting and refining concepts with decision-makers in the room

End-to-end delivery

Took designs from Hot House output through to build-ready specs and live launch

End-to-end delivery

Took designs from Hot House output through to build-ready specs and live launch

Problem

TSB’s retail savings journeys had accumulated friction over time, inconsistent patterns, unclear product differentiation, and a conversion rate that left significant balance growth on the table. With a commercial target tied to a strategic business milestone, the brief was urgent: redesign the entire savings range quickly enough to ship and move the needle.

TSB’s retail savings journeys had accumulated friction over time, inconsistent patterns, unclear product differentiation, and a conversion rate that left significant balance growth on the table. With a commercial target tied to a strategic business milestone, the brief was urgent: redesign the entire savings range quickly enough to ship and move the needle.

TSB’s retail savings journeys had accumulated friction over time, inconsistent patterns, unclear product differentiation, and a conversion rate that left significant balance growth on the table. With a commercial target tied to a strategic business milestone, the brief was urgent: redesign the entire savings range quickly enough to ship and move the needle.

“The challenge wasn’t just redesigning the journey, it was making high-stakes design decisions at speed, with the people who’d approve or block them in the same room.”

Reframe

From “reskin the savings journeys” → “remove every point of friction between a customer and opening an account, in two days”

The Hot House

Rather than the usual design-review-revise cycle, the Hot House format put all decision-makers; product, commercial, legal, engineering, in one room for two days. Decisions that would normally take weeks of back-and-forth were made on the spot.

Rather than the usual design-review-revise cycle, the Hot House format put all decision-makers; product, commercial, legal, engineering, in one room for two days. Decisions that would normally take weeks of back-and-forth were made on the spot.

Rather than the usual design-review-revise cycle, the Hot House format put all decision-makers; product, commercial, legal, engineering, in one room for two days. Decisions that would normally take weeks of back-and-forth were made on the spot.

Day 1 - Define and diverge

Mapped existing journey pain points, aligned on commercial priorities, and explored design directions with stakeholders reacting in real time.

Day 2 - Converge and sign off

Refined the preferred direction, resolved constraints with legal and engineering present, and left with a signed-off design ready to build.

Regulatory mapping artefact for the savings journey Hot House

Regulatory mapping

Every requirement: GDPR, BCOBS, FSCS etc. mapped and assigned an owner with compliance stakeholders in the room.

End-to-end mobile journey flow with regulatory requirements

End-to-end flow

The mobile journey mapped including every failure state, alongside the regulatory requirements shaping each screen.

Decision log documenting rationale during the Hot House

Decision log

Every decision logged with rationale in real time, including the accordion call, ratified by Legal in the room.

Design decisions

Problem

Poor product differentiation

Customers couldn’t quickly distinguish between savings products, interest rates, access terms, and key benefits were buried. This was contributing to drop-off at the product selection stage.

Decision

Lead with the number that matters

Restructured product cards to surface interest rate and term at a glance, with secondary detail available on expansion. Reduced cognitive load at the point where customers were most likely to abandon.

Before / after product selection screens

Problem

Application form friction

The existing application flow asked for information customers either didn’t have to hand or had already provided, causing frustration and mid-flow abandonment.

Decision

Existing customer lookup

Used existing customer data to pre-populate known fields, dramatically reducing the number of steps required to complete an application for logged-in users.

Outcome

The business case was built on a clear gap: TSB’s authenticated savings journey converted at 65% against a market average of 75% and best-in-class of 90%. Closing that gap across 170k annual app starts represented a significant commercial opportunity.

The business case was built on a clear gap: TSB’s authenticated savings journey converted at 65% against a market average of 75% and best-in-class of 90%. Closing that gap across 170k annual app starts represented a significant commercial opportunity.

The business case was built on a clear gap: TSB’s authenticated savings journey converted at 65% against a market average of 75% and best-in-class of 90%. Closing that gap across 170k annual app starts represented a significant commercial opportunity.

Conversion benchmark

65%

65%

65%

TSB pre-launch

75%

75%

75%

Market average

90%

90%

90%

Best in class

Targets if market average reached

+17k

Incremental annual sales

+17k

Incremental annual sales

£1.2m

First year income benefit

£1.2m

First year income benefit

£88m

Balance growth opportunity

£88m

Balance growth opportunity

In the first week post-launch, the redesigned journey showed immediate movement against those targets. Weekly sales jumped +61% week-on-week, and start-to-submit conversion improved from 23% to 30%, early signal of progress toward the 75% market average.

In the first week post-launch, the redesigned journey showed immediate movement against those targets. Weekly sales jumped +61% week-on-week, and start-to-submit conversion improved from 23% to 30%, early signal of progress toward the 75% market average.

In the first week post-launch, the redesigned journey showed immediate movement against those targets. Weekly sales jumped +61% week-on-week, and start-to-submit conversion improved from 23% to 30%, early signal of progress toward the 75% market average.

Before → After metrics

Weekly sales

19 → 29

Conversion rate

23% → 30%

Applications started

79 → 96

Applications submitted

18 → 29

What I’d do differently

The Hot House format was highly effective for speed, but the error rate post-launch suggested we needed more structured edge-case review time. I’d push for a dedicated technical review session before build handoff in future sprints of this format.