About tado°
tado° is one of Europe's leading smart home energy platforms, helping households reduce energy consumption through connected thermostats, radiator controls and intelligent heating management.
As the business expanded, so did the complexity of its product ecosystem. New product lines, evolving smart home standards and varying installation requirements meant customers were often required to understand a significant amount of information before making a purchase.
The challenge
The launch of the V4 product line and support for Matter Thread technology created a significant opportunity for tado° to strengthen its position within the smart home market.
However, the existing website had evolved over time and become increasingly difficult to navigate. Product information was fragmented, customer journeys were disconnected and users often struggled to understand compatibility, installation requirements and the differences between product ranges.
At the same time, internal teams were seeing growing demand for support around product selection and compatibility questions.
tado° needed a clearer way to educate customers, simplify product discovery and support confident purchasing decisions without oversimplifying a technically complex proposition.
Our approach
Absurd partnered with tado° on a five-week research and design programme involving stakeholders across product, content, SEO, sales, ecommerce and leadership teams.
We began by analysing existing behavioural data, conducting stakeholder interviews and auditing the current experience to identify areas of friction, uncertainty and opportunity.
Alongside this, we reviewed existing customer personas, mapped journeys and carried out a gap analysis to better understand audience needs, motivations and levels of technical maturity.
Research revealed recurring themes around product complexity, compatibility concerns, customer education and onboarding.
Using these insights, we developed and tested multiple information architecture approaches, facilitated ideation workshops and designed a series of experiments focused on product discovery, compatibility guidance and customer decision-making.
Concepts were validated through user testing across the UK, Germany, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, ensuring recommendations reflected the needs of multiple markets and customer groups.
Results
The programme uncovered significant opportunities to improve product discovery, customer education and compatibility guidance across the tado° ecosystem.
By restructuring the information architecture around customer goals rather than internal product structures, customers were able to navigate the website more intuitively and access relevant information at the point they needed it.
The work informed a new product finder experience, improved compatibility journeys and provided a framework for supporting both the V4 product launch and Matter integration.
Research also identified wider opportunities to reduce pre-sales support demand, strengthen customer trust and create more personalised experiences in the future.
The challenge wasn't helping customers buy thermostats. It was helping them understand which solution was right for their home.
Outcomes
The engagement provided tado° with a validated strategy for improving customer experience across discovery, evaluation and purchase.
Beyond interface improvements, the work created a roadmap for future enhancements spanning customer education, onboarding, personalisation, CRM integration and product discovery.
Most importantly, it established a clearer, research-backed foundation for helping customers navigate an increasingly sophisticated smart home ecosystem with confidence.
