LocalTapiola transforms customer journey development with continuous user research

From sporadic research to systematic customer collaboration

During its largest-ever transformation, LocalTapiola realised that achieving growth required more than just replacing legacy systems. This led them to establish a private customer lab and adopt customer-centric development models to fundamentally change their ways of working. Before implementing Leanlab, LocalTapiola struggled with a slow and cumbersome process for gathering customer feedback. For example, to send out a questionnaire, the team had to place an order for a manually compiled customer list, followed by another order for sending the questionnaire. This process often took 6-8 weeks, making teams reluctant to engage in customer research.

Systematic insights through an active customer community

To transform their approach to customer research, LocalTapiola established a dedicated customer lab using Leanlab's platform. This provided them with:

• A private community of 1,000 loyal customers
• Tools for continuous dialogue throughout the entire development cycle
• A systematic approach to gathering customer insights at every stage
• Real-time results for faster decision-making

The recruitment process was carefully planned, initially targeting the company's B2C private customers, later expanding to include B2B customers. Instead of offering cash incentives for participation, LocalTapiola invited customers to become advisors in their development process, emphasising the exclusive opportunity to influence the company's products and services. This game changer treated customers as equals rather than just asking them to be passive survey takers.

Getting people to engage and give input in the community has not been an issue for LocalTapiola. The community is very active, and most members participate in activities and give their input within one day of receiving the invitation.

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LocalTapiola has a vibrant community with 1000 active members (image: illustration)

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Internal commitment to a customer-centric culture

One of the critical success factors for LocalTapiola's customer lab has been their approach and commitment to becoming customer-centric. Recognising that the lab would quickly become ineffective without proper management, they created a dedicated community management team with approximately 10 members from different parts of the organisation.

This cross-functional team includes service designers, product owners, marketing specialists, and digital service designers who share a common interest in, and are committed to, customer-centric development. The team meets bi-weekly to ensure that all the projects have a chance of receiving customer feedback at different stages and that there is a steady stream of activity for the customers to participate in.

Practical applications across the organisation

In just over two years, LocalTapiola has conducted over 100 mini research projects through their customer lab, covering everything from investment experiences to mobile usability, and from life insurance stories to website optimisation. That averages to a whopping four research waves per month, meaning teams are learning rapidly and continuously from customers.

Different teams utilise the lab in different parts of the double diamond development journey:

Product and Business Development have used the customer lab to study, for example:

• The effectiveness of pre-meeting information forms
• Customer expectations for investment services and mobile app
• The appeal of additional retirement insurance
• Investing for a child's future
• New product opportunities

‍UX and Digital teams use the community for digital service development and they have, for example, optimised:

• Online lead forms
• Navigation usability
• Claim form processes
• Overall digital experience

Marketing and Communications teams have examined, for instance:

• Customer expectations for policy change communications
• How to effectively communicate the benefits of being an owner-customer
• The effectiveness of ads and newsletters
• The sufficiency and clarity of instructions and terms

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The lab has become an essential element in the company's double diamond design process, providing customer insights at every development stage - from initial discovery and defining needs to developing concepts and delivering final solutions. The platform's diverse toolkit allows teams to select the most appropriate research method for each specific need, moving beyond simple surveys to more engaging and insightful collaboration methods.

Key benefits and impact

LocalTapiola's customer lab has delivered significant benefits for the organisation, transforming how they develop customer experiences

1. Speed and agility:
   Having direct access to customers through the lab has made customer research faster and easier, making it possible to do mini-research almost weekly.
2. Increased customer-centricity:
   The customer lab has shifted the corporate mindset from "we know best" to prioritising the customer voice. 
3. Better decision-making:
   Evidence-based decisions have replaced guesswork, leading to more successful products and services. 
4. High engagement:
   The majority of responses come within the first day or two after publishing an activity, indicating strong participant engagement. This is achieved without offering monetary incentives, as participants value being part of the company's development process.
5. Democratised research capacity:
   Research is no longer limited to service designers and specialist teams. Any team within the organisation can do research in the community.
6. Faster time-to-market:
   By shortening research timelines, the company can implement improvements more quickly. ‍
7. Removal of research barriers:
   The platform has eliminated the previous bureaucratic process of ordering customer lists and setting up research projects, dramatically lowering the threshold for conducting customer research.