CASE STUDY
Overview
Virtual Branch is an online video extension platform dedicated to banks and insurance companies. The product was discovered by 10Clouds in cooperation with Mastercard, Pexip, and top financial industry representatives, their clients, employees, and advisers.
Project Name
Virtual Branch
Website
Services
Web App Development, Product Design, Product Discovery
Type
FinTech, Banking
The lack of availability of remote banking services has a strong impact on client experience. Poor accessibility, little time flexibility, location restrictions or extreme situations such as account suspension while abroad, have come into the spotlight.
Observing the problems of limited access to remote banking services, 10Clouds in cooperation with Mastercard decided together to discover and validate a solution that would enable customers and employees a new quality of service.
The entire Product Discovery process was divided into three main phases. Our activities adopted a top-down approach, namely defining the basic framework of the product, which had become more detailed with each subsequent action taken. This approach made it possible to start development work very quickly (instead of waiting for the completion of the research phase), thus significantly accelerating the preparation of the MVP version of the solution.
We started our exploration activities with market research. This allowed us to assess market demand, quickly verify the main assumptions, develop a concept base and identify opportunities and threats. When analyzing reports and trends, we focused on a broader perspective that went beyond the banking industry.
The analysis was then supplemented with observations and actions netnography in order to quickly compare our research with the behaviors of real recipients.
Having scoped the initial area of the service under investigation, we embarked on a Service Safari. We recreated customer journeys to see the way the existing banks’ virtual services were used. This helped us learn first-hand opinions about the processes, and identify problems recipients of those services had encountered.
Equipped with the research from the Exploration phase, we began to refine it with our own recipients. We organized online and face-to-face meetings to dive deep into the user story. We were aware from the beginning that we will deal with a wide range of users - both those who would use the solution on a daily basis and those deciding about its implementation. Virtual Branch is an extensive solution. We had to structure our workshops accordingly.
To meet the expectations of financial insitutions themselves, we organized a comprehensive workshop with banking entities (Mastercard, BNP Paribas, mBank, Raiffeisen and others), in which we jointly defined their goals, expectations, the scope of the service, problems that might affect its correct implementation, as well as values that Virtual Branch would bring them.
We decided to use two different methods in research with the end users: surveys and in-depth individual interviews. After scenarios and surveys had been developed, they were made available to selected target groups with the help of cooperating banks. You can read more about the surveys in a separate article.
Next, in-depth interviews were developed and conducted, including the recruitment of a wide range of groups. This activity allowed us to obtain missing information related to decision-making paths, deepen the threads regarding the perception of the relationship with the bank and consultant, and finally - talk about both opportunities and threats from the perspective of a bank client.
When we first think about the service, we think about the bank's customers as end users. However, a very important recipient category are the bank employees themselves, who will not only use the solution every day, but will also initially be the first point of contact with the recipients. Feedback we collected during the workshops was crucial for our solution to really answer the needs of banks and their client's advisors.
Researching and collecting all the information while creating a product concept is only half the job. The most important activity is its proper mapping and development of specific materials and design assumptions.
We divided the collected information into two sets of messages:
The developed range of now applicable knowledge was prioritized so that we could determine the scope of the MVP's work and plan the full version of the solution.
In the case of the UX strategy, we focused on both framework materials (such as vision, mission, business model, target groups, personas, KPIs) and communication with all recipients (promises, values, tone of voice). As many as 32 experts in different areas were involved.
The developed information architecture and user flow have been divided into specific user ranges and access levels. Due to the wide range of possible actions, we used a method that allowed us to map all user flows in the form of a single diagram, thanks to the introduction of action tiles.
All mapped actions were then written down as specific user stories, along with a description of the details necessary for design and development.
Thanks to the top-down approach, it was possible to start development and design work already during research work.
The highlighted framework functionalities enabled both the early start of backend activities and the design (and testing with recipients) of the first versions of the concept.
As we were deepening our knowledge - the developed materials were adjusted and refined, and the introduced changes were tested internally and with users on an ongoing basis.
This actions not only allowed for the MVP of the solution to be created earlier, but also facilitated further discussions with bank stakeholders and clients.
Such a framework allowed to shift the burden of research from product discovery to discovering individual functionalities, smoothly changing Product Discovery into Continuously Discovery.
