User Research / Product Innovation / Customer Profiling
Foundational UX Research for a New Sustainable Bank
Role: User Research Lead / Interim Head
Designed and implemented all research in preparation for first designs and plans for a new bank. Conducted rapid research iteratively on a weekly basis over months. Methods: surveys, interviews, prototype development, concept testing.
Saving money and the planet
A beloved personal finance app known for automating savings decided to explore a new opportunity: helping users save money and the planet at the same time.
The Problem
To start, the service would aim to convert existing savings app users to new sustainable bank services. The existing app had many users, but there was little existing data about users’s attitudes toward sustainability. Little had been done to understand existing customer’s sustainability knowledge, and which barriers to living more sustainably were biggest.
Comparing Customers and Non-customers
We needed to thoroughly understand both existing customers and potential audiences in the market simultaneously. I completed a thorough assessment of existing studies in the market to understand how the full potential audience responded to relevant sustainability topics, including sustainable finance. The team and I then conducted a survey of non-customers based on rigorous screening requirements to see how non-customers in the market thought about sustainability and personal finance, and which ones would be the best targets.
Identifying audience jobs to be done
With the many insights that came from interviews, surveys, and product tests, I applied the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework to create profiles based on what the audiences aimed to accomplish in life - and the roles sustainability and finance play for them. Using JTBD meant avoiding details such as basic demographics which can be misleading without being helpful for design decisions. Instead, we focused on behaviors, actions and their causes. With JTBD statements, the team was better able to make decisions around service direction and specific designs.
“Does this concept really solve the problem?”
We needed to figure out precisely which new aspects of a banking service could solve important problems for the user, based on intersections between business objectives and user jobs.
We applied what we learned in customer and non-customer surveys to develop prototypes. I ran combination interviews with light prototype testing to test high level concepts early. We tested things like how to communicate a user’s overall impact to inspire rather than increase anxiety, how to create clear steps for reducing impact based on a user’s lifestyle today and what level of lifestyle data we might need to help the user most. We also tested the impact of social connection through the app, such as whether showing reduced emissions to friends had an impact on user delight.
Tests were run with participants specifically recruited based on screening requirements so we would be sure we tested with just the right people.
Results
Based on insights from qualitative and quantitative research, we determined that various target audiences most struggled with understanding precisely how they negatively impact the planet. They felt stuck, not fully comprehending their impact, and unsure which actions would minimize their impact most.
This project is yet to be launched publicly, and has only taken the first step of launching their sustainable debit card. The team was able to take more and faster decisions as a result of the research to decide product direction within a few months.
Part of this company has since been sold to Doconomy in Sweden.