Sustainability · Research-Led UX

OpenSC / WWF

OpenSC is a social-impact venture co-founded by WWF and BCG Digital Ventures, using technology to make supply chains more sustainable and ethical. I joined with no research practice in place and most decisions shipping on assumption. I built the company's first, then applied it across two consumer experiences: Austral Glacier 51 and Nespresso.

Client: OpenSC (co-founded by WWF and BCG Digital Ventures)
Year: 2021
Role: Product Design Lead
Duration: 6 months

Scope

Research Practice (0 → 1)

Hypothesis-Driven Design

Cross-Functional Mentorship

Mobile CX Redesign

Team

Small team, no design function, no defined research process. The CTO invited me in to move the product team from opinion-led to user-centred and to mentor teammates on collaborative practice. I worked as the sole researcher across two parallel engagements, coaching developers and PMs into the work along the way.

Challenge

Every product call was shipping without user research, and the existing Austral Glacier 51 provenance flow had never been validated. When stakeholders asked for a redesigned map, I used the request as the entry point to stand up the company's first structured research practice.

Approach

I built the practice from the ground up: evangelised methods, ran workshops, established research operations, conducted studies, and shipped design updates against them. Without budget, I resourced with Lookback for contextual testing and Notion plus Miro for synthesis. We ran 10+ user research and concept-testing sessions. Two in-person in Australia, facilitated by the PM I coached through the methodology in real time; the rest remote, where I led directly. Underneath the studies, I introduced a hypothesis-driven culture: articulate assumptions, design experiments, track validation session by session. Opinion-based decisions stopped being the default.

Miro research workspace covering planning, hypothesis and assumptions matrix, synthesis stickies, prototype critique, and a live Lookback interview moderation screenshot — The research workspace running end-to-end. Planning and hypothesis matrix on the first frame, synthesis on the second, prototype critique with team stickies, and a live Lookback session captured during a remote interview.

Process

Before Austral wrapped, a parallel Nespresso initiative landed. Stakeholders wanted us to replicate the Austral structure to accelerate approval. I reframed Austral as a proof of concept and secured buy-in for a dedicated Nespresso research phase. Replicating would have shipped on Austral assumptions; new research surfaced where the two customer bases actually diverged. The team moved faster this time, having built research muscle on the previous project, and I secured budget for proper tooling. Stakeholder confidence earned a structural win: the CTO invited two developers to participate throughout the entire research process. Feasibility started informing design from discovery onward, not arriving as a constraint at the end, and the developers walked away with first-hand research literacy.

Nespresso Reviving Origins Organic Kahawa Ya Congo experience: hero with AMKA cooperative story in South Kivu, journey map, and Verified Farmer Payments view — Nespresso Reviving Origins Organic Kahawa Ya Congo: hero with the AMKA cooperative story, journey map from South Kivu to cup, and the Verified Farmer Payments view. Same methodology as Austral, shipped faster, with developers in the room from week one.

Outcome

Austral research validated which of two design hypotheses aligned with how users actually approached provenance information, and informed a full redesign of the mobile CX. Nespresso shipped on the same methodology, faster, with developers in the room from week one. The bigger outcome was cultural. OpenSC went from no research practice to a hypothesis-driven product org with cross-functional research participation by default. That's the practice that stayed.

Glacier 51 Toothfish provenance experience in the OpenSC app: Overview with verified claim, Product Journey map from Heard and McDonald Islands to retailer, and Sustainability claims with WWF and BCG Digital Ventures branding — Austral Glacier 51 toothfish in the OpenSC app: Overview with provenance details, Product Journey map from Heard and McDonald Islands to retailer, and the Sustainability claims that came out of the research-led redesign.

0110+User research and concept-testing sessions

022In-person sessions facilitated in Australia

032Developers learning research in the project

040 → 1Research practice established

Next project