Smile Bank: open banking
The problem
Smile is a British banking brand that operated as a trading division of the Co-operative Bank. It started as the UK's first, fully digital bank in 1999.
Smile suffered from the economic crisis in 2008, and ceased to be invested in for over 10 years. Their USP as a digital bank is no longer relevant as digital banking is now commonplace. Furthermore, their primary consumer group is 40+ years old.
The purpose was to gather unique insights and potential opportunity areas for smile.
Smile suffered from the economic crisis in 2008, and ceased to be invested in for over 10 years. Their USP as a digital bank is no longer relevant as digital banking is now commonplace. Furthermore, their primary consumer group is 40+ years old.
The purpose was to gather unique insights and potential opportunity areas for smile.
Brief
How can we find a way to better connect with younger generations, as well as provide them with a better day to day experience?
My role
- User Research
- User Interviews
- Creating Discussion Guides
- Insight Generation
- Journey Mapping
- Storytelling
- Insight Generation
- Personas
- Storytelling
Brief
How can we find a way to better connect with younger generations, as well as provide them with a better day to day experience?
Personal Contributions
User Research
User Interviews
Creating Discussion Guides
Insight Generation
Journey Mapping
Storytelling
Personas
Iteration
User Interviews
Creating Discussion Guides
Insight Generation
Journey Mapping
Storytelling
Personas
Iteration
Process
After carrying out desktop research, we organised and conducted interviews with users in the age group of 18-30 years old as this is the target user age group.
The biggest challenge in this project for me was assessing people's comfort when discussing money. I didn't initially realise, but it is a sensitive topic that some people prefer to avoid. There are also so many competitors in the banking industry now that it was tricky deciding where to begin.
We used tools such as 2x2 Framework, Bullseye, Back to the Future, Timeline and Card Sort to engage the interviewee. All interviews were then downloaded using IDEO's Download tool. The person in the group who interviewed the interviewee would read out a synthesis of the interview, and the other team members would divide the findings into Observation, Insights, Quotes and Opportunities onto a poster sheet.
Once all interviews were downloaded, we grouped the findings into seven key topic areas that were prevalent and reoccurring. These were then broken down into 3 layers;
1) Behaviour
2) Needs
3) Implications for smile
The biggest challenge in this project for me was assessing people's comfort when discussing money. I didn't initially realise, but it is a sensitive topic that some people prefer to avoid. There are also so many competitors in the banking industry now that it was tricky deciding where to begin.
We used tools such as 2x2 Framework, Bullseye, Back to the Future, Timeline and Card Sort to engage the interviewee. All interviews were then downloaded using IDEO's Download tool. The person in the group who interviewed the interviewee would read out a synthesis of the interview, and the other team members would divide the findings into Observation, Insights, Quotes and Opportunities onto a poster sheet.
Once all interviews were downloaded, we grouped the findings into seven key topic areas that were prevalent and reoccurring. These were then broken down into 3 layers;
1) Behaviour
2) Needs
3) Implications for smile
Solution
Having investigated target audience's spending and saving habits, their expectations, and their relationship with traditional and digital banks, we discovered that younger bank-users are polyamorous because they have different needs from different banks, and are not able to get everything they want from one bank alone.
In response to this, we re-framed the HMW question;
'How might Smile respond to the behaviours and needs of polyamorous bank-users?'
We were not asked to provide a solution, however, we identified opportunity areas within Open Banking for smile;
1) Guide, don't teach
2) Centralization through APIs
3) Freedom
In response to this, we re-framed the HMW question;
'How might Smile respond to the behaviours and needs of polyamorous bank-users?'
We were not asked to provide a solution, however, we identified opportunity areas within Open Banking for smile;
1) Guide, don't teach
2) Centralization through APIs
3) Freedom
Process
After carrying out desktop research, we organised and conducted interviews with users in the age group of 18-30 years old as this is the target user age group.
The biggest challenge in this project for me was assessing people's comfort when discussing money. I didn't initially realise, but it is a sensitive topic that some people prefer to avoid. There are also so many competitors in the banking industry now that it was tricky deciding where to begin.
We used tools such as 2x2 Framework, Bullseye, Back to the Future, Timeline and Card Sort to engage the interviewee. All interviews were then downloaded using IDEO's Download tool. The person in the group who interviewed the interviewee would read out a synthesis of the interview, and the other team members would divide the findings into Observation, Insights, Quotes and Opportunities onto a poster sheet.
Once all interviews were downloaded, we grouped the findings into seven key topic areas that were prevalent and reoccurring. These were then broken down into 3 layers;
1) Behaviour
2) Needs
3) Implications for smile
The biggest challenge in this project for me was assessing people's comfort when discussing money. I didn't initially realise, but it is a sensitive topic that some people prefer to avoid. There are also so many competitors in the banking industry now that it was tricky deciding where to begin.
We used tools such as 2x2 Framework, Bullseye, Back to the Future, Timeline and Card Sort to engage the interviewee. All interviews were then downloaded using IDEO's Download tool. The person in the group who interviewed the interviewee would read out a synthesis of the interview, and the other team members would divide the findings into Observation, Insights, Quotes and Opportunities onto a poster sheet.
Once all interviews were downloaded, we grouped the findings into seven key topic areas that were prevalent and reoccurring. These were then broken down into 3 layers;
1) Behaviour
2) Needs
3) Implications for smile
Outcome
Having investigated target audience's spending and saving habits, their expectations, and their relationship with traditional and digital banks, we discovered that younger bank-users are polyamorous because they have different needs from different banks, and are not able to get everything they want from one bank alone.
In response to this, we re-framed the HMW question;
'How might Smile respond to the behaviours and needs of polyamorous bank-users?'
We were not asked to provide a solution, however, we identified opportunity areas within Open Banking for smile;
1) Guide, don't teach
2) Centralization through APIs
3) Freedom
In response to this, we re-framed the HMW question;
'How might Smile respond to the behaviours and needs of polyamorous bank-users?'
We were not asked to provide a solution, however, we identified opportunity areas within Open Banking for smile;
1) Guide, don't teach
2) Centralization through APIs
3) Freedom