HSL is the joint local authority responsible for public transport and the transport system across nine municipalities in the Helsinki region. As the organisation entered a new council cycle, HSL needed to renew its strategy and create a shared direction for a rapidly changing mobility landscape.
Solita partnered with HSL to design and facilitate a broad, participatory strategy process – one that combined deep stakeholder engagement, structured analysis and future scenarios, and a modern cocreation approach that kept HSL firmly in control.
Our clients
Solita x Helsinki public transport
Our journey with Helsinki’s public transport operator HSL started over 10 years ago. Since then, we’ve helped shape their digital customer experience to the next level.
- What we did
- Digital product strategy, Brand-loyal interaction design, Qualitative and quantitative human insight, Full-stack development, Business design, Transformation modelling and implementation
- Selected outcomes
- 01 HSL’s new strategy for 2026-2029 02 UX for a new, award-winning mobile app 03 A future-proof multi-channel communication tool 04 New HSL process for leading concept work internally 05 New framework for HSL’s secure software development
HSL’s new strategy for 2026-2029
Results
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From internal silos to broad, meaningful participation
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From short-term pressures to long-term preparedness
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From consultant‑driven to HSL‑owned strategy work
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From complex multi‑municipality governance to smooth decision-making
“ In the strategy, we’ve created a strong vision of the kind of mobility we want to promote in this region. Our ambition is that public transport remains at the heart of mobility, but we will pay attention to the whole travel chain and partnerships. Solita’s experts really helped us.
Vesa Silfver CEO, HSL
UX-design for an award-winning new mobile app
HSL aimed to unify its services by bringing them all together into a single app. With all the services now combined, plus additional useful features, public transport users no longer need to rely on different apps or websites to travel smoothly from point A to B.
The HSL application is the first ever digital app to meet the needs of all public transport users. By providing route information on the full range of transport services, the app makes purchasing the right type of ticket effortless. It also offers updates on traffic situations on the chosen routes.
In addition to responding to the real needs of end users, the app also enables the service provider to operate more efficiently.The design process for the app involved users of HSL’s services as well as a wide selection of the transport authority’s own stakeholders. Communications and IT specialists, customer service personnel, bus drivers, and ticket inspectors all took part in the efforts. Their collaboration revealed different needs and angles that gave priceless insight to the design of the new service. In addition to responding to the real needs of end users, the app also enables the service provider to operate more efficiently. Breaking down the barriers between client, end-users and design teams was essential in gaining the thorough understanding that resulted in a successful solution.
Read more about HSL app
HSL app – Get to grips with public transport
Outcomes
- No.1 HSL mobile app became the most popular ticket purchasing channel
- 2.6 m route searches per month
- 1.4 m mobile phone users
- >€10 m ticket sales per month
A future-proof multi-channel communication tool
To bring HSL a solution that would allow the organisation to communicate in various channels with a single tool, Solita served as interpreter between HSL’s needs and Optimizely’s technology. So far, implementations of similar large-scale communication solutions in Finland have been few and far between. The resulting multi-channel communication solution has allowed HSL to handle all its communications with customers in one place.
From email communications, mobile application notifications, push messages, and targeted digital services to paid advertising – the tool consolidates them all. The project rolled out the Optimizely’s Campaign and Data Platform SaaS services, integrating them into HSL’s data source systems.
The resulting multi-channel communication solution has allowed HSL to handle all its communications with customers in one place.
Read more
HSL takes customer communications to new level
The quality of customer communications has already improved noticeably and the overall development continues. As the world evolves and our needs grow, the tool can develop with them.
Anne Koski Marketing Specialist, HSL
Supporting a more agile and responsive HSL
As metropolitan Helsinki’s transport authority, HSL must respond rapidly to quick and intense shifts in the market. We collaborated with the organisation to build a model where regional market units lead business development using diverse competencies, such as traffic planning, customer experience, sales and marketing. In the future, owner cooperation, market knowledge, and data will all play an even greater role in how well HSL responds to regional differences and sudden shifts influencing its operations.
HSL and Solita collaborated to create operating models and tools that enable HSL’s to manage its service development projects in a more customer-centric way. Today, HSL evaluates service development projects from three perspectives:
- Value created for customers and society
- How this is realized as business value for the organization
- The feasibility of the project
Proven impact through agile methods
HSL’s management and the service development steering team took part in creating the operating models and tools. The model and tools were then tested in practice and developed on the basis of lessons learned. Carried out at several points in the process, HSL used the framework described above to evaluate the effectiveness as well as the value generated by each project. This common assessment framework helps ensure that development investments are directed towards the most impactful projects at any given time.
HSL’s renewed organisation reflects the market unit-based approach Solita and HSL built in the service development work.
Collaboration with Solita has been a crucial enabler in HSL journey towards customer centric, value and data driven organization. Our journey is still in progress, but the main components, customer centric service development, relation between customer experience and business performance and design thinking in general are well planted into our organization. With these components we believe we´ll achieve our targets in our challenging environment.
Jarno Ekström Lead of Business Development Unit, HSL
New framework for HSL’s secure software development
HSL wanted Solita to define a framework for it’s software development security. The company also needed support in implementing the ISO 27001 management system standard. Solita helped to provide insight on how to meet the requirements in the software development process.
Outcomes
- HSL’s security awareness has improved significantly: team-based security is the most effective way to ensure secure software development work
- Implementing the DevSecOps approach to software development brings quality assurance to all stages of software development
- HSL’s commitment to systematically develop software development security is strengthened
The aim is to integrate security into service development from the very beginning. We also want the process to be as transparent as possible. In today’s fast-changing world, it isn’t enough to focus on security only in the audit at the end of the process.
Petri Kukko Chief Information Security Officer, HSL
Read more
HSL’s security awareness improved significantly
Key takeaways
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UX-design for an award-winning new mobile app
HSL mobile app became the most popular ticket purchasing channel. -
A future-proof multi-channel communication tool
Higher quality, multi-channel and consumer-oriented communication for customers. -
Supporting a more agile and responsive HSL
Ensuring that development investments are directed towards the most impactful projects.
Contact us – Want to know more?
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Risto Kantola Design Lead & Concept Director, Solita
