Daniel Chen  Design Thinking for Innovation  Peer-Graded Assignment: Reflection      Challenge:    I work in a Financial Services company as a digital product manager. My job is to build and  design a digital experience that delivers to the needs of everyday consumers. While this may  seem straight forward – researching and interviewing consumers on what they wish for in their  digital banking experience – it gets challenging when balancing the priorities of all the other  stakeholders in the company. This includes (not all):

• Business executives, who are responsible for their P&L and want to see a quantitative

return on their investments

• Risk, Legal & Compliance  • Other product managers and their goals for their respective products, in a shared digital

experience

• Marketing & Communications, who need to prioritize customer messaging and

campaigns

The challenge here is to prove to my stakeholders why my product is important for our  customers. I need to persuade them prioritize investments and resources so that we can deliver  what is most important services to our customers.     Selection:    The Tool I selected to help me with this Challenge is Story-telling. We have done extensive  research and interview with our Credit Card customers. We have valuable data as well that  supports our thesis. We combine these into a compelling (and simple) story so that my  stakeholders understand the importance of the project.    Application:    With the evolving landscape in payments, data showed that customers are increasingly paying  for goods and services by way of ‘embedded payments.’ More specifically, customers are saving  their credit card or debit card information within digital wallets, or directly at merchant  sites/apps for convenience. We wanted to see how we could better serve our customers as the  industry moved toward this direction. We interviewed a good number of customers to research  what their current behaviors are, what concerns they may have, and what they feel like they  need.    From our interviews, we discovered that our customers were concerned about security. They  have saved their card info at so many places they have lost track, and are concerned that their  payment info will be stolen or taken advantage of. They also are concerned about making

recurring payments they did not mean to sign up for, or they have forgotten and want to  cancel.    We took this research and created personas and built stories around these personas with real  experiences our customers have told us. This included the card products they currently have, all  the merchant sites they have saved their cards, and the frustrations they have voiced. We built  this story to share with all our stakeholders in order to start building a minimal viable product.    Insight:    The Story-telling tool was extremely helpful with this design-thinking project. What is most  useful is the empathy, building a story around these personas that most people can relate to. It  is human-centered. All the stakeholders can relate – on a personal level - to the current state of  financial services, and the frustrations that can come with it. Helping them relate to our  customers through the story telling helped facilitate the investment and resources that we  needed to build a prototype.    Approach:    Another approach to integrate into this Design Thinking exercise is incorporating visualization  into the research process. Instead of interviewing customers one on one, it is also valuable to  do group research sessions and whiteboard in real time. Mark notes on post-its and place into  several categories. This will help identify certain common themes and help prioritize topics to  look deeper into.


Daniel Chen Design Thinking for Innovation Peer - Graded Assignment : Reflection Challenge : I work in a Financial Services company as a digital product manager . My job is to build and design a digital experience that delivers to the needs of everyday consumers . While this may seem straight forward – researching and interviewing consumers on what they wish for in their digital banking experience – it gets challenging when balancing the priorities of all the other stakeholders in the company . This includes ( not all ): • Business executives , who are responsible for their P&L and want to see a quantitative return on their investments • Risk , Legal & Compliance • Other product managers and their goals for their respective products , in a shared digital experience • Marketing & Communications , who need to prioritize customer messaging and campaigns The challenge here is to prove to my stakeholders why my product is important for our customers . I need to persuade them prioritize investments and resources so that we can deliver what is most important services to our customers . Selection : The Tool I selected to help me with this Challenge is Story - telling . We have done extensive research and interview with our Credit Card customers . We have valuable data as well that supports our thesis . We combine these into a compelling ( and simple ) story so that my stakeholders understand the importance of the project . Application : With the evolving landscape in payments , data showed that customers are increasingly paying for goods and services by way of ‘ embedded payments . ’ More specifically , customers are saving their credit card or debit card information within digital wallets , or directly at merchant sites / apps for convenience . We wanted to see how we could better serve our customers as the industry moved toward this direction . We interviewed a good number of customers to research what their current behaviors are , what concerns they may have , and what they feel like they need . From our interviews , we discovered that our customers were concerned about security . They have saved their card info at so many places they have lost track , and are concerned that their payment info will be stolen or taken advantage of . They also are concerned about making recurring payments they did not mean to sign up for , or they have forgotten and want to cancel . We took this research and created personas and built stories around these personas with real experiences our customers have told us . This included the card products they currently have , all the merchant sites they have saved their cards , and the frustrations they have voiced . We built this story to share with all our stakeholders in order to start building a minimal viable product . Insight : The Story - telling tool was extremely helpful with this design - thinking project . What is most useful is the empathy , building a story around these personas that most people can relate to . It is human - centered . All the stakeholders can relate – on a personal level - to the current state of financial services , and the frustrations that can come with it . Helping them relate to our customers through the story telling helped facilitate the investment and resources that we needed to build a prototype . Approach : Another approach to integrate into this Design Thinking exercise is incorporating visualization into the research process . Instead of interviewing customers one on one , it is also valuable to do group research sessions and whiteboard in real time . Mark notes on post - its and place into several categories . This will help identify certain common themes and help prioritize topics to look deeper into .