Strategically targeting pay in 4 services for increased onboarding
Delivered a fully-funded MVP that validated demand and established a foundation for long-term customer growth
Key value added to customers: | Key value added to the business |
|---|---|
|
|
Embedding ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ into Everyday Banking to Drive Growth and Engagement
Buy now, pay later services shot to popularity in Australia and internationally, with companies being created just to offer the service and competitors already launching their own in-house service. To compete, Westpac needed to design their own service and to update their Product Strategy to remain competitive and profitable. The BNPL service was needed to continue growing their younger customer segments.
I identified opportunities in their current product offerings to display sign up features to increase the onboarding to the service.
The project resulted in a the implementation of the bank’s new Product Strategy, to further integrate their products and services more into their customers everyday lives to increase profitability, alignment to company goals and sustainable growth.
Fintech Disruption Made Westpac Late to the ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ Race
Buy now, pay later services shot to popularity in Australia and internationally, with companies being created just to offer the service and competitors already launching their own in-house service. To compete, Westpac needed to design their own service and to update their Product Strategy to remain competitive and profitable. The BNPL service was needed to continue growing their younger customer segments.
Connecting the dots in a vast ecosystem of Products and Services
I mapped the bank’s current product lifecycle end to end to understand what was being offered. As it had been updated months prior, I was the first in the business to deliver this large-scale end to end lifecycle perspective.
I collated and synthesised research owned by the business to discover early user trends for us to use as a guide for strategic placement. This combined with other product usage data, existing customer research and financial trend data informed us of who are potential customers are.
During this I discovered was how buy now pay later services are used as a money management tool to smooth over costs and stretch budgets. This was an important insights that shaped how we identified to meaningfully and empathetically ways to suggest the service.
Overcoming Challenges through Ethical Design for Vulnerable Users in a Low-Regulation Environment
A problem we needed to consider was the communities wavering opinion of BNPL services, and how at the time it was not regulated like credit cards. This needed to be considered, especially since our customer segments were younger and more vulnerable. I accommodate this by rationalising on the safer side when making decisions to keep customer interests in mind.
Identifying seamless ways into the service to increase onboarding
The understanding of our customer segments and research enabled me to identify triggers for the service on our current state product lifecycle map. This allowed me to iterate upon it to visualise the ways into the BNPL service within the Product Lifecycle. This was chosen to best communicate with other parts of the business.
I utilised persona based interviews to further discern potential triggers for the service, trying to explore beyond the surface level reasons for using it. This was because I wanted to further assess if it was not inappropriate for younger customer groups, in order to protect the business’ reputation.
To complete the brief, we iterated upon the service blueprint to implement insights from the persona based walkthrough, with it more closely align the customers needs to the business’ product lifecycle, including major financial touchpoint customers may experience.
Tailoring the messaging and communications to target young people
An example of how different customer segments may be approach during their everyday banking experience. The content and UI element was created by myself.
BNLP sprinkled into the everyday banking experience: The new end to end Product Lifecycle
The final detailed journey map served as the final artefact utilised in the Proposal to seek funding for the next part of the project. It visualised the experience of an everyday banking customer with potential was in to engage them with the pay in 4 service. We had tailored messaging in the communications and UI to appeal to specific customer segments to increase the likelihood of sign ups. It engaged tactical language, placements and UI elements to increase the likelihood that the individual signs up, in alignment with their motivations and financial needs.
The service blueprint and case put forward was successful in getting approval for the next part of the project.
