Envisioning the Future of Adviser Services Post-Merger
Context
Following the acquisition of Pension Platform Provider by Trad Pension Provider (part of Large Banking Group), leadership teams faced increasing challenges in aligning product strategy, proposition design, and adviser service delivery. While the merger had clear financial and operational benefits on paper, the execution of a cohesive adviser strategy remained unclear, leading to friction between teams and an emerging need for strategic foresight.
As part of my role in Trad Pension Provider’s Adviser Lab, I was approached to lead a brief futures programme with leadership teams from both organisations to help map the post-merger landscape, align product and service strategies, and explore future opportunities for adviser relationships and digital service delivery.
Objectives
- Clarify how the new adviser strategy might be delivered across the combined organisation.
- Explore potential futures and steps required to get there.
- Align leadership vision on what an optimal adviser experience should look like.
- Create actionable outputs that could drive research, proposition development, and long-term strategy.
Approach
To structure the engagement, I designed a two-phase strategic foresight sprint, leveraging a mix of workshops, ecosystem mapping, and speculative design exercises.
Phase 1: Making Sense of the Current Landscape
- Delivered lightning talks to leadership on foresight methodologies, industry trends, and competitor benchmarks.
- Facilitated as-is mapping of adviser services using a “service stack” format to capture pain points, opportunities, and potential leverage points.
- Conducted initial research synthesis, bringing together internal strategy documents from digital, tech, and product teams to align narratives.
Phase 2: Exploring Possible Futures
- Ran a strategic foresight sprint, guiding teams through speculative exercises to explore different future states of the adviser-LBG relationship.
- Identified a “candidate future experience”, which became a shared reference point for leadership to align around.
- Created prototype narratives and visual mockups to articulate how a differentiated, future-ready adviser service could be positioned in the market.
Key Findings & Actions Taken
From the August/September 2024 strategy sessions, we identified four key actions to drive forward momentum:
1) Accelerate qualitative research with advisers
- Adviser Lab research team coordinated a panel and in-depth research initiative to uncover real needs, constraints, and opportunities within the adviser ecosystem.
- Leadership committed to integrating these insights into the broader strategy.
2) Map the as-is adviser service ecosystem
- I led initial service mapping workshops with key stakeholders.
- Conducted a site visit to Pension Platform Provider HQ, mapping existing teams and processes onto the new service blueprint.
- Work paused temporarily to prioritize foresight activities.
3) Define and document the delivery strategy
- I collaborated with the CPO of Trad Pension Provider to refine the “how we deliver” section of the adviser strategy.
- Reviewed multiple digital and group tech strategy documents, working towards an integrated narrative.
- Next step: Synthesize and connect insights into a clear, actionable roadmap.
4) Run a strategic foresight sprint
- The sprint produced a candidate future adviser experience, aligning leadership around a shared vision.
- High-level artefacts were created to support ongoing proposition and service development.
- Awaiting feedback from leadership on potential further exploration or additional design assets.
Impact & Next Steps
This strategic foresight initiative provided leadership with:
✔ A structured way to envision the future of adviser services within the newly merged entity.
✔ Clarity on key service and proposition challenges, and a pathway to resolve them.
✔ A shared vision for the adviser experience, reducing friction between teams and aligning priorities.
✔ A blueprint for action, ensuring research, proposition work, and strategic alignment continue in a cohesive direction.
The next steps will depend on how leadership chooses to build on this work—whether through deepening foresight activities, expanding design research, or iterating on the future vision. Either way, this initiative laid the groundwork for a more unified, strategically aligned approach to the future of adviser services within the newly combined organisation.
Activities
- Strategic foresight workshops
- Leadership coaching and facilitation
- Ecosystem and service mapping
- Qualitative research design and execution
- Competitor benchmarking and trend analysis
- Future scenario development and backcasting
- Proposition development and experience design
- Narrative prototyping and stakeholder alignment
- Strategy synthesis and documentation
- Facilitation of multi-stakeholder decision-making
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