The Problem / Context
Enedis is France's principal electricity distribution network operator, serving 37 million customers across the country. Power outages, both planned and unplanned, are a routine part of network operations, but the experience of being on the receiving end of one was consistently poor. Enedis had systems in place: customers could receive push notifications and text messages if subscribed, and an app existed to track outage status. The problem was that these systems were not working reliably in practice. Contact information was often out of date, meaning notifications never reached customers. When information was available, it was sometimes inaccurate, arrived too late, or did not match what was actually happening on the ground. And many customers were simply unaware that these tools existed or did not know which channel to turn to when something went wrong. Enedis wanted to redesign the outage notification experience for all customer segments, from private households to small businesses and major industrial clients, each with very different stakes and needs when the power goes out.
My Role
I was lead researcher on this project, working within a three-person team at the agency alongside a senior product designer who also acted as project manager, and a service designer. My remit covered the full research programme: designing the methodology, leading all stakeholder interviews, planning and facilitating co-design workshops jointly with my colleagues, recruiting and running focus groups and user interviews, and collaborating closely on the synthesis and deliverables. Because I was the person closest to the research, client questions about findings and methodology came directly to me even though the product designer held the primary client relationship.
The project began just as COVID lockdowns came into effect, which required a rapid pivot from in-person fieldwork to fully remote research. I led the design and setup of what were the agency's first remote focus groups, building the logistics from scratch: participant briefing materials, Zoom onboarding instructions for less tech-savvy participants, individual pre-calls to test connectivity, a system for managing participant identities to protect anonymity, and protocols for a second team member to observe without disrupting the session. This infrastructure then became a template for the agency going forward.
Methodology
Stakeholder interviews with Enedis project managers and directors to align on scope and sharpen the research brief, followed by co-design workshops to define the target customer experience collaboratively with internal stakeholders. User research was conducted through approximately six focus groups and a series of in-depth interviews across all three customer segments: private individuals, small businesses, and large companies. Participants were recruited through a specialist agency to ensure the right mix of profiles. All user research was conducted remotely following the COVID pivot. The research then moved into a testing and iteration phase, with concepts validated with users before informing the UX, content, and service design work.
Key Findings
Customers across all segments were largely unaware of the distinction between their electricity distributor (Enedis, responsible for the network) and their electricity provider (the commercial supplier they pay). This meant that during outages, customers often did not know who to contact or where to find information, and Enedis bore reputational damage for problems that were sometimes outside their direct control.
Communication about outages was widely seen as insufficient: arriving too late, not arriving at all, or failing to match the reality of what was happening on the ground. Customers were unsure how to report outages or track restoration progress. The proposed solution was well received in testing, with users feeling it addressed the core frustrations they had described.
A key strategic tension also emerged on the client side: when an unplanned outage occurs, Enedis often cannot predict how long repairs will take, particularly in rural areas where fault-finding across a complex network can be a lengthy process. The research helped surface how to communicate usefully under that uncertainty, giving customers what they need to make decisions without committing to timelines that cannot be guaranteed.
What I Delivered
Customer journeys, storyboards, UX and content design, and service blueprints covering both planned and unplanned outage scenarios. Content outputs included notification templates for different outage types and channels, developed collaboratively based on what users said they needed to feel informed and in control.
Outcomes / Impact
The work informed a redesign of Enedis's outage notification experience that was subsequently continued and developed further by another consultancy. The changes touched a national system that activates every time there is a planned or unplanned outage anywhere in France, across all 37 million customers on the network, from households managing a few hours without power to hospitals, factories, and scientific facilities where the stakes of an unannounced outage are significantly higher.