An intelligent tool that provides quick and easy access to the required information at the right time, thereby increasing efficiency and supporting the work done by RMs.
My Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer
Timeline
6 Months
Tools used
Figma, Miro
Brief
Small Bank wants to create a robust tool for their Corporate Relationship Managers enabling them to manage their schedule better, increase work efficiency and allow access to relevant data quickly to enable better decision making. Design an experience that allows them perform their daily tasks easily.
Design Process
Research
Initially, I had access to an existing prototype which was created as part of the project proposal and the project scope documentation. Though in a very rudimentary state, the prototype was my starting point to understand the business and user. expectations by breaking it down into the information architecture which would later be used for enhancements and identifying problem areas.
The slideshow below shows how the IA evolved after an initial evaluation of the system and lastly after an ideation workshop with the Relationship Managers.
Research Methods
Problem Statement
How might we create a system that provides easy and hassle free access to the right information at the right time thereby increasing work efficiency and reduce dependence on multiple tools to support the work done by RMs.
User interviews
Existing Systems
Through a series of interviews with the RMs I was able to understand and map out the ecosystem of tools on which they were dependent to perform their daily tasks. It was clear from the analysis that features offered by these tools were all important independently yet not a single tool could be relied upon for accessing all the relevant information. On the surface level these tools fitted well together as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle but the underlying problems were not addressed.
User Persona
Creating a persona not only helped the design team in developing a deeper understanding of the user but also other stakeholders involved in the design decision process. The personas prevented us from the common design pitfalls:
- Self referential design
- Design for elastic users
The persona also helped us in prioritising the features later and finding the right balance between both the needs of a business and users to create a harmonious solution.
Research findings/insights
- Dependence on multiple tools
- Continuous switching between tools for cross-verification of data
- Delays caused by retrieval of large data records (a system limitation as data extraction was not a possibility),
- Manual data filtering for data sharing
- Unable to keep track of call reports for multiple clients via email trails.
- Lack of an automated structured format for Call/Visit reports.
Ideation with the RMs
Based on the research insights and findings, we conducted an ideation workshop with the RMs to:
- Validate our findings/insights.
- Ideate further on other possible features/functionalities which were not yet covered in the scope.
Affinity mapping
We performed affinity mapping on all the ideas captured from the ideation workshop and later prioritized these to identify critical features vs the ones nice to have.
Design Solution
As the entire project’s design system was well-defined and very robust, the designs were prepared directly with the help of pre-defined components hence giving them a finished look. Multiple iterations were done on the designs to reach the designs shown below.
01
An organised platform
The dashboard provides an RM a quick overview of his/her performance, actions that require immediate attention, their daily schedule and the suggested opportunities from AA (Advanced Analytics) model.
02
Opportunities at a glance
Opportunities is a detailed overview of the deals in an RMs portfolio.
The KPIs on top provide RMs a distribution of how their deals and revenue are performing, allowing them to plan the next steps for their portfolio ahead of time.
03
Manage Portfolio easily
Portfolio lists down all the active clients of an RM, giving key information about a client with an option to deep dive into a specific client’s profile page.
The KPIs on top show the health of an RMs portfolio indicating where the portfolio is lacking and what actions should be taken by RMs to achieve their targets.
04
Access all client related information with a single platform
Client profile section provides detailed information for a selected client and also enables RMs to manage the client’s account plan, review client financials and simulate deals on the fly during client visits to identify the best deal for both clients and the bank.
05
Performance Snapshot
Performance management chapter provides a detailed breakdown of the profitability for the current year to date.
It also provides a snapshot of RMs facility utilization and deposit balance.
Other Sections
Testing
We conducted a series of 6 user testing sessions with a sample size of 6-7 RMs on an average. These sessions were conducted with a different set of users in most of the sessions to keep the feedback real and to avoid psychological bias. The feedback from these testing session were captured and incorporated in the designs wherever the severity of an interaction issue was indicated as high.
Takeways
This project has focused on user research and identified needs. Generally, if you follow users and the process, a solution inevitably follows. Interviews with the RMs and participation of multi-disciplinary team members enabled me to empathise better, understand different perspectives and find out better solutions.
The continuous feedback loop made the design solutions resonate well with user needs.
Isha Goyal 