Financial Onboarding Concepts
Team: X-functional team of 6 (including 3 designers)
My role: Lead Designer
Translating a broad product goal into actionable insights and three potential concepts.
How do we help new customers get started with Greenlight in the best way for their families? Product growth wanted to reimagine the first 30-day experience with Greenlight to increase conversion to pay (CTP= paying after the trial period), revenue, and feature activation.
Greenlight is a family banking app & debit card for kids that offers simple savings and earnings features that teach financial responsibility.
Data analysis
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User research
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Market Audit
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Stakeholder Interviews
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Design Workshops
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Data analysis 〰️ User research 〰️ Market Audit 〰️ Stakeholder Interviews 〰️ Design Workshops 〰️
Discovery
To unpack our large goal, I wanted to understand existing pain points, best practices, and define what success looked like. I utilized several research methods and collaborated with design, data, product, and marketing.
A taste of the research Figjam that I created for the project to gather data, information, and images.
Discovery Methods
Market Audit
Literature reviews
Stakeholder Interviews
Data Analysis
Current experience audit
Existing user research audit
The solution needed to:
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Stakeholder goals for the project were more aligned than expected. Product managers and leadership felt that focusing on the utility of Greenlight was essential to our business model.
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Stakeholders felt strongly that we should personalize the experience to user goals, financial knowledge levels, and interests.
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Product leadership found that users didn’t need to activate every feature on day one. When comparing retention metrics with feature usage rates, data showed that successfully activating just 1 additional feature lifted a user's retention rate by ~20%.
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Retention rates improve with just 2 activated features per family, but the business aims to activate as many features as possible. There was a desire to explore ways to gradually increase feature usage and engagement to avoid an overwhelming experience.
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I found there was an appetite to explore larger solutions focused on the end-to-end user journey.
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The business still had revenue streams such as customized cards and referrals to improve. However, most stakeholders insisted that upsells should be tasteful, avoiding an overly promotional approach.
Based on these findings, I wrote potential opportunity questions, or “How might we” questions, to guide the concept phase.
Concept phase
Since this project would be a cross-functional effort, I planned a two-day workshop involving key stakeholders, the lead PM, and designers.
Workshop 1
I led the group through ranking our potential problem statements, reviewing proto-personas, and discussing personalization to warm up and align our goals. For the rest of the workshop, I gave several brainstorming prompts using discovery data and our problem statements to generate ideas.
Top opportunities
How might we make the first app experience simple and easy to understand?
How might we build on common intent to drive continuous engagement?
How might we deliver value before their debit card arrives?
Workshop 2
On day 2, I invited the lead PM and key designers only. We sifted through the ideas generated on day 1 and categorized them. We voted and reflected on the top ideas. I led a sketch exercise (Crazy 8's) to help us expand upon the top ideas.
Concepts
Journey
Families follow a path based on a pre-selected goal. They complete tasks for key topics, reach checkpoints, and celebrate progress as they go.
Why
Creates tangible positive outcomes for families
Families expect Greenlight to guide their habits
Parents want to be in the driver's seat
Progressive activation is less overwhelming
2. Skills
Parents encourage their kids with gamified skills that they can work on. Skills are adjustable to each kid’s goals and create ways to reward growth.
Why
Parents have different goals for different kids
Inspiring kids' participation
Incorporates well with existing app features
3. Moments
Families receive periodical highlights and insights based on their usage called moments. They get deeper learning with discussion prompts and activities they can reflect on.
Why
CTAs resonate more when they are contextual
The first app open needs to feel simple
Customer actions can intrinsically drive learning
Concept validation
Our in-house User Researcher and I collaborated to put our concepts in front of users and gather early validation.
Most notably, we learned that customers felt that the notion of building skills and celebrating progress was the most aligned with their expectations of Greenlight. Therefore, users preferred the "Journey" and "Skills" concepts because they allow families to track progress together.
Impact
This project was challenging because it required consideration of every Greenlight feature and conflicting business goals. This felt rewarding because it pushed my workshop and communication abilities to a new level.
Business
Prioritized project goals
Stakeholder alignment
Clear success criteria
Design
3 concepts to kick off the design phase
Real customer feedback