CASE STUDY
Reframing Readiness:
A Strategic MVP for the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
Location: UK / Leeds
2023 / 24
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My Role
Strategic Lead
Research & Project Manager
UX & Pitch Deck Designer
The Institution
The Royal Navy is one of the most traditional military forces in the world, and in 2023, it lost 3,630 trained personnel, with only 13% of personnel satisfied with transitional post-deployment support.
Many leaving were young, capable, and incresingly demotivated.
Context & Challenge
“One of the worst things that have happened to me is that my attitude changed. I became less proactive, motivated”
That’s how one Royal Navy officer described their time in the Personnel Support Group (PSG). For many, this assignment—meant to provide structure between deployments—felt more like a waiting room for stalled careers. Underutilized, unacknowledged, and unsure of what came next, young personnel assigned to the PSG were losing more than motivation: they were losing momentum.
This wasn't just a personnel challenge. It was a readiness crisis hiding in plain sight.
The Challenge
The Personnel Support Group (PSG) plays a critical support role for Royal Navy personnel during recovery, reassignment, or transition. However, the system—despite its intentions—was creating:
Mismatched job assignments
Long periods of underemployment
Unclear training or redeployment pathways
A growing perception of low value and institutional neglect
At the same time, the Royal Navy faced record-high attrition rates, a 27% shortfall in trained personnel, and increasing demand in critical specializations like cyber and engineering.
They didn’t just want better tasks, they needed a career map.
Discovery: Listening to a new gen of officers
I led the strategic problem solution process , from problem definition to experience , applying my clarity system across brand logic, UX strategy, and operational constraints.
Scope of Research
70+ interviews (PSG personnel, high-rank officers, consultants, journalists)
Ministry of Defence documents, arliament interviews, and institutional articles.
Business Mission Model Canvas the value proposition of the developed program
Journey mapping to narrow the beneficiries to the young segment
We also conducted a document audit across 25+ sources: Parliamentary evidence, MoD strategy papers, recruitment reports, and digital tool reviews.
Key Findings
An awareness gap: personnel were unaware of development resources available to them.
Ineffective onboarding: the intake process rarely captured existing skills, education, or aspirations.
Psychological drift: most interviewees described loss of identity, morale, and ambition.
A surprising desire to grow: PSG members wanted to train, upskill, and contribute—but lacked structure and support.
The PSG wasn't the problem. Lack of clarity, poor visibility of talent, and fragmented communication were the root causes.
These young workfoce needed guidance, access, and a system that treated their time as valuable. it was not a generation that lacked loyalty. They lacked structure that made sense for them.
The Solution
The Ready Programme
We proposed READY: a self-guided digital career interface for PSG personnel, built to:
Reinforce learning pathways
Engage personnel in meaningful activities
Adapt to unique timelines and training histories
Digitize onboarding and make career clarity accessible
READY functions as an integrated module A lean, modular Career Dashboard integrated into existing Navy platforms.leveraging current data sources and minimizing friction.
How READY Works
Skill & Experience Mapping
Analyzes background, education, previous deployments, and career goals.Training Recommendations
Offers targeted learning and upskilling pathways based on specialization needs and readiness.Short-Term Assignment Matching
Connects personnel with aligned temporary roles to maintain momentum.Feedback Loop
Includes a digital evaluation system to collect satisfaction data and improve experience over time.
READY promotes agency, autonomy, and belonging—without additional workload for HR or command staff.
Key Insights
We shared the MVP prototype with 35 PSG beneficiaries, and their feedback was clear: having a tool that offered self-navigation during uncertain transitions gave them a renewed sense of control. Simply gaining visibility into available opportunities was a breakthrough. Most importantly, when their training and assignments were finally aligned with a clear sense of purpose and direction, motivation rebounded.
MPV
Minimal Viable Programme
Validated by +35 young officers as the user target.
Final presentation delivered to:
MoD Command & Innovation Advisors
Royal Navy Culture and Retention Officers
Industry Experts from the Defence Innovation Network
70+
“It’s a win-win. I finally feel like my skills are seen.”
Research interviews conducted out of 100 sourced
3
BMNT/London Tech Bridge
Royal Navy Head Quarters
University of Leeds - Helix
My Contribution
As the strategy and UX lead:
Designed the beneficiary research plan and led interviews
Synthesized policy, qualitative, and operational insights
Mapped user journeys and systems impact
Co-created the MVP feature architecture
Defined KPIs and future rollout plans
Aligned stakeholder vision between the MoD, Royal Navy, and innovation sponsors
"Throughout the entire program, Mariana demonstrated a high level of interpersonal intelligence, building trust among person”.
Commander Charlie Jones
Royal Navy Culture Team Leadernel."
Takeaways & Learnings
READY demonstrates what I bring to any brand or product team:
Strategic fluency in complex systems
Human-centered research that translates into action
Narrative and UX architecture that drives clarity, not noise
This is what I do:
Take messes, map meaning, and deliver transformation—with proof.
READY taught me that:
Bureaucracy isn’t the enemy—misalignment is
Morale isn’t restored with slogans—it’s rebuilt through structure, purpose, and agency
Even in defence, strategy and design can soften complexity and reinforce dignity
