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Smile

The Co-operative Bank UK 

:: Consultancy, Professional Services | Design research

Industry Leader: Cate Care (IDEO), Lydia Howland (IDEO)
Team: Aidan O’dea, Akanksha Singh, Kristiaan Neumann, Rodrigo Gonzalez
Project Duration: 3 weeks








Challenge

Smile needs to relaunch and embrace its original cutting edge aspirations. How can we better connect with younger generations? How might Smile offer a better day to day banking experience?









Our Approach

How might we develop a convenient banking experience that parents of young families can have confidence in?



 



Tools Used

︎ desk research
︎ in-depth interviews
︎ expert interviews
︎ online survey
︎ desk research
︎ field observation
︎ task sorting map
︎ analogous research
︎ download sheet
︎ design synthesis

























(Left) Life Journey Maps were implemented at the beginning of the interview to help understand
the user holistically, and to identify where they first contact with a bank;

(Right) Task sorting map was also developed to help interviewees share feelings
and view on current financial management progress 





Interviewes were asked if they could share the contents of their wallet and finance related apps download on their phone
to understand the spending habits and ways of managing finances.



Process:


︎15 In-Depth Interviews
︎ 1 Expert Interview
︎ 1 Focus Group
︎ Online Survey with 72 Respondents




Interviewees ranging from 6 to 50 years old




Focus Group with interviewees ranging from 25 to 46 years old 



Key Insights:


1. User receive their first bank account as children, and it is often set up by their parents

“I got my first bank account pretty much the next day after I was born.” - Manfred, 34

2. Parents have the need to set up an account to save up for their child’s future,
or they are afraid that the money their child have received when they were born
or during birthdays will disappear into their daily expenses.
"I have to set up an account for Alice because I’m afraid that our daughter’s money will disappear into our expenses.” - Sat, 39



3. We noticed overlapping needs among users. They demand convenience provided
by financial-technologies, but trusted the legacy of traditional banks
with large sums of money.


Sat, a 39 year old father of 11 month old Alice, said that with his hectic life, he needs
“complete convenience”. Similarly, Thomas Johnson, a 33 year old digital marketer spoke
of enjoying a “casual banking experience” alluding to convenience.

Bex, a 35 year old mother of 17 month old Elliot, spoke of her “need for a
savings account” to ensure her savings for her son would be there when she
needed it. This echoed what Patrick, a 22 year old architect,
said: “I wouldn’t trust digital fintechs with my savings.”
   

Opportunities:




Navigating life’s first

Life is full of many “firsts”: first job, first car, first house, first child. Smile can help users navigat
through their life’s “firsts” with ease by generating comprehensive service and tools
that help customers budget and plan for future milestones.




Family Vault

Family VaultParenthood is hectic enough; saving for the future is now one less thing to manage.
Smile centralises users family’s finances, saving them time to spend it where it matters.
Smile could provide a vault service to help manage multiple piggy-banks from a family connected account.



Brand Confidence

Smile could leverage The Co-operative Bank relation to raise customer confidence.




Ethics in Action

People like ethical businesses, but people don’t like when ethics are used as a marketing ploy;
we have to show our ethics are tangible. Smile could make ethics actionable by partnering
with family-oriented charities, and give customers the freedom to choose where to donate.




People Presence

People want to know they can talk to a person when things go wrong.
Smile could leverage digital tools such as facetime appointment to create
a more personal digital banking experience.






Client’s feedback


“ Great representation of the age demographic they interviewed!
The parent to child cycle is reality and the research into this was very good. You guys also nailed it by presenting intelligent and sensitive solutions for this shared problem. Deeply rooted in empathy! The convenience and confidence venn sums up the brand/product positioning! ”