Role:
Product Strategist & Product Concept Designer
Date:
May 2018
Problem
The financial services industry has been remarkably resilient, 10 years since the last global economic crisis. In these 10 years, tectonic shifts have happened both in technological advancements and consumer behavior. These 10 years also saw tremendous growth of tech giants — Apple, Amazon, Google, and Alibaba. They are successfully entering adjacent markets and soon threatening to become direct competitors to any bank. They are in this position because of data. With the algorithms they run, they have the ability to sift massive amounts of data and derive consumer insights in seconds.
In this backdrop and context, what can a traditional bank do to build a competitive edge? How can they play to their strengths and become an invisible giant? Where do they start? How do they become an invisible bank? These were some questions I tried to address in my massive pitch.
How can a traditional bank build leverage to become an invisible giant?
Process
Creating innovative and seamless banking solutions requires a structured and comprehensive approach. I've followed this simple four-step process to ensure that I deeply understand both the bank’s strategic objectives and the evolving needs of its customers.
1. Understanding Bank Needs
I began by conducting comprehensive research to understand the bank’s origins, current position, and strategic direction. This included analyzing recent leadership announcements and ongoing innovation initiatives. To contextualize their market standing, I evaluated competitors of all sizes, including emerging digital banks, to identify key differentiators and industry trends.
2. Identifying Customer Pain Points
Next, I focused on the bank’s target customers, specifically targeting the millennial segment. By reviewing consumer behavior reports and case studies, I identified their expectations, existing pain points, and underserved needs. This analysis allowed me to uncover opportunities to enhance user experience and deliver greater value to this key demographic.
3. Product Design & Solution Development
Leveraging insights from the previous stages, I brainstormed creative solutions to address the identified challenges. I mapped these solutions to the specific pain points of millennial customers, ensuring each feature effectively alleviated their concerns. This phase involved envisioning new customer journeys and outlining how our solutions could seamlessly integrate into their financial interactions.
4. Technical Validation & Thin Slicing
In the final stage, I collaborated with technical experts to validate the feasibility of the proposed solutions. We assessed whether emerging technologies could support the envisioned customer journeys and identified necessary backend system enhancements. Following validation, I proceeded to sketch solutions and design conceptual user interfaces using modern design tools, creating interactive prototypes that bring the new journey to life.
Product
The proposed design reimagines banking as a seamless digital assistant, leveraging a conversational UI as the core interaction model. This was a pre-LLM era, "chatbot" or "conversational UI" were the prevalent terms at that time to describe human-machine natural language interactions. Key aspects of the design include:
1. Interactive Bubble UI:
A reimagined bank statement using a live, bubble-based interface that allows users to explore transactions across timelines intuitively, identify spending patterns, and gain actionable insights.
2. Proactive Personalization:
The interface integrates features like health data-driven insurance suggestions, automated travel expense management, and spending alerts based on user behavior.
3. Mobile-First Technology Utilization:
The solution capitalizes on smartphone capabilities such as biometrics, location detection, proximity sensors, and computer vision to enhance security, automate processes, and improve accessibility.
4. Conversational Banking:
The core design employs conversational interactions, akin to messaging apps, allowing users to query balances, set savings goals, and receive personalized financial advice naturally.
Product
Throughout this process, the goal was to blend cutting-edge technology with user-centric design, ensuring the solution met both business objectives and customer needs. This user-centric approach while designing the interface and human-centric approach while picking the technology helped create a banking experience that feels intuitive, anticipatory, and deeply integrated into everyday life.
Result
The envisioned solution could significantly transform the customer experience and enhance the bank’s competitive edge. Key potential outcomes include:
Increased Engagement: Metrics like Monthly Active Users (MAU) and session duration was measured to see a substantial uptick due to the intuitive and engaging interface.
Customer Retention: By addressing pain points and offering personalized services, retention rates improved, especially among younger demographics.
Revenue Growth: The solution enabled cross-selling opportunities, leveraging insights from user behavior to recommend relevant products, potentially boosting ancillary revenue by ~33%.
Enhanced NPS: A seamless, proactive banking experience improved the Net Promoter Scores, reflecting higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.
This approach addressed the core challenge of meeting evolving consumer expectations, positioning the bank as a leader in the digital innovation space.
Reflection
Reflecting on past projects, I see two perspectives: the successes that make me happy and the insights I've gained now that could have enhanced my approach in the past.
Some things that I'm happy about:
This is probably one of the biggest bank brand out of Singapore. I'm grateful that I got to work on building a novel digital experience for their mobile app evolution. I'm happy on the effect, the result and the vibe it produced when I presented it. I think I've built a unique and visually striking experience at that time.
Here's how I'd have done it differently today:
From a product designer's perspective, I'd have probably taken a spatial computing approach to redefine the experience or other emerging technologies for a finer financial visualization that offers better user control, ease and experience. Balancing cutting-edge features with simplicity and inclusivity remains a priority. From a product manager or strategist's viewpoint, iterative post-launch updates, quicker A/B testing, better versions of A/A testing, driven by user feedback, I'd have refined the experience and unlocked additional opportunities for personalization and value creation.
Creative Confidentiality: In the spirit of professional discretion and digital camouflage, some client identities have been subtly transformed into their alter-ego personas. This ninja-like name-swapping applies exclusively to projects completed as an external design mercenary. For all other showcased works, brand and product names remain true to their original, registered identities.
Authenticity Stamp: Every pixel, wireframe, approach, and design concept you'll discover here is 100% crafted by the hands (and occasionally bulletproof caffeinated brain) of Naren Katakam. No design outsourcing, no smoke and mirrors—just pure, unadulterated creative craftsmanship.