Design Thinking — Whole Bank case study.

Build a solution to pay abroad without using the conventional Credit/Debit card system.

Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash

The Customer, The Problem and the Scope

Whole Bank is a North American bank. Their goal was to offer a different way to save and manage money by giving customers innovative options such as virtual currencies.

They detected that the conventional Credit/Debit System shows big inconveniences for traveling customers:

• Customers depend on the card to be able to get money from the ATM machines or to make payments.
• They do not want to keep all their cash on them in case they get mugged.
• Some places do not accept some types of cards such as American Express, Union Pay or Master Card.

They already developed a mobile application for their customers that allows them to access their financial statements and perform several tasks such as creating wire transfers, blocking lost/stolen cards, and even applying for a loan. Therefore, our mission is to develop a feature that allows them to pay safely abroad through this mobile app.

Empathie

Our audience is constituted of people who are travelling for business or leisure all around the world, several times a year for a short or a long period of time. Because Whole Bank is already offering a mobile app. They are used of financial application on mobile.

Problems to solve

• Stop being dependant to only one way to pay and to get cash abroad.
• Find a safer solution than carrying all its money in cash during the trip.

Competition

After few researches on the net and by asking around, I was able to found some existing solutions:

• Online Banks: Revolute and N26

Revolute works with Visa. This online bank allows you to split your main account under different ones all in the currency of your choice. Which means you can budget a trip in advance and have it save on your account under a local currency so you do not have to pay transaction fees once you are in the country of this local currency.

N26 is an online bank manageable through a very user friendly mobile app. On top of their travel insurances, they are offering a MasterCard allowing to pay and withdraw abroad without transaction fees.

• Mobile Apps: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Wechat and Alipay

Apple Pay and Google Pay are both using the Near Field Communication technology (NFC) which allows two devices, when close enough, to “communicate” . There is no need of WIFI, internet or data-roaming to use it, this is why this technology is now on payment cards. Thus, it is important to set an identification method before accepting the communication and the money transfer or to fix a maximum amount. Otherwise anyone close enough to you with a reading device can steal money from your card or mobile phone.

Wechat and Alipay are payment method using mobile apps scanning QR codes. They are extremely popular in China and more and more countries are adopting it as most Chinese tourists/travellers are asking for it. The problem with these technologies is that you need internet on your phone.

Interviews

To understand better the need and problem faced by potential user. I decided to interview 5 persons travelling often but with different profiles or reasons to travel.

The framework used for conduct my interviews was the following:

1. How often are you travelling? Which part of the world?
2. Are you travelling for leasure or for work?
3. When abroad, how do you pay at the restaurant? at the groceries? for your accommodation?
4. Are you travelling with cash on you? How often do you withdraw during your stay?
5. Do you buy a local SIM or do you have an international roaming plan on your mobile?
6. Are you currently using your phone to pay? Would you feel confident to use it as a payment method abroad?

After gathering information here are my findings:

• 4 people out of 5 is upset/concerned with the transaction fees charged by their banks when paying with their credit or debit card.
• When abroad, people withdraw some cash for safety reason in case their card is not accepted, lost or not working.
• However, people do not want to travel with only cash or with too much on them for safety reason. They prefer to withdraw some money each 3 days or for the week depending of the length of their stay. Some said it helps to manage their budget.
• 3 out of 5 interviewees are buying local SIM cards to have internet or they have an international roaming plan.

Ideation

Based on our findings and the benchmark done on our competition and the different technologies. I came up with some solutions first to pay:

1. The app generate a bar code and a new digital card each time you want to pay. The cashier just need to scan the bar code or the user can enter the digital card numbers on the POS to pay. He can use as well the digital card to pay online.
2. The user can scan a QR code or a bar code at the shop or at the restaurant to pay. This involve to have internet on its phone.
3. Use the NFC technology to pay by contact with a reading device after identifying yourself (PIN number or fingerprint.

Regarding the commissions fees, the solution that came to me is to give the option to the user to create a specific digital wallet which will be in local money. When paying, it is this digital wallet that will be charged. Thus the user can control its expenses and does not have to pay exchange and transaction fees each time.

Prototype

Login and entering user’s bank statements

The user want to split its main account into a new wallet

After choosing the currency and selecting the amount to be charged, our user has now a new digital wallet credited in Australian dollars.

When he is in Australia, he can now choose the option to pay with a wallet, after selecting the wallet to be charged and confirming the amount with his PIN.

He can pay thanks to the NFC technology or by having the cashier scanning the bar code.