Creating a healthy financial future for customers and society
Company ABN AMRO - 2022 - Services ux research, concept development, prototyping
The objective of the project was to create an MVP to help customers create a better financial future for themselves and society. My role was to facilitate the discovery research as the scope of the project was still immense. With the help of context mapping tools and prototyping, we achieved a clear direction for the team to pursue and helped raise awareness of the most significant challenge for the organisation to tackle in the coming year(s).
Summary
Situation
When joining the project the design team had explored many solutions and variations of the same concept. I got the feeling they struggled in making design decisions and prioritising. For that reason I decided to setup a clear problem definition and explore the broader context.
Shifting towards ‘Research Heavy’ approach as a better problem clarity was desired.
Approach
This enabled me to make the situation more manageable and monitor the progress. At the start of the project I follow the course 'Discoveries' from Nielsen Norman Group, which greatly helped me structure this approach.
Identifying the biggest challenges and reducing the scope for the team
Objectives
Setting up a definition of “Creating a better future”
We know which customers segments we can provide the most value
We know which life events are relevant for retail customers
We know how competitors in the Netherlands tackle this challenge
We know which data is required to use the calculation model
…and many more
Methods
Competitor analysis
Stakeholder interviews & workshops
User interviews & prototyping
5 whys
Experience map (low-fi)
Prototyping
Deliverables
Presentation & report with key insight
Reports of various user testing sessions
Clear user segments
Overview of life events + selection
Problem statement cards
Understanding the broader context
In the Netherlands, almost 50% of the citizens are financially vulnerable or unhealthy, meaning they will easily get in trouble when experiencing impactful life events, such as having a child, losing a job, or getting a divorce. Even people with a higher-than-average income can be vulnerable, as people tend to increase their expenses when they earn more over time.
Starting with the end in mind
A framework for longterm self-reliance
Focusing primarily on ‘Looking forward’ and ‘Making choices’. The process can be seen as a continuous loop rather than a 1-time task.
📊 Creating insights and awareness
Customers understand their current situation; their spending patterns, their assets and liabilities.
💳 Spending responsibly
When there is a positive monthly spending pattern it becomes easier to look further ahead, think about the future and set goals.
🔮 Looking forward
By planning ahead customers are more likely to achieve their goals and experience their desired life events comfortably.
🏃🏻♂️ Acting, making choices
With a clear vision of a possible future in mind and assessing potential risks, customers can make conscious decisions that fit their situation.
Minimal viable product
Parallel to the context mapping, we crafted a potential MVP
Although there were still some big unknowns we prototyped a MVP of the concept and tested this with various customers. The idea was to inspire customers and nudge them to make an appointment for ‘Financial Insight’. In this appointment they would get advise based on their personal situation and get explicit feedback on their life goals.
I decided to pivot towards a future state concept, to understand the core customer value without doing any concessions.
Based on the customer feedback of the first iteration, I believed we needed a better understanding of the customer value of the concept, in a situation where no technical concessions are made. We had to make sure we could simplify future planning and provide a digital service customers can use on their own.
Design iteration 2
Inspire and nudge customers to think about their future goals with a playful interaction
With a visual card, we prompted customers with topics relevant to their personal situation. With this quickly formed list, customers could make each of the topics more concrete with specific wizards and make SMART goals. With the goal to chunk each of the steps and make the onboarding more flexible. We believed that the most value would be coming from specific feedback on the entire list of goals, and guiding the customers on how to achieve these life events by starting in the present day.
Design iteration 3
Setting up a first financial plan
This time we nudged the customer to first focus on setting only 1-2 goals in order to receive specific feedback as soon as possible.
Key insights
The largest challenges that customers are facing regarding creating a better financial future
🧩 Complexity
Doing financial planning right is complex, it requires an understanding of economic principles and how current behaviour impacts future outcomes.
👶 Life events
Have a large impact on the customer’s financial situation. Looking at the far future, a lot of things can happen, and it can be uncertain when or how long something will take place.
🔮 Present bias
We prefer instant rewards over larger further ones. People in general have a hard time envisioning themselves in the future, as that person feels like someone else.
👀 Lack of interest
The majority of customers simply don’t want to spend time on their finances. They don’t make plans at all or not longer than 2-5 years in the future.
🏦 Role of the bank
Customers are unaware of what is available, and the bank doesn’t feel like the right party. They don’t think the bank has their best interests at heart and aren’t able to properly empathize.
😟 Emotional state
Stress or uncertainty regarding one’s financial situation can be a big impact on how likely they are thinking of the future.
Results
A clear direction for the development team, and increased awareness of the opportunities within the organization.
A new view on the MVP
The development team, including the product owner and UX designer, were starting to understand the concept's core values better and better and saw opportunities in other parts of the app that started with small increments.
Sharing the most significant challenges with senior product leaders
In order to make the concepts succeed we identified some essential services in the organisation that have to be in place and align with each other. We shared this in a presentation to senior product leaders.
Would like to know more?
For ABN AMRO
Year 2022 - 6 months (part-time)
Objective Create an MVP to help customers create a better financial future for themselves and society
Role Facilitating the discovery phase of the project together with Dean Kappen (Strategy Consultant). Working closely together with another UX Designer and a Product Owner.
Also have a look at my other work
Making digital banking uncomplicated with the power of conversational AI
Product development
Segmenting user groups to personalise service and contact
Strategic user research