The People’s Pension: Building Trust Early in a Digital Transformation
The Situation
I was engaged as Programme Director at The People’s Pension at the very start of a company-wide digital transformation. The goal was to modernise the organisation’s entire digital offering—introducing new retirement products, improving member experience, and enabling agile ways of working across a very traditional, compliance-heavy environment.
While there was strong board support and clear intent, there was also anxiety. Legacy systems, siloed teams, and a very risk-averse culture meant that trust in delivery was low—and most people didn’t yet believe the programme could succeed without compromising service quality or regulatory compliance.
The Task
My role was to get the programme off the ground in a credible way: align business and technology stakeholders, set up effective delivery governance, and generate early momentum that reassured the board, the exec team, and operational leads.
Essentially, I had to convert strategic ambition into structured progress—fast—while also creating psychological safety for people whose last experience of ‘transformation’ hadn’t gone well.
The Action / Approach
I started by slowing down just enough to listen. I ran a cross-functional diagnostic to understand not just systems and capability gaps, but mindset blockers. What I found was a trust deficit—people felt change had happened ‘to them’, not ‘with them’. So I flipped the approach.
We co-designed the delivery roadmap with functional leads—starting with what mattered most to members: clearer communication, simplified onboarding, and better retirement product visibility. That allowed us to sequence delivery around outcomes, not technology components.
I created a delivery rhythm that was light but visible—weekly show-and-tells with real users, bi-weekly steering with execs focused only on value, risk, and readiness. And I pushed for one early, tangible win: a retirement calculator prototype that engaged the customer insight team and landed well with trustees and the board. That single product showed we could move fast and stay compliant.
The Result
Within 10 weeks, the programme was no longer just a PowerPoint—it was delivering visible value. The calculator prototype became a flagship example of what member-centric digital could look like, and engagement from risk, ops, and customer service teams surged.
Most importantly, the early traction enabled us to baseline a strategic 18-month product delivery roadmap that was fully endorsed by the board and executive team. This roadmap aligned customer priorities, internal capability development, and regulatory commitments—giving the business confidence to invest, and teams confidence to deliver.
What made the difference wasn’t flashy delivery—it was early trust, outcome-led prioritisation, and creating space for people to believe in change again.
RESULT
Within 10 weeks, the prototype landed with users, trustees, and execs. It became the catalyst for a fully endorsed 18-month roadmap that aligned digital ambition with operational and regulatory grip.
Engagement scores rose 21% in programme-facing teams. More than that—teams who’d been sceptical started leaning in, bringing ideas instead of blockers.
SO WHAT?
The biggest shift wasn’t tech—it was belief. I’ve learned that in low-trust environments, your first win isn’t a product—it’s emotional permission. I build that early, so strategy isn’t just agreed—it’s owned. That’s how I make transformation land where it counts: inside the culture.
