It gave teams clarity, aligned goals, and set them up to build a portal that truly met client needs, saving valuable time and resources.
Team roles
I led the project and User Research alongside a PM
Client side: PO, Marketing
Project length
2-months
The brief: Do we even need a portal?
Grant Thornton, one of the UK’s top professional services firms, wanted to explore whether to build a bespoke client portal or go with a white-label solution. The big question: is this something their clients actually want and need, or just a move to keep up with the competition?
They brought us in to find out. My role was leading the research to run a discovery sprint to define the proposition.
Digging deeper than assumptions
A lot of firms in this space already had bespoke portals. That alone felt like a reason to build one. But we weren’t convinced. We needed to know what clients actually needed and how a portal could genuinely make doing business with Grant Thornton better. I interviewed 10 Grant Thornton employees to understand pain points, workflows, and goals from the internal side.
Here’s how we approached it:
Created rough mockups of a client portal to use as discussion tools in interviews
Wrote a discussion guide and recruited 11 participants - a mix of clients and industry professionals familiar with using client portals
Ran over 20 hours of interviews to explore expectations, frustrations, and priorities when it comes to digital tools
Used Dovetail to tag and group insights so the wider team could clearly understand the findings
What we found
Clients wanted fast access to key information, without friction and blockers
Different roles needed different views - one-size-fits-all wouldn’t cut it
Security and trust were non-negotiable for file sharing
Notifications had to be well-timed and useful, not distracting
The insight that changed everything
Clients weren’t just asking for a portal. They were asking for smarter communication, role-specific dashboards, and reassurance that their data was safe. The portal wasn’t the answer in itself. It was the delivery mechanism. And that meant it had to be built carefully - or not at all.
Outcome
Our research was presented internally at Grant Thornton to support the business case for further funding. But more importantly, it gave the team clarity. Now they had evidence to decide how to move forward - whether with a white-label tool or a bespoke build.
The client portal launched after our research, incorporating these user-centred features. This resulted in a platform that improved client satisfaction, enhanced secure file sharing, and simplified interactions, supporting Grant Thornton UK’s goal to modernise their digital services and strengthen client relationships.
This project reinforced why user research isn't a luxury - it's a cost-saving tool. It also reminded me that the perfect participant doesn't always exist, and diverse voices often bring the most unexpected, valuable insights.
By slowing down early, Grant Thornton saved time, money, and the risk of launching something nobody actually needed.
