Finotta Case Study
Methods Used: Competitive Audit, Stakeholder Interview, User Journey Map, Rapid Ideation, Tech Estimation, Kano Analysis, Annotated Wireframes.
Tools Used: Miro, Canva, InVision, Sketch, Zoom, Slack, Google Docs
Client
Finotta is a white-labeled banking software designed to help users pay off debt and build wealth. Their software is designed to plug into a banks existing financial technology.
Problem
This project focused on adding new features to an existing product. While suggesting features, I needed to pay close attention to the business goals, project budget and technical limitations.
Solution
After a competitive audit, stakeholder interview, and Kano Analysis, it was revealed that feature recommendations revolved around 5 key updates. Brining explanation, visualization, iconficaion, gamifacation and interactivity to finotta would bring value to the users and their banks. Feature updated needed to support Finotta’s business goals and remain under the allocated budget.
Research
The research for this project was conducted with a group.
Competitive Audit
To begin my research, and better understand the project space, I started with a Competitive Audit. My team and looked at how other business in the market were achieving the 4 goals set out by finotta. We divided the goals and each of us analyzed several competitors. The audit revealed there were many features offered by competitors that finotta did not.
User Journey Map
To visualize the experience of Finotta users as they interact with the app, I created a journey map. I wanted a good way to show how users attitudes change throughout their different stages of engagement. This is the final version of the journey map showing the current version of the app and the next version with the proposed features. This journey map was conceptualized and created by me.
Stakeholder Interview
The next phase of research was the Stakeholder Interview. As a notetaker, I payed close to listen to the goals of the business, so I could design features that would support both their users and their business goals.
Finotta Business Goals
Increase engagement during onboarding
Advance gamification concepts for incentivizing financial behavior change
Leverage microinteractions for encouragement and support of behavior
Integrate accessibility consideration
Key takeaways from my research
After synthesizing my research, I uncovered 5 key values to incorporate to help Finotta reach the business goals for their next release. Those 5 key values are Explanation, Visualization, Iconification, Gamifacation and Interactivity. By addressing these 5 key values, we will achieve the 4 project goals from the creative brief. These takeaways were conceptualized and created by me.
The image above is taken directly from the report submitted to the client.
Design
Rapid Ideation
We had a very tight turnaround time on this project. As a brainstorm, the team and I individually crafted low-fidelity feature cards during a rapid ideation session. We then shared our ideas on an InVision whiteboard and used an affinity diagram to sort them by feature. With my 5 key values in mind, I submitted 3 feature cards to our team whiteboard.
Feature Cards
Onboarding Walkthrough
Progress Bar
Activement Celebration
Kano Analysis
Before making the final decision on which features to propose, our team sent out a Kano Analysis. The top two Features revealed by the Kano were “Celebrations” and “Guided Introduction.” Both of those features made it into my final recommendations.
Tech Estimation
Our team assembled all the feature cards on an Invision board for a meeting with the Finotta Chief Technical Officer. He walked though each feature and explained to the team how long that would take to develop. This way, we could accurately use our budget for our annotated wireframes.
Annotated Wireframes
My deliverable to the client was this deck of annotated wireframes. I paid close attention to the Finotta’s business goals to ensure that my proposal supported those goals. I balanced those needs with what our researched revealed our users wanted.