Develop a payment app for the Whole Bank
1. Introduction of the client
Whole Bank started operations in United States. They are currently working on a different way to save and manage money by giving customers innovative options. They would like to develop an payment app to substitute credit card because of its inconvenience during traveling.
2. The main problem found during interviews
I have interviewed 5 of my friends who have experiences in traveling and shopping abroad, the question list is as following:
1). How was your last shopping experience abroad? What did you buy? and where? How much did you spend?
2). How did you pay? Have you had any inconvenience when you paid?
3). How would you pay instead of the current payment method?
4). If there is an app to substitute the current payment method, which feature should be the most important?
The results are as following:
All of interviewers use cards to pay, 4 of them have not got any inconvenience. Only 1 interviewer said that she does not like card because the operation is slow and inconvenient. Therefore, I interviewed her a bit deeper about the payment app.
In her opinion, there should be 3 important features of the app, which are “easy, secure and acceptable by all shops”.
The pain of shopping that she had during her travel before include:
1). There was no internet connection abroad so that she could not use online wallet to pay.
2). Current payment apps need a few steps to verify the transfer.
3). The shops did not accept payment via app (they only accept cash or credit card, no others).
Basic on the interviewers’ background, demography, hobbies, goals and barriers, I have got the persona as following:
3. The main problem that I am going to solve
After creating the persona, the main problems can be defined as the following:
1). Payment without internet connection.
2). Easy verification procedure
3). Accepted by most of the shops
4. How did I plan to solve the problem
First, I ideated from a popular payment app Alipay. When the users of Alipay want to pay offline, the app can generate a QR code to allow the shop to scan and directly charge from your account.
So I had my 1st iteration as following:
However, when I tested it with my interviewer (who is also my potential customer), her feedback was “I hardly see any shop in Europe or US uses QR code.” So the 1st iteration failed by not solving the problem of “Accepted by most of the shops”.
Indeed, QR code is only popular in China. Considering the background of our client, the solution should refer to the case in US.
In the 2nd iteration, I referred to Apple pay which is popular in US. Apple pay uses ufc technology to pay just as using a credit card. My 2nd iteration is the following:
In this iteration, it needs to “touch only once” (when put your fingerprint in) during the entire payment and verification process. And it does work for all the shops as long as they accept credit card.
My potential customer was satisfied, who felt it meet her requirements — “easy, secure and acceptable by all shops”.
5. My key insights during the design thinking exercise
1). During the interview, the question should direct to the point.
For example, my 1st question (How was your last shopping experience abroad? What did you buy? and where? How much did you spend?) was useless and even confused my interviewers. Instead, I should directly ask their payment habits.
2). Ideate, then quickly test
During ideation, once I had my 1st iteration ready, I talked with my potential customer immediately. It was a wise action! Because she quickly gave me the feedback and turned it down.
3). Always consider the background of the client
The failure of my 1st iteration was because of my ignorance of the local situation of my client, so I had to always keep in mind “who is my client, who is my customer, and how are the local situations”.
