Reducing churn for a global subscription service

The business needed to get Instant Ink subscriptions back to 13 million, and churn was the thing standing in the way. We had 10 weeks to figure out why people were cancelling, where the experience was letting them down, and what ideas were worth testing.

We explored three directions: badging and milestones to reward engagement, surprise-and-delight moments through unexpected physical gifts, and deeper personalisation — including a plan selection wizard, a comms preference centre, and usage-based print summaries. I designed and tested clickable prototypes across all three, ran interviews with real subscribers, and helped turn what we learned into a clear plan for what to test next.

I was the UX/UI designer across all the initiatives. I built interactive prototypes for badging, onboarding flows, and the preference centre. I led 15 user interviews and pulled out the usability gaps. I shaped the creative for the surprise-and-delight campaign and presented findings back to the client, keeping feedback loops tight throughout.

We delivered a full set of tested, insight-backed concepts ready for quantitative validation. The research surfaced some high-priority gaps around pricing clarity, value perception, and onboarding friction — and helped shape a roadmap for more personalised comms and smarter feature nudges. For lower-usage users especially, we started shifting the experience from purely functional to something that actually felt worth holding onto.

Retention isn't just about fixing what's broken — it's about reminding people why they signed up. When the experience feels personal and genuinely useful, people are a lot more likely to stick around.