Teaching Teams to Do Better User Research

The Challenge

Quietroom, a London-based communications consultancy, is renowned for its work in making complex topics like pensions, investments, and insurance more accessible. They have collaborated with a broad range of clients, including pension schemes, asset managers, and insurers, helping organisations craft clear, engaging content that resonates with their audiences.

Quietroom sought to deepen its engagement with pension fund managers by developing a service offering tailored to them. The goal was to integrate user research and a product-focused methodology into their communication projects, ensuring the messaging was consistently informed by audience insights. They also wanted to upskill their team to better replicate this approach on future projects, thus maintaining consistency across their client offerings.

Our Approach

We devised a bespoke training programme for Quietroom that focused on embedding user research into their workflows.

We worked closely with the team to establish a clear process for testing communications with end-users before launch. This involved setting up protocols for gathering qualitative feedback from pension scheme members, financial advisers, and other stakeholders.

With the insights from user research, we helped Quietroom refine and package their communications solutions to better meet the needs of pension fund managers. This included creating materials that would clearly demonstrate the impact of good communication on member engagement and decision-making in pensions.

We conducted workshops with the Quietroom team, focusing on how to apply a product-led mindset across their projects. This training empowered them to create communication solutions that not only comply with industry regulations but also drive better outcomes for their clients. We emphasised the importance of personalisation, audience segmentation, and the use of technology to deliver targeted messages.

We created variations of the comms packages to review with business people from Quietroom’s target audience to understand what resonated and what we needed to change.

Results

The training and process improvements enabled Quietroom to present a refined service package tailored to pension fund managers, which has resonated with key clients in the sector.

The shift towards a research-driven approach has positioned Quietroom as a more strategic partner to pension funds, helping them navigate regulatory demands while delivering clear, impactful communication.

Key Outcomes

• Refined service package tailored to pension fund managers
• Team equipped with tools and methodologies to apply user-centric practices in future communications projects
• Enhanced value proposition delivering more effective solutions for clients
• Positioned as a more strategic partner to pension funds
• Established research-led testing process for communications