Pension transfer
In the UK, there’s an estimated £31 Billion in unclaimed pensions. Many people lose track of their pension pots when they change jobs or can’t access old accounts. Helping people find and combine these pots is a key part of Penfold’s mission, and also a big opportunity for the business, with an average of £9,000 in each lost pot.
Client
Penfold
Platform
iOS, Android, Web
Role
Lead Product Designer
Year
2024 - 2025
TL; DR - How I contributed
1. I led research, testing, and design, working closely with product, operations, developers, and customer support
2. Ran cross-functional ideation workshops
3.Identified quick wins alongside larger improvements to deliver value fast
Impact
2x
monthly transfers in a quarter
+34%
successful transfers
£89M
in 12 months
-70%
customer support queries
Process
We tackled the two opportunities in stages, first by increasing the number of transfer requests, then by improving the success rate of those transfers. Through user research, I identified the main pain points and uncovered the psychological barriers that stopped people from transferring. This helped me design solutions that offered the right reassurance at the right moments, making the process feel easier and more trustworthy.
Each idea was validated in different ways, from user testing and competitor analysis to releasing updates and monitoring real data, helping us move quickly while staying confident in our decisions.
Challenges
We faced three main challenges: a small team with limited engineering resources, which meant we had to prioritise ruthlessly and prove ideas before asking for dev time; hard-to-access data that left us dependent on other teams for insights; and the need to push for a first-principles approach, rethinking the problem from scratch instead of just optimising the existing funnel so we could find bigger, simpler solutions.
We tackled these challenges by being creative with validating ideas quickly and doubling down on cross functional collaboration.
Designs
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Impact
+2x
monthly transfers in a quarter
£89M
in 12 months
+34%
transfer success
-70%
customer support queries
This work became a major growth driver for the business. By taking transfer numbers and success rates to record levels for the industry, we not only helped more people reclaim their lost pensions but also delivered a significant commercial impact, bringing in £89M in Asset Under Authority in one year.