Service Development

Scaling the end-to-end products and services for the UK's fastest growing diagnostics organisation

ExpressTest was launched in response to the Covid pandemic and quickly became the UK's largest Covid-19 testing provider.

At a Glance

During the pandemic Cignpost Diagnostic created a private testing service. The service was new to consumers and needed to help them navigate the ever-changing rules and guidelines around travel testing.

A brand new service

A new service entering a brand new market, a distress purchase which nobody had a desire to pay for.

Making sense of guidelines

Constantly changing government guidelines meant the product offering was ever changing.

Clear check out process

Handholding and guidance was pivotal to ensure customers understood what they needed and how to purchase in order to reduce the amount of time spent dealing with customer queries.

The Task

Absurd needed to setup a multidisciplinary team with an operational model that meant change could be delivered at pace without compromising the quality of the technical solution or user experience.

Dedicated researchers and designers worked alongside engineers to ensure solutions were still validated with customers and continuously optimised throughout the product lifecycle.


A core team of engineers worked to maintain the stability of the platform as it scaled working to tight SLAs driven by the government's legislation.

The Outcome

The confidence in Cignpost’s infrastructure meant that they were able to successfully secure contracts with some of the UK’s major testing locations, such as Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, whilst building and scaling their retail network. |Where most competitors lost their status as a government approved testing partner, Cignpost are still endorsed by the Government today.

Umbraco 9

Utilising Umbraco 9 as the CMS at the heart of the solution we were able to quickly spin up and scale new offerings across the globe; whether that was to supply new regional markets or new types of customers, such as Cignpost's Mobile or Concierge offerings.

Ollie Bailey

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