Natwest Cushon
Financial wellbeing for the rest of us
Research, strategy and product innovation for a fast-growing fintech
Cushon is a workplace pension and savings provider on a mission to make financial wellbeing accessible to everyone. After rapid growth and acquisition by NatWest, the company was preparing for its next chapter of growth. While the acquisition brought new opportunities and resources, Cushon wanted to hold on to the maverick, fintech culture that had set it apart in a crowded market.
Over the course of a year, we worked with Cushon’s leadership, CX, product and engineering teams across several strategic initiatives. Each was anchored in a shared vision and customer experience story that brought to life a three-year ambition: to evolve from a workplace pension and savings provider into a trusted source of financial wellbeing for life.
Our impact
- Defined a new 3 year customer-centred vision to guide long-term product strategy
- Aligned teams around a shared direction following a major acquisition
- Discovered a series of novel customer insights to support the new CX strategy
- Developed a new product initiative from initial research through to design and live pilot
- Established a new design direction that unified product, brand and marketing
Understanding the real barrier to engagement
For years the financial industry has assumed that low engagement with products like pensions can be solved through more education. Our early research suggested the opposite.
When we spoke to customers, we saw high levels of guilt, avoidance and even denial around pensions. People knew they should pay attention, and many understood the long-term cost of not doing so, but it always fell down the priority list.
Over time, this created a pattern of procrastination where customers deliberately chose to ignore their pension because of how it made them feel. As we explored this further, it became clear that this wasn't a small group. It represented the majority of non-engagers, and the industry had never really designed for them.
This crucial behavioural insight shaped our strategy for Cushon. Instead of asking customers to do more, or educating them into action, we looked for ways to reduce emotional friction and support quick, simple progress. By meeting customers where they were and designing for their instinctive mindset, we tapped into a more effective and sustainable way to build engagement.
A partnership built on progress
We love working with businesses that are unafraid to challenge the status quo and move their sector forward. Cushon exemplifies this, pairing product innovation with a commitment to cut the carbon footprint of their investments by 80% by 2030. We’re proud to play a small part in that journey.
