Digital Commerce User Experience Research
Principal Researcher I Banking & Finance I North America
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The recent merger between two banks - one of the largest in decades - surfaced critical user experience challenges.
The key issue was the integration of diverse user bases from both institutions, necessitating an evaluation of how combined products and services could influence user experience with the new bank.​ Obstacles included clearly defining user personas, defining customer archetypes and segmentation based on demographics, such as geography, age, gender, income, and product usage, as well as testing new product and service roll-outs. These gaps in understanding users’ wants and needs became apparent post-merger, leading to noticeable declines in deposits and customer retention.
Over the course of 14 months, I was contracted to co-lead the bank's digital product research initiatives to address growing demands from product owners and executive leadership.
14 Studies
1 year, 2 months
10,000+ participants
Topic Areas
Digital banking sign ups
Debit/credit cards
Money market accounts
Mortgages
Wealth clients
Deposits
Generational user groups
Digital product cross-selling
Information architecture
Emerging technologies
Digital UI research
CSAT/MSAT
Internal data assessment
Commercial/business banking
Market & industry
Business Objectives
Key goals of the organization
Post-merger the bank faced an inflection point; necessitating new ways to remain relevant while exceeding shareholder expectations.
However, possible solutions were much more complex. The bank could not afford to simply develop products and cross their fingers in hopes of success.
The bank needed to develop a deeper understanding of its generational user groups - how they perceive, use, and value current and future product/service offerings.
The objective was to hone in on user demographics post-merger, focusing on generational preferences.
Despite this goal, the bank was struggling with existing research capacity, having too few researchers for too many projects.
My role increased the number of studies executed, boosted stakeholder confidence and decision making, and helped "future-proof" go-to-market products and services.
TEAMS & COLLABORATION
Vice President of Digital Commerce
Director of UX Research
Product Manager & BU Leads
UX Design Lead
Principal UX Researcher
​UX Researcher I
UX Researcher II
UX Designer​
Throughout the engagement, I led a team of 1-2 junior researchers, assigning responsibility, managing research strategy, and mentoring through simple and complicated research processes.​
Tools & Software
Tools used on this project
Research Approach
Truly great products and services do more than just meet a need—they transform the user experience while increasing business value. To link user needs with organizational objectives, I approached each study of this engagement with an empathetic/business strategy focused framework, putting myself in the shoes of both the user and the business.
D
E
I
P
T
Empathize.
Each user group of the bank carried with them their own unique wants, needs, preferences, limitations, and level of financial literacy. It was paramount to place myself (through data immersion) in the shoes of each defined user group.
Define.
Following user analysis, I leveraged internal data, past studies and documentation, and applied a ranked hierarchy/scaffolding approach to define existing user problems and pain points.
Ideate.
I then took these issues to design and product leads, collaborating with them on which services and products required immediate focus - along with potential solutions.
Prototype.
Ideation sessions with stakeholders, designers, and myself led to clickable high-fidelity solutions built in Figma.
Test.
Prototypes were then tested with commercial, wealth, retail, and business user groups - utilizing moderated usability and A/B tests, supplemented with 1:1 user interviews.
Letting empathy take the wheel.
I EMPATHIZED BY
I STRATEGIZED BY
Digging deep into understanding how members understand the general concept of digital products and services.
Asking how members currently perceive individual digital products and services currently offered by the bank.
Assessing the current inventory of tools and resources provided to members when signing up for digital products and services.
Determining how the current sign up process for digital products and services prohibits members from achieving their goals.
Removing any physical, digital, or intellectual barriers to entry and understanding the sign up process more holistically.
Uncovering specific motivations, wants, desires and needs of a member - specific to digital products and services.
Building archetypal frameworks for generational user groups and contextualizing life circumstances influencing why members do or do not sign up for certain products/services.
BUSINESS OUTCOME
With perception documented, deposits increased. This increase was quantified and tracked for measuring KPIs, results and outcomes.
Identified which products and services are most valued by generational user groups - and their respective sign up process.
Uncovered how a product might be improved with each generational user group, in addition to identifying physical, digital or conceptual barriers to entry.
Identified which products and services serve a want or specific need, and how those products can align with present and future business goals and objectives.
Determining the UX mechanisms for changing the perception of how members view digital products and services.
Methodologies
The research techniques used over the course of the project
Moderated Usability Tests
Performed 20+ usability tests across each generational and business unit user group
1:1 User Interviews
Conducted 100+ 1:1 user interviews to define and contextualize groups, identify pain points and gather user feedback.
Focus Groups
Conducted multiple focus groups of selected generational customer types with specific products and services; generating 100 pages of codified data.
Surveys
Created, distributed, and managed 12 surveys across each generational and product user group, tallying over 10,000+ unique responses
Card Sort
Selected three user groups tasked with organizing key interface components into specific categories; data was used to inform design decision-making.
A/B Test
Ran A/B tests for each generational user group to evaluate and gather data on preferences of similar designs and interfaces.
Heuristic Evaluation
Conducted six independent reviews of selected interfaces across product lines; benchmarked across leading industry peer groups.
Data & Findings
Data captured, insights produced, and what was delivered
When culminating all studies executed over 14 months, a number of key themes and insights were produced. The goal of leadership was to extract a more detailed understanding of generational user groups post-merger - the how, what, and which products and services were most desired, which caused pain points for users, and which were desired by each group.
​
Here is a sample of some of the key findings which surfaced:
Alpha
Z
Millennial
X
Financial Literacy
Digital Competency
Boomer
Silent
< 12
13 - 27
28 - 43
44 -60
61 - 78
79 +
TECH SAVVY
Younger users were more digitally savvy, and breezed through sign up processes. Younger users also showed high preference for mobile and digital forms of banking (i.e. avoiding physical branches).
​
​
POINT IN TIME
Digital product usage and desire was shown to be heavily dependent and influenced by where a user is at in their life - whether just starting out, handling major purchases, married, with child, nearing retirement or end of life.
50/50
Middle-aged user groups (Millennial & Gen X) straddled the line between showing preference for both digital and physical banking products and services. This group wanted a "mix" of both.
​
​​
LIFE EXPERIENCES
Younger user groups (Gen Alpha and Gen Z in particular) struggled most with general financial literacy and terminology due to limited experience, life circumstances, and lack of finance education.
KEEPING WITH TRADITION
Older generations showed marginal interest in digital banking products and services, and showed preference for digital banking with little complexity. Older user groups also showed preference for in-person, high touch, high interpersonal services.
INFLUENCE
Analysis showed the youngest users (Gen Alpha) were heavily swayed by familial influencers (i.e., mom and dad did "x" so I'll do "x," too). Financial literacy and product/service knowledge was also shown to be heavily influenced by familial ties.
Deliverables
Executive leadership and business unit leads received:
6 defined user archetypes​
​
50+ hours of user interviews
​​​​
100+ pages of codified qualitative data​
​
10,000+ users surveyed​
​
50+ recommendations (across all studies)