AJ Bell + UserTesting

AJ Bell has evolved its approach to user insight as part of a broader effort to scale product development while maintaining a strong focus on customer experience, with UserTesting playing a central role in that progression.

By introducing UserTesting, the organisation has enabled wider access to customer insight across product and design teams. UX designers are now able to run fast, iterative studies and bring real user feedback directly into day-to-day decision-making. This has supported a shift toward more continuous validation throughout the product lifecycle, allowing teams to test and refine ideas as they develop.

At the same time, AJ Bell has strengthened its UX Research capability to ensure customer insight is brought in earlier and more strategically. Dedicated research supports discovery and problem framing—helping teams understand customer needs before moving into solution design—while also shaping longer-term opportunities and identifying areas for improvement across the experience.

Together, this combination of democratised testing and a structured research approach has enabled a more joined-up way of working. In a major rebuild of the D2C app, for example, teams organised delivery around end-to-end customer journeys rather than individual features, using regular customer feedback to guide decisions and ensure the experience remained intuitive at every stage.

UserTesting has played a key role in enabling AJ Bell to scale its use of customer insight, supporting faster, more confident decision-making across the organisation.

Teams are now able to access timely feedback and evaluate ideas earlier in the process, providing greater clarity and helping to maintain momentum throughout delivery. By identifying usability considerations sooner, work is more refined before development begins, contributing to more efficient design and build cycles.

Cross-functional alignment has also improved, with teams able to reference shared customer insight to inform discussions and prioritisation. This has helped streamline decision-making and reduce reliance on assumption or opinion when evaluating solutions.

Crucially, these ways of working are contributing to more intuitive and effective customer experiences. By continuously incorporating user feedback, AJ Bell is able to refine key journeys, reduce friction, and support customers in completing their goals with greater ease.

At a broader level, embedding customer insight throughout the product lifecycle is helping AJ Bell deliver high-quality experiences at scale—supporting ongoing innovation while ensuring decisions remain grounded in a clear understanding of customer needs.