We helped a large regional bank prioritize which online banking features to build based on co-design sessions with actual customers. We also facilitated an ideation workshop to align the bank's UX team and Marketing team around a shared roadmap.
UX Manager
Design Researcher (4 weeks)
Design Researcher (5 weeks)
Design Researcher
Data Scientist
client communications, recruiting, creation of research methodology, facilitation of research, facilitation of ideation workshop, creation of deliverables, and delivery of final presentation.
11 week co-design project
1 kickoff workshop
208 survey responses
6 co-design groups
24 co-design participants
1 ideation workshop
A large regional bank released a new online banking platform that enabled customers to track spending in various categories, set monthly budgets, create savings goals, and track their upcoming bills. After the release, the bank's UX team identified lots of problems & limitations of the platform, while the marketing team identified entirely new features that they wanted to quickly release. Additionally, both groups were curious about how millennials used the new platform compared to other demographics. How might we improve the newly released online banking platform based on customer needs?
- Understand how online banking platform usage differed across different demographics
- Discover what customers need when navigating their personal finances
- Identify gaps & opportunities in the current online banking platform based on customer needs
- Prioritize the online banking roadmap based on value to the customer and feasibility
- Align the bank's UX & Marketing teams around the prioritized roadmap
- Qualitative survey sent to customers to understand online banking usage, as well as recruit customers for co-design sessions
- Co-design sessions with groups of 4 customers to discover personal finance needs
- Ideation session with the bank's UX & Marketing teams to align around customer needs and generate new ideas
We expanded our client's perspective on their customers by showing that demographics aren't the best way to group customers, but that individual financial situations were a better way to view their customers. We delivered a mental model diagram that illustrates how their customers learn about their spending, make decisions about how to spend money, and make progress towards their financial goals. This diagram identified gaps in the current experience, such as tools to help pay off debt faster. Lastly, we delivered a strategic roadmap that aligned with the bank's two development teams: one for quick, iterative fixes, the other for building entirely new features.
This project taught me how to navigate the internal politics of a large organization. When two teams have different agendas and goals, it is important to align those teams around their customer's needs. I also learned about the importance of inviting stakeholders to observe the customer research. It was the first time a lot of our stakeholders had seen co-design, so it was very educational for me to see how they immediately understood why it was important to get input from customers. If I were to redo this project, I would make sure to have better internal alignment from our team's side. I had a new research partner for each of the 3 phases of the project, so it was difficult to catch the new partner up to speed each time they joined. Lastly, I learned about the importance of trying to predict what your stakeholders will ask during the final presentation. I was not prepared for some of their questions, which made me a nervous wreck during the presentation. :)
"Surround yourself with people who know what you don't know. Become enticed by the unknown." - Linda B. Smith
© 2021 Braden King