CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

User-centred problem solving with Anthony Nolan:

How a two-day training session for Anthony Nolan helped the organisation adopt a more human-centric approach through user-centred problem solving.

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2 days
Length of the collaborative UCD training workshop

4 facilitators
Red Badgers running the sessions, plus 2 planning them

~20 people
Participants, spanning Technology to Social Media

4 awards
Given to teams for their prototypes on the day

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The Challenge

Building UCD skills beyond a single team.

Anthony Nolan is the blood cancer charity that runs the UK's stem cell and bone marrow donor register, matching willing donors to patients who need a transplant, and supporting patients and their families throughout that journey.

The charity wanted user-centred design thinking to take root across the whole organisation, not stay confined to a single project team.

That meant getting around 20 people from very different departments, from Technology to Social Media, speaking the same language around putting users first, and giving them tools they could actually take back and use in their day-to-day work.

Our Approach

Red Badger ran a two-day workshop structured around the Design Council's double diamond: Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver.

Day one focused on discovery and definition, with participants conducting real interviews with patients and donors and mapping what they learned into user journeys to surface the problems worth solving.

Day two moved into development and delivery, using Crazy 8's rapid sketching and prototyping boxes to turn ideas into tangible concepts, tested and refined in small cross-functional teams.

The two days closed on a lighter note, with informal awards handed out to teams, Content King, Fancy Pants, The craft experts and The best wizards to mark what each group had made.

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The Results

Participants left with practical, reusable UCD techniques rather than just theory, and the impact outlasted the workshop itself: graduates went on to run their own internal Crazy 8's and How-Might-We sessions back in their teams.

As James Small, Head of Digital Engagement, put it, the charity became "more focused on user needs" and has already applied what it learned successfully to live projects.

 

 

But don't just take our word for it....

We have definitely become more focused on user needs as a result of the workshop... We have also taken away lots of practical techniques for rapid idea generation and prototyping, which we've applied successfully to projects already.

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Head of Digital Engagement, Anthony Nolan James Small

KEY TAKEAWAYS


  • Context: Anthony Nolan wanted to build user-centred design skills across the whole organisation, not just within one project team.

  • Approach: A two-day workshop using the Design Council's double diamond, combining real patient/donor interviews with journey mapping, Crazy 8's sketching and rapid prototyping.

  • Results: ~20 staff across departments gained hands-on UCD skills, and per James Small, the charity became "more focused on user needs" — graduates went on to run their own internal Crazy 8's/HMW sessions.

  • Ways of working: Learning by doing — pairing a structured design framework with real user research and fast prototyping rather than theory alone.

We solve complicated problems in complex places

Red Badger is the product transformation consultancy for enterprise. Our product design capabilities and technical pedigree build high-performance digital products and platforms that get you closer to your customers and embed new ways of working. Your journey to an agile, innovative digital product organisation starts today.

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