Meridian Energy
Cleaner and Cheaper Energy
for New Zealand
Meridian is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest listed companies. They sell more electricity to customers large and small, than any other electricity company and generate around a third of the country's electricity needs – all from renewable resources.
Meridian were looking to bring to life the next generation of energy products to help customers in the changing energy landscape to get cleaner and cheaper energy.
Neu21 was a key partner in helping the business ideate, test value propositions, prototype solutions, and successfully design and launch new customer-centric energy products.
PRODUCT DESIGN SQUAD • DESIGN COACHING • VALUE PROPOSITION • CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS • USER RESEARCH • USER TESTING • UX DESIGN • UI DESIGN • PROTOTYPING • DIGITAL DESIGN SYSTEM • PRODUCT METRICS
“The time is now. If we don’t act, we’ll miss the opportunity to use our power for good (aka make energy cleaner and cheaper).
We risk becoming irrelevant while customers move on to newer and shinier options.”
Lisa Hannifin
Chief Customer Officer, Meridian Energy Limited
OPPORTUNITY
Through an initiative called Basecamp Meridian had permission from the board to go away for six months to prove that they could bring to life their new next-generation products that would deliver on the promise to provide cheaper and cleaner energy to New Zealanders.
PRODUCT DISCOVERY
How we unlocked new customer value through actionable customer insights and collaborative ideation.
Basecamp kicked off with product discovery workshops—getting everyone on the same page about the product’s vision and challenge ahead was key to setting up the Meridian squads for the work ahead.
Next up, we dove into product ideation based on customer research to create the first concept of a new energy product that would allow among other things, free off-peak power to customers, Smart Charging of EVs and the ability to charge your EV for free.
STORYTELLING
For the rollout of each product, Meridian wanted to apply a build-to-learn methodology, starting from a minimum viable customer experience. To align everyone Neu21 led the work to create a thin-slice customer journey artefact, telling the story of Maia, the first customer on all product propositions. This artefact helped rally the business around a vision to go away and build each product with a shared experience in mind.
VALUE PROPOSITION
We also helped several product squads identify and validate new Value Propositions with hundreds of potential customers to help shape their Product Roadmaps and MVPs (Minimum Viable Product)
PRODUCT DELIVERY
How we helped Meridian to ship new energy products alongside a new tech stack, enabling them build to learn.
By embedding our expertise in each squad we then helped them to elevate and accelerate the design and build of each product MVP in an iterative approach over 6 months seeing several product launches go to market.
The result? A suite of Next Generation products with thousands of new customers acquired to learn from as Meridian keeps building for the future.
FREE SMART CHARGING FOR EVs
By connecting your eligible Electric Vehicle to Meridian, customers can enjoy Smart charging when energy is cheapest and receive credits on their energy bill.
HOT WATER CONTROL
By taking control over customers’ Hot Water Cylinders, Meridian can choose the right time in the day to heat hot water, returning the value to customers through cheaper energy bills.
FOUR FREE ENERGY PLAN
By educating customers about peak and off-peak energy usage and rewarding customers for shifting their energy usage customers can now enjoy 4 hours of daily free power, when it works for them.
EV HOME CHARGER
A whole new quoting and installation experience allows Kiwis to get a competitive EV Home Charger installed in their home in record time, cutting down on manual on-site visits and confusing email trails.
CUSTOMER PORTAL
Through an all-digital experience customers can now select to sign up to four new energy products based on their needs and a new in-life experience allows customers to control their energy in a whole new way.
The results —
First end-to-end customer experiences delivered by Meridian
Meridian were able to bring to life their first end-to-end customer experiences on a new suite of Energy products in a fully digital solution. This is a company first for a business that traditionally leaned on buying and selling off the shelf solutions.
Proof that a new operating model can enable new customer value faster
A product roadmap to keep adding product features for increased patient value
A first version of their own new technology stack
The ability to build to learn enabled Meridian to create a new technology stack from the ground up and test it in the wild. This has allowed Meridian to take learnings and requirements into the continuation of building out a scalable platform to allow them to provide cleaner and cheaper energy,
A robust Digital Product System that enables innovation in the business
The new platform was enabled by a scalable Product Design System that allowed for fast, iterative design and development of new features as the product grew.
Increased customer centered design capability
The collaborative ways of working by Neu21 implementing customer-centric methods enabled the 70 people strong Tribe to identify customer pains and quickly iterate the products into experiences that customers love.
With thousands of new customers onboarded on four new promising Energy products Meridian has successfully set the stage for the transformation needed in their business.
Meridian delivered its very first, fully end-to-end digital experience for customers, a suite of products built not from a shelf, but from scratch. It was a massive leap for a company that had mostly leaned on ready-made solutions. Even better, the project proved that a new way of working—think cross-functional teams and a laser focus on the customer—wasn’t just effective, it was essential. This approach helped Meridian whip up a brand-new technology stack that could test and adapt in real-time.
Through the ability for Neu21 to adapt their support, Basecamp members are now advocates for a customer-first, small, simple, now way of working.
“Neu21 brought invaluable expertise to our recent project, transforming our user experience in ways we hadn’t anticipated and fostering cohesion across teams. Their commitment to challenging the status quo meant we continuously explored new and innovative ideas. The team provided exceptional support during customer testing and interviews, leading the process and offering training and guidance to our team members. This ensured that our organization extracted maximum value from the work. Their professionalism, dedication, and collaborative spirit were instrumental in the project’s success. We are truly grateful for their contribution and look forward to future collaborations.”
Bergen Graham, Product Manager
Meridian Energy
