ANZ Loyalty & Rewards Strategy

Overview

ANZ’s Credit Cards Loyalty & Rewards team had a problem they knew existed but couldn’t resolve: a fundamental disconnect between how the business defined ‘loyalty’ and what loyalty actually meant to their customers. I was engaged to lead a Human Centred Design approach that would cut through that confusion and produce a strategic foundation capable of genuinely informing their opportunity backlog.

This wasn’t a research project that would end in a presentation deck and gather dust. From day one, I designed it to produce durable, actionable outputs that teams could continue to build on long after I’d moved on — and that’s exactly what happened.

The Challenge

The team recognised that their rewards strategy was dated and disconnected from customer reality, but lacked a structured process to diagnose why and determine where to focus. There was also a deeper cultural challenge: the team’s instinct was to jump straight to solutions. My role was to hold that space open long enough to properly understand the problem first.

”I’ve learnt that my brain is wired to jump into solution mode. In the design sessions there is a very thought out process before solutions are even discussed. I am learning to shift my mindset and it does take some conscious effort.”

– ANZ Team Subject Matter Expert

My Role

Working directly with the Product Owner, I planned and owned the entire discovery phase — from scoping research activities through to synthesis and stakeholder reporting. I was responsible for ensuring the process was rigorous enough to generate real insight, and practical enough that the team could carry it forward independently.

What I Did

I began with a thorough review of existing data and previous research, defining the problem landscape before a single workshop was run. From there, I guided the team through a structured sequence of collaborative design activities:

• Setting design principles to align the team on what ‘loyalty’ should mean
• Problem definition and cause analysis to surface the root disconnects
• Competitor analysis to identify where the market was moving
• Structured ideation and concept development grounded in real customer insight

All outputs were then shaped by the Product Owner and myself into a format that could be handed to any future team or stakeholder and immediately understood.

Outcomes

• Desk research & reporting
• Territory mapping
• Design Principles
• Pain points / cause analysis
• Focus questions
• Inspiration and ideation outputs
• Concepts & feature elaboration
• Full stakeholder reporting

The Results

The outputs of this project continued to actively inform the team’s work well beyond the engagement. In an environment where HCD was frequently misunderstood or misapplied, this project demonstrated what a focused, well-run process actually delivers.

”I felt energised by the process — actually fun to tackle the workshops and get usable outputs that will keep evolving as we build them out. Rather than a PowerPoint to be shelved and forgotten.”

– ANZ Product Owner