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Case study 02 · 0->1 | Serivce/Product Design
Turned a confusing, inconsistently-applied retention policy into a guided workflow — cutting tagging time to under 5 minutes per repository and reducing both compliance risk and storage costs. I led the research and design 0→1.
*Details have been simplified and decontextualised to preserve confidentiality
Large volumes of content were untagged against the organisation's retention policy, creating two problems: compliance risk, since content wasn't being managed according to policy, and cost, since unnecessary content was consuming expensive storage.
A client asked us to streamline how staff applied content retention policies to improve compliance and save storage costs.
The challenge wasn't simply to build a tagging tool — it was to help people make the right policy decision quickly and confidently.
I led the project from 0→1, running iterative research and design sprints to define the MVP and translate complex retention policies into a simple user experience.
The core challenge was bridging the gap between how policy teams described retention, and how staff actually understood their own content.
"The challenge wasn't to build a tagging tool — it was to help people make the right policy decision, quickly and confidently."
01No clear understanding of retention policy
Users had little understanding of the organisation's retention categories. When unsure, many defaulted to the longest retention period "just in case" — the opposite of what the policy intended.
Working closely with the retention and policy teams, I translated policy definitions into a short series of plain-language questions into the tool — so instead of understanding the policy, users just had to identify what type of content they had, and the tool mapped that to the right retention category.
02No clear ownership over the files
Research uncovered a broader organisational problem: many files were owned by people who had since left the department, meaning the problem couldn't be solved through the tagging workflow alone.
I surfaced the ownership gap early and kept it out of the MVP, feeding the insight into a separate initiative exploring how ownerless files could be tagged — keeping the team focused without losing a significant systemic issue.
03Low awareness of storage requirements
Awareness of retention requirements was low across the organisation. During testing, some users assumed that the notification prompting them to tag their files was a phishing email — revealing this wasn't purely a UX problem, but a missing mental model of why the work mattered.
Treated adoption as part of the product challenge: worked with senior stakeholders on company-wide launch communications, and engaged key departmental groups to reinforce the message locally. The launch was about changing behaviour, not just introducing a tool.
Shipped and launched the MVP, enabling staff to retrospectively apply retention policies to untagged content in under 5 minutes per repository — turning a complex, confusing task into a guided workflow. The launch was backed by senior stakeholder communications and departmental engagement to drive adoption.