Is your vulnerability strategy creating Snakes, or Ladders?
Often, Customer Vulnerability and Financial Inclusion can feel like two different worlds. With strategies, plans and ways of working that feel totally separate.
I see it more as Snakes and Ladders. If we get things right for customers in vulnerable circumstances, we’re building a ladder, helping them to build and improve financial resilience. If we don’t, it’s a snake, and an event such as an unexpected bill, a theft, or a job loss, is what pushes people from precarious to financially excluded.
It was great to attend – and chair a panel – at the Delivering Financial Inclusion Together Conference, a day before the Government released it’s National Financial Inclusion strategy. Here are my key takeaways, for vulnerability leaders, proposition owners, and anyone who is interested in delivering good outcomes for all customers.
We have to design for real customers, in the world that they are in
Fair4All Finance CEO Kate Pender said:
“We live in a world designed to make spending incredibly easy, and in which saving is hard…..When someone struggles to make ends meet, it’s not a failure of character, it’s a failure of system design”
Customers in vulnerable circumstances aren’t just navigating personal challenges — they’re operating in systems that weren’t built for them.
The firms leading the way are designing propositions that reflect the whole of people’s lives. That means recognising that customers often skim communications, make decisions quickly, and seek reassurance. How do we design for complex, overloaded lives?
At Inclusive Outcomes, our customer immersion workshops centre the lived experience of real customers with real needs. We help teams build empathy and design with inclusion at the core.
“Avoided harm” can be a success measure
FCA Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi spoke about “avoided harm” as a success measure for firms when it comes to inclusive design and access to appropriate and affordable products – and this could be a driving principle for those working to deliver more inclusive products and services.
What does outcomes measurement look like for customers in vulnerable circumstances? Are you able to identify – and importantly prevent – harm for different cohorts of customers?
We’re helping clients look at their existing journeys and products, alongside how they’re measuring outcomes today, to close the gap in outcomes for customers in vulnerable circumstances
We have to get universal inclusive design right, not just “put your hand up and tell us what you need”
On a powerful panel about Civil Society and Innovation, Helen Undy, CEO of Money and Mental Health, reminded us that disclosure alone is not enough – we have to be designing products, services and journeys that meet customer needs.
One to debate is how we design for the 80% – while also ensuring we aren’t leaving the most at risk behind. This panel included powerful stories from Project Nemo, Surviving Economic Abuse and The Runnymede Trust. While each of these organisations is looking at the specific needs of people who are excluded or underserved, inclusively designed solutions that meet the needs of different groups exist and can be delivered.
This aligns with our core principle: understand the characteristics of vulnerability and their impacts, and design and deliver for the needs.
Inclusive design comes in all shapes and sizes
I had the privilege of chairing a panel on inclusive design with four brilliant leaders pushing boundaries in the sector:
So what’s next?
Snakes and ladders. Every decision you make in your vulnerability and customer inclusion strategy either builds a ladder or lays down a snake.
We need more ladders—more inclusive products, better-designed services, and propositions that reflect real customer needs.
If you want to better understand the diverse and complex needs of your customers, or work together on inclusive design, get in touch. Let’s build ladders together.
*£24 billion in unclaimed benefits from Policy in Practice, September 2025
