Research when the decision was already moving

Following an acquisition, the business planned to move users from one app experience onto another, reducing technical complexity and cost. But the two apps had developed different experiences, and we knew customers actively preferred one over the other.

The potential customer risk surfaced late: the decision was due for Board approval in two weeks. My role was to quickly establish which differences genuinely posed a retention risk, giving executives evidence to make informed trade-offs without slowing the decision.

Testing the change customers would actually experience

I deliberately avoided a conventional concept or usability test. Neither would tell us how people might respond when a familiar part of their weekly routine changed.

Instead, I asked existing customers to use the alternative app for a week as part of their real grocery routine, documenting their experience through a diary study. I paired this behavioural depth with a 1000-user Kano study to understand at scale which product differences were most likely to affect satisfaction and retention.

Making risk visible

I combined the qualitative, quantitative and behavioural evidence into a simple retention-risk framework:

Protect where possible · Adapt where feasible · Track where trade-offs were unavoidable

One feature stood out as carrying disproportionately high risk. The consolidation ultimately moved ahead without it, so I worked with the integration team to establish baseline measures and signals to watch after launch.

What happened next

The research predicted the problem
The feature identified as highest-risk became the leading driver of negative customer feedback following integration.

85% reduction in related negative feedback
After the feature was prioritised and released later in the year, tagged customer feedback fell by 85% within one month.

Research brought into future acquisitions earlier
Following the post-integration retrospective, I was invited to join the Integration Core Group for subsequent acquisitions, bringing customer research into decisions before commitments were finalised.