Sustainable adoption in climate-tech: Scaling for multi-EV households
As multi-EV ownership grew, retention dropped by 15% because our app couldn’t support more than one vehicle. I led research, ideation workshops, and design of a seamless multi-EV feature that allowed users to add, switch, and track vehicles easily. The launch drove +11% adoption, +7% task success, and 95% positive reviews, while positioning the product as a differentiated climate-tech solution.
Identifying user & business challenges
When I looked closer at our user base, something stood out: 10% of users wanted to add a second EV. For families or businesses with multiple electric cars, our app just didn’t scale.
This gap was costly:
15% drop in retention among multi-EV households and businesses.
Users wanted control and visibility across multiple cars without added complexity.
Utility and business partners risked losing high-value, sustainability-minded customers.
Users told us they needed more: a way to easily manage multiple EVs, monitor their statistics and reduce their carbon footprint. Businesses, meanwhile, wanted to grow adoption and capture new market opportunities.
This was both a user challenge and a business growth opportunity.
My role
Lead product designer driving research, ideation, and UI/UX design.
Partnered with product, data, engineering, and business stakeholders.
Responsible for aligning user needs with business adoption goals.
The challenge
Process & decisions
1. Research & validation
I started by setting clear research goals: to understand the motivations, frustrations, and behaviours of users adding an additional EV.
Exploratory interviews gave me the nuance behind user pain points.
Data analysis (SQL, internal CS tool) helped confirm how widespread the issue was.
Surveys validated insights with a broader group.
From this, one insight became clear: people didn’t want “more settings”, they wanted confidence and control without extra effort.
I benchmarked competitors and found that none offered a proper multi-EV feature. This gave us a real opportunity to differentiate.
2. Prioritise for a better value
I led an ideation workshop with the product team. Together, we prioritised ideas with a value–effort matrix.
From there, I explored UI options and ran design critiques, making sure we considered every edge case of switching between vehicles, error states, and unexpected scenarios.
Outcome
The multi-EV management feature launched as a scalable, user-friendly system that addressed both adoption and retention challenges.
Impact:
+11% adoption among multi-EV users.
+7% task success improvement in managing vehicles.
95% positive user reviews for the feature.
Business impact
Higher user retention in high-value segments.
Strengthened our sustainability narrative, supporting climate-tech adoption.
Differentiated our platform in a market where no competitor offered multi-EV support.
Reflection
This project reminded me that progress > perfection.
We didn’t prototype as deeply as I’d have liked, but launch validated a huge opportunity.
The feature opened long-term learning cycles for user behaviour and continuous iteration.
I strengthened my skills in:
Balancing adoption + retention goals with UX simplicity.
Facilitating cross-functional prioritisation (value–effort trade-offs).
Designing scalable systems that prepare the product for future growth.
