Understanding the heat network sector
I rapidly created insights to inform the design of a new service while influencing the policy thinkers at Ofgem – The U.K’s Heat Network regulator.
gMy role
Lead User Researcher
Activities
User Research, generating insights, user testing, surveys, client presentations
The impact
Research momentum delivered: Conducted 45 interviews across 6-8 weeks, rebuilding stakeholder confidence after previous researcher’s limited progress. As one stakeholder put it: “It was like night and day after you started.”
Evidence-driven decisions: Research insights influenced language changes, user segmentation approach, and Beta planning considerations including collaborative workflow functionality and pre-registration support materials.
GDS Alpha assessment passed: Comprehensive research evidence package impressed assessors with range, frequency, and depth of user insights.
The problem to solve
How can Ofgem create a registration journey and outreach plan that heat networks of all sizes and setups can engage with and understand to become compliant with new policy and regulations?
My role and approach
Co-creative foundation: Co-created core research questions for the Alpha phase with the team, ensuring alignment on what we needed to learn and how to test key assumptions.
Industry immersion: Reached out to industry contacts for depth interviews and desk research to rapidly develop understanding of the sector and regulatory challenges.
Strategic outreach: Through key industry contacts, particularly The Heat Trust (facilitated by Ofgem), I built relationships that enabled access to established networks. This approach allowed me to distribute communications through community channels, newsletters, and industry portals, successfully recruiting a diverse range of participants.
Research operations: Scaled outreach by creating a research web portal for participants to give consent and manage 1-2-1 interview scheduling, reducing admin overhead and enabling rapid recruitment.
Iterative feedback loop: Established weekly cadence of interviews to build understanding and test latest designs from the UCD team. I worked side-by-side with service and content designers to share insights and develop recommendations for prototype iterations.
Results: 45 interviews across 6-8 weeks with daily testing rhythm, providing continuous evidence flow to support design decisions.
An important Insight
What I discovered: Users weren’t completing forms individually – they were creating collaborative workflows, copying questions into PowerPoints, distributing across organizations, then consolidating responses offline.
How this influenced Beta thinking:
- Future service strategy considerations around pre-registration journey design
- Beta roadmap discussions about briefing materials and save/continue functionality
- Content approach evolution toward helping users prepare information before starting
Research Impact on Policy and Design
Language validation: Challenged terms like “Heat Network Owner” that users rejected as unclear, leading to regulatory communication changes.
User segmentation insight: Moved from organizational categories (council, energy company) to readiness levels, influencing Ofgem’s outreach strategy for less mature networks.
Future roadmap influence: Raised API/automation possibilities that opened new digital strategy discussions policy team hadn’t considered.
Reporting, with insights, personas and quantitive data anaylsis
Evidence and Decision Making
Weekly iteration cycle: Daily interviews → Friday synthesis → immediate design changes → test updated prototype the following week.
Key decisions driven by insights:
- Registration flow sequencing redesigned to match user mental models.
- Registration form question logic and branching updated to make more efficient and logical flow
- Firmed up approach on how to handle multiple heat networks owned by the same entity.
- Start of journey /introductory content rewritten using sector aligned language.
Service design influence:
- Collaborative workflow functionality discussed for future development
- Technical language simplified throughout Alpha prototype iterations
Strategic influence:
- Regulatory communication approach shifted based on user language insights
- Digital strategy expanded to consider automation possibilities (allowing users and services to input data via APIs as well as direct manual user input).
Stakeholder transformation:
From research crisis to partnership confidence, enabling successful Alpha progression to Beta.
Final reflections
As the team had lost the initial user researcher before I joined, I was short on time, therefor there was an emphasis on rapid and lean research. The approach to focus heavily on 1-2-1 interviews worked well, although it did take a few rounds for me to feel orientated within the deep sector language.
The frequent user testing was critical in providing regular and iterative feedback to the service and content designers. In order to ensure we focused on the biggest risk (understanding & positioning in the sector) we tested using low-fi prototypes. This ensured we didn’t get distracted with interaction design but rather on the fundamentals of the service and proposition. Unfortunately the GDS alpha assessment team felt that without having tested using the prototype kit we would fail the assessment. This was disappointing but was remedied with 2 sprints of additional testing using the prototype kit which helped the team develop their understanding further.
The biggest indicator of success for me was not the initial GDS assessment but rather the feedback and strength of relationship with the client. They were happy and had the insights they needed to feel confident enough to proceed.