Retro — London’s Fintech Design Summit 2019
How to tackle complexity and focus on users in finance
In the heart of Marylebone, London, designers and product managers in finance industry from all around the world gathered last month for the Fintech Design Summit. Since there are still very few UX meetups focusing on the finance industry, it was interesting enough to attract designers like myself and Matthieu Harreau, a fellow designer in our UX design team who travelled from Paris!
Thanks to the digital transformation trend in finance, there are many fintech startups and big banks diving into the world of UX. In this summit, speakers were from various types of companies related to finance: Monzo, Finimize, Google Pay, EY Seren, Klarna, Lloyds Bank, etc. As you can tell, the range was wide, but there was one thing they all had in common:
“Focus on users, then all others will follow.”
Then, how? How can we focus on our users, especially in this complex finance industry? From the talks, we could get the sense of how other companies are dealing with this complicated challenges to improve the user experience. (such as how to reduce the required fields from 40 to 4, while claiming a case to the insurance company)
In fact, our team’s motto is Rethink Complexity, so we couldn’t wait more to see how others are tackling with the complexity in finance!
Throughout the 10 talks and 2 panel discussions, many great practices and insights were shared. I could definitely relate to the complexity of these experiences and take away some useful principles to apply to myself.
“Talking with users about money emotionally isn’t easy, but you should.”
“Big bank vs fintech startup — who will be the winner of this digital transformation trend?”
“There is no shortcut to listen to the users, just talk to them and test it.”
“Finance should adapt to changes.”
“Design ops create space for creativity!”
“Let’s design for prosperity!”
“#finsense not #fintech”
Let’s dig into some of the most insightful takeaways!
Big bank vs Fintech startup — who will be the winner of this digital transformation trend? — 🏦vs🚀
One of the interesting questions from the start was “Where are you guys from? Big banks or startups?” As a UX/UI designer in one of the big banks myself, this led me to think about the differences between the two and wonder who will be the winner (or if there will be a winner at all). In fact, there was no concrete answer, but still interesting points of view from different people.
In the design panel session, this was the main topic. Most of the panels were from big banks but switching to the startup. The overall impression of working in big banks was that there are too many stakeholders who are not willing to change. Thus, it seems barely possible to make the innovation happen from there. As you can see below, we learnt that many designers struggle with these difficulties in finance, especially in big banks.
“For conservative corporations, what are some tactics to convince leadership that injecting heart in to the experience?”
“How do you foster a culture of innovation when teams very quickly get mired in process and governance?”
“Large portion of legacy system of corporate banks is a breaker for innovation? Does digital banks like Monzo can leverage on it?”
Regarding these questions from the audience, any mindset of unwillingness to change can be one of the main issues that prevent big banks from leading the trend.
Design for prosperity! 💗
Despite complexity, it’s too early to give up. Actually, it’s the starting point for us UX designers to challenge the conservative world of finance. From the another talk by Dan Makoski, we could see the light of hope. He presented the concept of ‘Finsense’ to retain the human touch empowering the prosperity for everyone. For many people, very thought of money inspires fear and dread. Thus, we should carefully understand the emotions of users.
One of the really interesting points from his talk was his “Prosperity Matrix”. These are the factors that influence the financial health of people: Focus, Financial Literacy, Inclusion and Financial Wellbeing. This approach to deeply empathize with users is what we need in finance, both in startup and corporate firms to innovate from the traditional point of view.
My personal thoughts 💬
These talks have allowed me to reflect on how we work in Societe Generale. For sure, things are touch for UX designers, especially in the BtoB world of finance. Our users are usually clients from corporate companies and financial institutions, so there is a certain learning curve to the proper research. To make things worse, there are many financial regulations which often disrupt communication.
However, change is still happening here. As a UX designer, I have recently convinced stakeholders with research and benchmarking to improve navigation of our research website and revamp the service with our new design system. I have also met many different types of financial users such as equity analysts, credit bond sales or lawyers to get the real voice of feedback and empathize with them. (See how this can happen in ‘Changing a 150-Year-Old Bank with Design: 3 Impacts’ by our Design Director in Societe Generale CIB, Morgane Peng)
Thus, I would say it’s the good time for us in finance to actually act on what we should do: design for the better experience for financial users step by step. Following what I learnt from this wonderful meetup, ‘Fintech Design Summit’, I would like to constantly share the real practices from this industry. So, stay tuned!
Did you find this retro interesting? If so, please clap👏 and share! I’d love to hear your feedback, so please let me know in the comments.🤓
