TSB — RETAIL BANKING APP
Closing the gap with focused actions
65% of new TSB current account customers were adopting the mobile app — but far fewer were completing the actions that make a customer sticky. I led the research and design of an in-app activation checklist to guide new customers through the key moments that turn a sign-up into a genuine banking relationship.
My role
Lead UX / Product designer
Platform
iOS and Android
Audience
New customers
Status
Live
Impact at a glance
£2.07m
Projected annual balance growth
57→60%
Account funding target within 30 days
42→45%
PoS transaction target
4x
More likely to become main banker
01
My role
Research-led, end-to-end ownership
User research
Led research to identify which activation actions had the greatest impact on long-term customer retention
Journey design
Designed the full checklist experience — states, progression, prompts, and contextual nudges in the app
Commercial framing
Built the business case for each activation event, quantifying the income and balance impact of each action
End-to-end delivery
Sole designer from discovery through to build-ready specs and live launch on iOS and Android
02
Problem
Opening an account is not the same as becoming a customer
65% of new TSB customers were adopting the mobile app — but adoption alone doesn’t create a banking relationship. The data showed a clear gap: only 57% of new customers funded their account within the first 30 days, and only 42.6% made a Point of Sale transaction in the same window. These customers were at high risk of becoming dormant before they’d experienced the real value of the product.
“Customers who switched their main banking to TSB were almost four times more likely to become long-term main bankers. The design problem was getting them there.”
Reframe
From “improve app adoption” → “design the moments that turn a sign-up into a genuine banking relationship within 30 days”
03
Research
Using research to identify the right four actions
Before designing anything, I ran user research to understand which actions new customers found most meaningful and most likely to make them feel settled in their new account. The research also validated which activation events correlated most strongly with long-term retention in the data — ensuring the checklist was grounded in both user behaviour and commercial evidence.
Four actions emerged as the clear priorities, each one a meaningful step toward TSB becoming a customer’s main bank rather than a secondary account.
Transfer money into your new account
Done
Switch to TSB from your old bank
Done
Set up a standing order
To do
Add your card to your digital wallet
To do
04
Commercial case
Each action had a quantified business value
The activation framework was underpinned by a rigorous commercial case, each action tied directly to a projected income or balance impact, making design decisions easy to prioritise and defend with stakeholders.
Fund account within 30 days
Baseline
57%
Target
60%
£2.07m annual balances · £29k income
Switch within 30 days
Baseline 16.5% → Target 17.5%
88 additional switchers per month · 4x more likely to become main banker
Card to digital wallet
Baseline 50% → Target 65%
Increased daily engagement and app stickiness
05
Outcome
A live activation system with measurable commercial targets
The activation checklist launched as a live feature in the TSB mobile app for all new current account customers. Each activation event was tracked against baseline metrics with clear commercial targets — giving the product team a framework to measure impact and iterate against over time.
What I’d do differently
With more time I’d have pushed for A/B testing the checklist against a control group to measure uplift directly. The commercial projections were strong but a controlled experiment would have given us much more precise data on which individual actions drove the biggest impact on retention.