Overview

I was initially engaged to provide UX and research services on Australia Post’s ‘Digital Workspace’ product, part of a larger strategic change program established by PWC called the People Experience (PX) Program. But when PWC exited, I recognised that the program had lost its strategic direction and that simply continuing with the original UX brief would be the wrong call.

I made the case to senior stakeholders for a full pivot. Instead of continuing to build a product that no longer had a clear strategic rationale, I redirected the work toward building the internal capability Australia Post needed to sustain this kind of change on their own.

The Challenge

When PWC departed, Australia Post’s HR department was left holding strategic advice they didn’t have the capability to interpret or translate into action. The Digital Workspace squad had stalled. There was no mechanism to generate new direction, and no internal culture of evidence-based product management to fill the gap.

The real problem wasn’t the product. It was the capability deficit sitting underneath it.

My Role

Following the pivot, I took on Strategic Design, Capability Building, and advisory responsibility to the Change Management team. I was responsible for diagnosing the underlying issues, designing an intervention, securing stakeholder buy-in, and leading its delivery.

What I Did

Diagnosed and reframed the problem. Rather than continuing UX work on a product without strategic footing, I identified the root cause, a capability gap in the HR team, and proposed a different intervention to senior stakeholders.

Built a community of practice. I identified and convened a core group of 14 Australia Post employees to become internal design advocates within the PX Program. These weren’t designers; they were people from across the business who would be guided through the design process and develop the ability to interpret and act on research insights themselves.

Led research at two sites. I planned and conducted research with internal employees at Australia Post’s Bourke Street and Derrimut Parcels Centre locations. Participants were actively involved in conducting research, structuring data, cause analysis, and generating insights, learning by doing.

Generated strategic territories. The team produced territories of strategic opportunity that gave the PX Program a coherent framework for asking the right questions going forward.

Outcomes

• Future state employee onboarding service design
• Culture and process change communications
• Strategic roadmap
• Established community of design practice
• Research and insights knowledge base

Results

The pivot I recommended wasn’t the comfortable path: it required making the case for change to senior stakeholders and redirecting a program that had already been scoped. But it was the right call. A community of 14 internal design advocates, equipped to interpret evidence and drive change, is a more sustainable outcome than an unsupported product feature.

Large organisations rarely lack insight. What they lack is the internal capability to act on it. This project was built around solving that problem directly.