The situation
The organisation was investing heavily in a new wellness platform, driven by large client demands and a need to stay competitive in a saturated market.
Feature requests were constant and often conflicting. Product decisions were being made reactively, with no clear prioritisation framework. As a result, the roadmap was expanding in multiple directions at once, with increasing delivery risk and little alignment across teams.
The challenge
Direct access to end users was limited, and internal perspectives were heavily influenced by sales pressure and competitor activity.
The team needed clear direction—but lacked the evidence and shared understanding required to make confident, strategic decisions.
Approach
I focused on building a defensible foundation for decision-making by triangulating multiple sources of evidence and connecting user needs to business priorities.
- Synthesised existing behavioural data to identify usage patterns and drop-off points
- Designed and deployed targeted surveys to capture user motivations and unmet needs
- Ran unmoderated usability studies to evaluate key workflows at scale
- Conducted structured competitor analysis to separate parity needs from true differentiation
- Incorporated academic and industry research to validate patterns where direct access was limited
- Facilitated working sessions to translate insights into roadmap decisions
What we learned
- Many requested features addressed edge cases rather than core user needs
- Critical usability gaps were undermining adoption of existing functionality
- Competitor parity was driving reactive decisions without improving user value
- Users prioritised simplicity, clarity, and outcomes over feature breadth
Impact
- Reframed the product roadmap around highest-value user needs
- Reduced internal conflict by grounding decisions in shared evidence
- Deprioritised low-impact features, narrowing scope and improving focus
- Increased leadership confidence in product direction
- Established a repeatable, evidence-based approach to prioritisation
My contribution
As the sole researcher, I guided the team from fragmented, assumption-driven decision-making to a clear, evidence-based direction.
I introduced structure where there was none—connecting disparate data into a coherent narrative and ensuring that research directly informed product strategy. My role extended beyond insight generation to actively shaping what the organisation chose to build.