My Smart Money
Nedbank | Product Design | 2022-2024
Financial Wellness Vision
Many of our clients are familiar with the idea of financial wellness, but few have the tools to live it. Our goal was to change that. We created practical, easy-to-use support systems to help clients understand and apply financial wellness in their everyday lives.
Design Delivery Leadership
Driving delivery processes and standards has always been a core function of mine. I take lead, I drive change and collaborate effectively.
My Performance Areas
Delivery Frameworks
From design reviews to structured documentation and JIRA dependency management.
Input & Engagements
From design reviews to structured documentation and JIRA dependency management. Drafted terms of reference for stakeholder input and engagement.
Team Leadership
I managed a team of 6 UX/UI designers and closely worked with the Agile business and development teams.
Design Activities
I advocated for and ran several rounds of testing. I produced much of the UX and UI while establishing design frameworks and processes.
Design Methods
I implemented Nedbank’s CCD process (Client-Centred Design) and led my Agile team with clear deliverables in each design-thinking phase.
Reporting structures
Squad delivery and product metrics
MY ROLE:
Senior Product Design Lead
CHANNEL:
Nedbank Money App
DELIVERY:
Agile
PERIOD:
2022-2024
Let’s explore different areas of the project
Below samples
Please reach out if you are interested to find out about my role or the project.
My Smart Money
Inheriting a failing system
A spin-off from a previous solution aimed at small business owners existed but was struggling to acquire new clients and was bleeding revenue.
The cost to build the solution outweighed the expected client response.
The Mission
Rebuild My Smart Money from the ground up. It aimed at a newer, broader market (the individual), and required a ‘Smarter’ interpretation that resonated with everyday financial management.
To facilitate key workshops and unpack the ecosystem, frame the context, map the business drivers and interlink them with customer expectations.
Getting Started…
I facilitate key workshops and unpack the ecosystem, framed the context, mapped the business drivers in collaborative sessions and interlink them with customer expectations and pain points.
I implemented a Design-thinking process and coached our business and dev team members through each phase.
Legacy Designs
Flight Plan
We conducted a Discovery phase for new features and through rigorous testing designed and built a new dashboard featuring hyper-personalisation, and intuitive flows which converted clients at a much higher rate with improved SUS and NPS scores.
What I found
The drive to integrate new features and bolster the proposition was clear, however there was a two-pronged solution required which business had not considered/ were avoiding at the time.
1. The most successful companies place their customers at the heart of their offering—they understand the need for customer buy-in. My Smart Money was adding multiple untested features to the solution leading to poor experience and drop off/ non-usage.
2. Not considering the Design team’s timelines led to poorly crafted artefacts under pressure, and ultimately created design and development debt. Overcommitment soon took shape causing a series of tough conversations.
What I changed
1. As Design Lead I mapped out feasible timelines to craft and build in relation to Capacity constraints and the Agile Squad.
2. We audited the current tool and shared improvement hypothesis which we tested.
3. I coached Business on Design Thinking methodologies and defined the stages required for delivery.
4. We prototyped more efficiently and Tested early giving us a big advantage through feedback to implement Data-led decisioning.
5. I brought our stakeholders on the journey and advocated for the customer and best practice design processes.
Results
1. Faster turn around times with prioritised feature inclusion based on Customer feedback.
2. Stakeholder buy-in towards Design team.
3. Improved review cycles and craftsmanship.
4. Product acquisition and retention improvement by 43%
5. Improved conversion rates together with SUS scores.
Let’s look at Onboarding
Above
Initial screens developed prior to my onboarding which gave me a good kick start.
Insights:
– A successful onboarding flow prioritises simplicity, value, and engagement. It should guide users through key features and desired actions, while minimising friction and maximising user motivation.
– A good strategy involves understanding user goals, defining success metrics, and aligning onboarding with business objectives.
Minimising a lengthy onboarding experience from 10 screens down to 4 primary screens meant clients were onboarded faster.
Usability Testing
Multiple rounds of user testing were held to validate hypothesis, flows, screens and components.
I worked with a team of highly skilled researchers to design and curate the tests, synthesise feedback and determine appropriate design changes.
Entry Points
Test objective
To better understand if our clients would prefer to access My Smart Money through 1 x Entry point from their Dashboard OR if they would prefer to have key features (such as Savings Goals) called out on their dashboard without having to click into MSM.
If Option 2, then determine which feature would they want to see?
Alternate testing methods
Throughout the project we employed a range of testing methods:
Maze
(Unmoderated tests)
Face to face
(Moderated tests)
Surveys
(Targeted audienc)
Internal testing
(Employees)
My Spending: Dashboard
The original business proposition relied on a 50/30/20 rule for Money Management/Habits once client’s entered the My Spend card from the dashboard. This was further segmented into Needs, Wants & Savings which allowed the team to build a categorisation engine.
Problem
1. Clients did not understand the original graph nor their information structuring.
2. Clients want to see their Money Status up front, make quick adjustments and only then dive into their money habits.
Solution
1. Split the functional money management from money habits
2. Reimagine the dashboard, entry points and prioritisation of information.
3. Offer a snapshot view of finances first with enhanced customisation.
4. Allow clients to customise their views.
5. Introduce a Nudge Framework to encourage continued usage.
* This also worked in conjunction with a chatbot assistant and additional plans to gamify and rewards customers were also in place.
I spent nearly two years working on My Smart Money, there is much more to discuss…
What I learnt
1. Driving client adoption of Design-thinking processes is crucial at each step of the way.
2. Use faster and most cost effective Testing methods to get results quicker and convince business to pay.
3. Document your decisions so there is no confusion why a change was made.
4. Let your team speak… it grows their confidence and they soon advocate alongside you.