Content as strategy for the PRS Database
I joined the MHCLG as the lead content designer to build the Private Rented Sector (PRS) Database, a national register for landlords in England introduced in the Renters’ Rights Bill.
This is a service that didn’t exist yet. And neither did the policy to help us understand how this database might work.
This uncertainty was a huge blocker. It created high risk for the team because:
Time was wasted building features based on policy that often changed.
The cross-functional design team felt lost and unsure about where to focus.
I saw an opportunity to let content take the stage on a really important service to shape the rental sector.
What I did
I stopped abstract policy talk with pair writing. I sat with policy and legal experts to write the content for the service with me. This meant they had to make concrete decisions, instantly flagging what was missing or ambiguous to be dealt with later.
I defined the service scope with user needs: By focusing on what a user needed to do (not just what the law said), I gave the team a stable content blueprint. This was key to agreeing on the MVP and preventing endless scope creep.
I built a content change workflow: I set up a simple process to integrate new policy and legal updates into a content workflow. This allowed us to keep up with policy changes in the future, but still have a service that was fit for testing and iterating on.
I got buy in on testing what we didn’t know: I convinced senior stakeholders to allow us to test our riskiest assumptions with the people using the service, to help policy make decisions about how it’ll work.
The impact
Using content strategically changed how the whole project worked. It cut through the confusion and gave the team something to work towards. I derisked the delivery, outlined what decisions were blocking us and get us to a clear roadmap for what we were working towards.
The result meant we could validate our work with real users. We had something concrete to show and test with landlords, local councils and tenants across England.
This ensured our final service matched what users actually expected, saving us from costly redesigns later.
For the team, my work proved that effective content design is the fastest, clearest way to solve complex policy and delivery problems and keep high-risk projects on track.
