Soul clubFrom concept to cult following:
scaling wagamama’s loyalty experience
TL;DR
The challenge
wagamama needed to design a brand-new digital loyalty proposition from scratch to increase restaurant visit frequency by 8%, drive customer acquisition, and capture deep user insights.
My role
Leading the UX strategy, user research, and cross-functional product design to move the business from an abstract concept to a fully validated, launch-ready platform.
The big win
Beyond shipping a beautiful product on time, my team successfully embedded a user-research-first mindset into wagamama’s corporate culture—ensuring every feature was validated by real guests before a single line of code was written.
Flipping the script on loyalty
wagamama didn't just want another generic points-based digital punch card. They wanted to drive an 8% increase in visit frequency and secure long-term retention through genuine emotional connection.
The hurdle? The business needed to move fast from a high-level corporate concept to a tangible, market-ready digital experience, all while operating without an established framework for continuous user validation.
Setting the UX strategy: research first, scale second
As the UX lead, I continuously adapted our squad’s ways of working to match the fast-moving pace of the project. We didn't just design interfaces; we built the strategic foundation:
Guest empathy & discovery
Conducted deep-dive user research to identify key customer opportunities and friction points in the casual dining journey.
End-to-end journey mapping
Plotted the entire digital-to-physical guest experience, ensuring a seamless transition from the app interface to the restaurant table.
Rapid validation
Ran iterative testing loops to validate the core loyalty proposition with actual wagamama guests, de-risking the product pre-launch.
Driving organisational impact
Our most significant achievement wasn't just UI delivery; it was organisational transformation. We successfully established a customer-led, validation-first mindset within wagamama’s executive and product stakeholder teams, changing how they approach product development forever.
The outcome & deliverables
By aligning stakeholders early and maintaining an open, iterative loop with the engineering team, we successfully brought the proposition to life.
Soul Club - the cook book
Co-created and documented a comprehensive, scalable design system to streamline future feature rollouts.
A new design language
Introduced a refreshed, modern look and feel that honours the iconic wagamama brand identity while optimising for mobile UX conversion.
Commercial success
Post-launch data confirms that customer acquisition, database growth, and visit frequency metrics are actively on track to hit the brand’s ambitious targets.