For Principality, product research isn’t simply about looking at what its competitors are doing. It’s about making better decisions.
Decisions that are commercially informed, grounded in customer experience, aligned with regulatory expectations and confident enough to move through internal review.
Principality’s UX/UI team is small, cross-functional and responsible for a broad part of the customer lifecycle, from onboarding through to dashboards and payments. That means the team’s work can move quickly between detailed interaction design and bigger strategic questions about propositions, market movement and risk.
11:FS Pulse supports the team at both ends of that spectrum.
UX/UI designers and senior designers use the platform and its 23,000+ user journeys to explore specific design use cases, including dashboards, user flows and product journeys. At a more strategic level, managers use Pulse to compare brands, tools and experiences across the market, looking at features, trends and reviews across products.
Pulse has also become useful beyond just the design team.
Principality’s Customer Experience team uses it more holistically to understand the end-to-end member journey, combining insights from Pulse with other sources gathered directly from customers. Together, these inputs help the team compare customer behaviours and how other providers are shaping similar experiences. The result is a broader, more consistent view of the market across teams.
Principality already had strong exposure to financial products before using Pulse. Many people in the team were personally signed up to a wide range of banks, building societies and fintech apps. That gave them useful first-hand knowledge, but it was uneven. One person might know a particular provider well; another might have experience of a different savings app or account journey.
Pulse has helped Principality move from that individual-level understanding to a shared, structured view of the market. Instead of relying on personal product usage, manual account opening or anecdotal comparisons, the team can explore a broader range of providers and journeys in one place.
That matters because one of Principality’s internal goals is to improve commercial awareness across the team. In practice, that means understanding how financial products work, how the wider market is evolving, what new features are appearing and how customers are responding through reviews and feedback.
Pulse gives the team a way to ensure that awareness keeps pace with a fast-moving industry.
One of the most valuable use cases for Pulse at Principality is during safety reviews. These reviews bring together design, conduct, compliance and legal colleagues to assess risk and build confidence before new or unfamiliar product areas are shipped.
Different functions may interpret risk, customer outcomes or regulatory expectations in different ways. Conversations around those differences are healthy, but must be grounded in evidence. Pulse gives the team a neutral reference point. Principality can use it to explore market patterns, understand common design approaches, see how other providers handle similar risks and bring real-world examples into compliance discussions. That has been especially useful when the team is working in complex or unfamiliar regulatory territory, where internal perspectives may not immediately align.
Rather than relying on opinion, the team can ask: how are others approaching this? What patterns are emerging? What does good look like elsewhere in the market?
That helps reduce ambiguity, align perspectives and increase confidence in the final solution.
“Pulse has given each individual a much broader stroke of the market. I don't think we would have had exposure to global markets other than trying to sign up in territories that we have no access to.”
“Pulse has given each individual a much broader stroke of the market. I don't think we would have had exposure to global markets other than trying to sign up in territories that we have no access to.”
“Pulse has given each individual a much broader stroke of the market. I don't think we would have had exposure to global markets other than trying to sign up in territories that we have no access to.”
“Pulse has given each individual a much broader stroke of the market. I don't think we would have had exposure to global markets other than trying to sign up in territories that we have no access to.”
Principality looks at a mix of traditional and digital financial providers in Pulse. Building societies provide an important like-for-like benchmark, helping the team understand standard market approaches and what customers may already expect from similar organisations. But the team also places strong emphasis on modern challenger providers such as Moneybox and Chip, which are seen as strong examples of innovation and best practice in the savings space.
These challengers are particularly useful because they operate under similar constraints, including regulation and product scope, while still delivering more modern customer experiences.
Principality also uses Pulse to look beyond the UK. Exploring markets such as Australia and other international territories helps the team surface ideas that would otherwise be difficult to access. These global examples often create unexpected discoveries and spark internal discussion, showing different ways to solve familiar product and experience challenges.
That balance is important: traditional providers establish the baseline, challenger fintechs provide inspiration, and global examples help Principality stretch its thinking.
Principality looks at a mix of traditional and digital financial providers in Pulse. Building societies provide an important like-for-like benchmark, helping the team understand standard market approaches and what customers may already expect from similar organisations. But the team also places strong emphasis on modern challenger providers such as Moneybox and Chip, which are seen as strong examples of innovation and best practice in the savings space.
These challengers are particularly useful because they operate under similar constraints, including regulation and product scope, while still delivering more modern customer experiences.
Principality also uses Pulse to look beyond the UK. Exploring markets such as Australia and other international territories helps the team surface ideas that would otherwise be difficult to access. These global examples often create unexpected discoveries and spark internal discussion, showing different ways to solve familiar product and experience challenges.
That balance is important: traditional providers establish the baseline, challenger fintechs provide inspiration, and global examples help Principality stretch its thinking.
Pulse helps Principality be far more reactive when questions arise. It makes them better prepared for internal forums, reviews and compliance discussions. It gives designers and stakeholders more confidence when entering conversations where market norms, customer expectations or risk interpretations need to be understood quickly.
Most importantly, Pulse gives Principality a shared source of external evidence. It helps teams move from fragmented personal exposure to a broader, more consistent understanding of the market.
For Principality, Pulse is now part of a continuous learning habit. As customer expectations shift and new technologies, including AI, shape product experiences, Pulse helps the team stay close to market movement, product innovation and customer sentiment.
The value is not just in seeing what others are doing. It is in helping Principality ask better questions, challenge assumptions and build safer, smarter and more commercially aware experiences for its members.
