Civic engagement
Making it effortless
to be heard.
OpenLetter lets anyone write to their elected representatives about the issues that matter to them — in about two minutes, always free. tinderbox took it from idea to live product.
Product
OpenLetter
Sector
Civic technology
Our role
Strategy, design & build
The challenge
Contacting your MP is harder than it should be.
Most people don't know who represents them, how to reach them, or what to say — so most letters never get written.
- Finding the right representative takes research
- A blank page stops most people before they start
- Civic tools tend to feel bureaucratic, not empowering
Our approach
Reduce every step until sending takes two minutes.
We designed a guided flow that finds your representative, helps you shape the message, and gets it sent — with zero cost and zero friction.
- Automatic representative lookup
- A guided writing flow that beats the blank page
- A free-forever model with no accounts required to start
The outcome
Democratic participation, minus the friction.
OpenLetter is live and free — a two-minute path from caring about an issue to being heard by the person elected to act on it.
- Live, free and open to every Australian voter
- Two minutes from arrival to letter sent
- A platform ready for campaign partnerships
Built end to end.
- 01Product strategy
- 02Guided UX flow
- 03Full platform build
- 04Representative data engine
Product in focus
Inside the experience.
What we learned.
Friction is the product problem
The barrier to civic action was never motivation — it was the twenty small steps in the way. Remove them and people act.
Guidance beats templates
People don't want their words replaced; they want help shaping them. Guided beats generated.
Free changes behaviour
A genuinely free, no-account path is what turns intent into a sent letter.