Lloyds - Open Banking incubation workshop
3 month incubation workshop to explore how Lloyds can stay competitive with challenger banks in the new Open Banking era
My role
I was contracted in as a Senior UX designer/researcher to support and help facilitate a three month research-led incubation project. I provided design support and strategy consultancy throughout the project with a team of 15 Lloyds stakeholders who were allocated for the coming weeks to focus on the discovery piece. The outcomes of the project were research insights generated from the stimulus that we collectively produced during multiple ideation sessions.
Background
This piece of work took place just before the Open Banking regulations took hold in 2018. Whilst intended to serve users, the advent of the Open Banking regulations was a potential threat for Lloyds in that it was a potential disruptor to the market. As a result Lloys wanted to explore how they could stay relevant to their younger demographic alongside the upcoming challenger banks like Monzo, Starling and Revolut.
Process
We utilised Google design sprints as a framework on this project that spanned multiple weeks. Using customer segmentation data and analytics as a grounding base, we used lateral thinking techniques to ideate new concepts across multiple themes, which we rapidly mocked-up and tested with users each week to further iterate and develop ideas.
Persona creation
At the start of the workshop we defined our target user groups by drawing upon secondary research data from large-scale consumer segmentation studies. Once we identified our core segments, we were then able to draw upon data from Lloyds customer insights team to refine the segments into a set of personas. The personas helped us to clarify our focus on what we needed to ideate for over the subsequent weeks.
Ideation process
The goals of the ideation sessions was to try to come up with new features and propositions that would attract and engage our target users. The typical way of working throughout was as follows:
Assign ourselves a set of HMWs based on the target user groups and business requirements
Break out into groups and use lateral thinking methodologies (e.g. analogues, scenarios, provocations, or 6 thinking hats) to help us come up with a large quantity of ideas without restrictions
Present the ideas back to the rest of the group for discussion and feedback
Everyone votes on top ideas
The top ideas then get developed into visual concept posters
Everyone votes on top ideas
Output of ideations
The goal of each ideation session was to ultimately produce innovative ideas that we could turn into stimulus (wireframes, storyboards, or prototypes) and put them in front of users each week to test the strength of the proposition. Typically the sessions would take the form of Focus groups or one-on-one interviews, and the rest of the team would observe the user feedback in a lab behind one-way glass. We would then take the findings and iterate each proposition as required. Rinse and repeat each weekly sprint.
Some concepts from ideation outputs
Project challenges
We were not sure exactly what changes the Open Banking regulations would bring to the market so there was an element of unknown involved. Nonetheless, we were still able to base our work on existing user segmentation data and formulate hypotheses which could be tested. The results were insightful and in many ways unexpected, which changed our approach of thinking and helped us play to the brand’s best strengths in competition with challenger banks. Customers didn’t want Lloyds to be a cool and trendy bank, they valued them for their reputation and good customer service.