Hey there! I’m June Taketani, co-founder and Chief Experience Officer at SmartBank. Let me introduce myself. I began my career as an in-house designer and later worked as a product manager.
In 2012, I founded my first company, Fablic,inc. I created Japan’s C2C E-commerce app, called “Fril.” Fril, now known as Rakuma and operated by Rakuten, has grown to become one of Japan’s top 10 e-commerce platforms. Following Fablic’s acquisition by Rakuten, I focused on the service growth and the post-merger integration.
After stepping down and enjoying a brief sabbatical, I experimented with creating services privately and supported startups as an angel investor.
In 2019, I founded my new company called SmartBank and created a new product called “B/43”. It is a prepaid card and personal finance management app that makes your finances management more easily. Today, I’d like to share our insights from designing it and how they can improve our lives.
Are you using ChatGPT? I’ve been using it every day, and I’m constantly amazed by how impressive it is.
When I was confirmed to speak at this conference, I asked ChatGPT: “What is well-being? Can you explain it with an analogy that’s easy to understand?” To be honest, I didn’t know much about well-being before. And I received this answer: “Well-being can be analogized to a tree. A tree!? I was surprised but interested, so I asked for more details:
So according to ChatGPT. The tree represents well-being, which symbolizes life’s overall quality and fulfillment. The tree consists of roots as its foundation, a trunk for abilities, branches for actions, and fruits for outcomes.
All these elements work together for growth and success. They influence each other in a cycle, and improving one part has a positive effect on the others.
What do you think of this analogy? Isn’t it a straightforward and effective way to explain well-being? I believe it’s one of the best explanations I’ve heard so far. So today, I would like to use this analogy to talk about what we have learned from our product design.
Our product is called B/43. Sure, that’s an unusual name.
The name “B/43” represents balance and budgeting in personal finance. “B” stands for “balance,” and “43” is inspired by “Yosan,” the Japanese word for “budget.” Together, they symbolize the harmony between remaining balance and budget.
We offer three product lines, each addressing specific issues for individuals, couples, and kids. Here are two stories of what we learned while creating these products.
First, let me tell you about our “My Card” product for individual use. First, let me tell you about our “My Card” product for individual use. Here’s a story about how we failed to understand the roots or foundations.
The background for creating this lies in Japan’s cashless payment environment.
According to the data taken in 2022, the share of cashless payments in Japan is at 36%, and many of them are credit card users. Globally, the number of credit and debit card users is almost equal. However, debit cards are less popular in Japan.
In our user interviews, credit card users were the largest group of cashless payment users. They had trouble tracking monthly spending because of credit cards’ postpaid nature. It is difficult to keep track of how much is remaining in their budget. Some overspent, used installments, and frequently switched between apps to check transactions. The complexity of credit cards might be one of the major reasons why a lot of households cannot afford savings.
Our hypothesis was that prepaid cards could assist users in managing finances without credit cards.
We developed B/43 My Card to address this issue. Users can deposit money and make payments, and their expenses are tracked, notified in real-time, and categorized like a finance app. These features enable cashless household budget management without the use of credit cards. After launching, we gained some users. We were happy to realize that our hypothesis had been proven.
However, we soon received requests from many users
It said that… “Please add credit cards as a deposit method!” I couldn’t believe it! “No way! really?”
Let’s use the tree analogy to understand the situation. In this case, their expense management abilities represent the “trunk,” We wanted to improve their financial ability without relying on credit cards.
Unfortunately, some of our users wanted to use their credit cards to deposit money for two reasons. One was that they wanted to deposit money online, from anywhere and anytime. Another was that they wanted to continue to earn cashback when using credit cards. It was part of their life’s foundation.
Our learning from that is… without roots, no trunk can grow.
In other words, Respect users’ life foundation of users. To create users’ continuous use.
So, we eventually added credit cards as a deposit option. The fixed charge amount feature prevents overspending. In addition, the automatic deposit feature has improved their retention rate.
By focusing on the roots, we were able to grow a thick trunk
The second story is about our “Pair Card” for couples.
Traditionally in Japan, husbands used to work, and wives used to manage finances. However, with the rise of double-income households, couples now need to manage their finances together.
However, Cashless payment services are not designed for couples. That’s why many couples still use a physical shared wallet. Moreover, joint bank accounts aren’t available in Japan, which makes managing shared expenses even more challenging. Managing shared expenses such as groceries and rent, and calculating each person’s share, can be confusing and time-consuming.
Our hypothesis was that if we provide a prepaid card for shared use, then users can improve spending management with partners.
So we created B/43 Pair Card. Each person gets a card linked to a joint account, and both can see their spending in real-time.
This product was well received by users! But what’s even more surprising is that
It also improved communication between partners.
Our research found that sharing daily income and expenses has a strong positive effect on relationships. Many couples find discussing finances stressful. However, with the B/43 Pair Card, they can have conversations based on their shared balance and expenses, easing the stress.
Let’s go back to the well-being tree. In this case, the branch was collaborative household management,
and the fruit was the result of improved household finances. But we didn’t realize that another fruit was growing: improvement in communication and relationships.
Here is what we learned from this experience… To create a beloved product, we should find several fruits on the branches.
It means that… we should not only focus on solving problems but also guide users towards their long-term and emotional goals.
We provide a budget check sheet to encourage financial transparency among couples. We aim to nurture improved communication and long-term relationship goals between partners.
Next, I’d like to introduce our design methods to achieve well-being.
We learned two things from these episodes. It’s crucial to keep user’s foundation and long-term outcomes in mind throughout the design process.
To consider the user’s foundations and Outcomes, Our product design process includes two key methods: “Problem Definition” and “Value Definition”. In the first method, “Problem Definition,” we take the following steps:
One of that is the “Problem Definition” method as the first step in product design process to consider user’s foundations. In the first method, “Problem Definition,” we take the following steps:
One, Write a hypothesis of the problem that summarizes the user’s issues. Let’s take the design process of the pair card as an example.
who the user is.
When will they face problems?
What they want to do.
What is preventing them from doing it?
How are they solving this now?
And what problems arise.
Two, Conduct user interviews to gather information and validate the hypothesis. Record both known and unknown information in a Discovery Board database. As the number of confirmed items increases, peri**[o]**dically review the value hypothesis.
The goal of this step is to challenge initial hypotheses and gain a better understanding of the user’s foundation.
The other is “Value Definition” method as the second step to achieve user’s outcomes.
First, let’s develop a “value hypothesis” based on the ”problem hypothesis” and interview insights
This step focuses on identifying our solution and how it can change users’ behaviors.
Second, let’s consider the long-term goals of our users
This process will help us gain a deeper understanding of the emotional value we aim to deliver to our users.
By considering these elements, we can better define the requirements from the beginning of the design process.
To support this approach, we have developed a tool called the “Think User Sheet” that combines these two methods. It is available as a Notion template. Please feel free to try it if you are interested.
Now let’s reflect on today’s learnings.
In summary, I used a tree analogy to explain well-being and shared what we learned while designing our product.
Our experience has taught us to focus on the user’s problems and guide them toward their long-term goals. We believe this is the best way to design well-being.
Moreover, Well-being isn’t a one-time creation. It’s a cycle that goes around and around with the user’s life. So let’s design this cycle repeatedly.
Like fruits will fall to the ground and create new roots again
That’s all, thank you for listening!!
