CLIENT: GenEQTY
MY ROLE: User Research, Digital Designs, Loan & Check-In Features
CLIENT: GenEQTY
MY ROLE: User Research, Digital Designs, Loans & Check-in Features
CLIENT: GenEQTY
MY ROLE: User Reseatch, Digital Designs, Loans & Check-in Features
CLIENT: GenEQTY
MY ROLE: User Research, Digital Designs, Loans & Check-in Features
METHODS:
Interviews, Surveys, Comparative Analysis, Persona Creation, Usability Testing, User Flow, Interactive Prototyping
METHODS:
Interviews, Surveys, Comparative Analysis, Persona Creation, Usability Testing, User Flows, Interactive Prototyping
METHODS:
Interviews, Surveys, Comparative Analysis, Persona Creation, Usability Testing, User Flows, Interactive Prototyping
METHODS:
Interviews, Surveys, Comparative Analysis, Persona Creation, Usability Testing, User Flows, Interactive Prototyping
METHODS: Interviews, Surveys, Comparative Analysis, Persona Creation, Usability Testing, User Flows, Interactive Prototyping
TOOLS:
Otter.ai, Google Forms, Sketch, Adobe XD, Keynote
TOOLS:
Otter.ai, Google Forms, Sketch, Adobe XD, Keynote
TOOLS:
Otter.ai, Google Forms, Sketch, Adobe XD, Keynote
TOOLS: Otter.ai, Google Forms, Sketch, Adobe XD, Keynote
SUMMARY:
GenEQTYis a greenfield project conceived of by banking executive and entrepreneur Dionne Gumbs. After the 2008 recession, lending restrictions tightened significantly and created an environment in which small and medium-sized businesses had trouble securing the lines of credit they need to get started and expand. This was especially true of businesses with women owners and decision-makers.
The vision for GenEQTY's was that of a mobile banking and lending application where business owners can integrate their business savings, business savings, QuickBooks, and other financial accounts in order to see aggregated data of where their business stands financially. With this data, GenEQTY uses machine learning and predictive analysis to identify business owners that both are in need of, and will be able to repay, lines of credit. Through the application, these loans would be able to be quickly offered and distributed, prevented business owners from the tedious and time-consuming process of traditional business lending.
My team and I conducted research into the banking practices of small and medium-sized women-led businesses and leveraged these findings to design a mobile banking and lending application that met their needs while providing a platform for expedited lending.
RESEARCH
RESEARCH
RESEARCH
CURRENT STATE:
Our team had a kickoff meeting Dionne to get a better understanding of her vision for GenEQTY. She explained that her research showed that women-led small businesses were only given access to a disproportionately small amount of investment capital, despite the fact that they were in-fact statistically more likely to be successful.
With GenEQTY, she imagined a platform that avoided the pitfall of the inherent gender bias by using artificial intelligence to identify businesses that needed and could repay loans and was able to preemptively reach out to them and offer preapproved loans.
"People shouldn't feel so disempowered by their money. Right now, people don't feel like the system is for them" - Dionne Gumbs
"People shouldn't feel so disempowered by their money. Right now people don't feel like the system is for them." - Dionne Gumbs
EXPLORATORY RESEARCH:
My team and I formulated an online survey for small and medium-sized business owners to learn more about their business banking practices. We also conducted remote interviews with a number of female business owners to investigate their experience and expectations when dealing with financial institutions.
Remote interview
KEY AREAS OF OBSERVATION:
What was your experience in securing lines of credit for your business?
What kind of a relationship to you expect and value from your business banker?
Are you comfortable integrating your business financial accounts with 3rd party software?
KEY AREAS OF OBSERVATION:
Does the onboarding process adequately prepare team members to perform their roles?
What are the internal communication needs of each team member?
What media and documents are produced during the event and how are they transmitted back to Street Cards?
KEY AREAS OF OBSERVATION:
What is the atmosphere like?
What objects and devices do people have in this environment?
What is the nature of interactions between people and objects?
What tasks are the students trying to accomplish?
KEY AREAS OF OBSERVATION:
Does the onboarding process adequately prepare team members to perform their roles?
What are the internal communication needs of each team member?
What media and documents are produced during the event and how are they transmitted back to Street Cards?
We conducted a comparative analysis of other online business banking applications to learn more about what features were common among mobile banking applications, were less common, and which would make the most sense for GenEQTY.
Competetive analysis
Through our research we identified a number of critical factors that business owners expacted and valued from online business banking applications.
GOALS:
Provide a personalized, conversational mode of interaction
Itegrate with business owners checking, savings, and QuickBooks accounts
Use predictive analytics to offer preapproved lines of credit as needed
Ask questions in order to learn about the financial nature of one's business
Allow the business owner and their employees to use virtual credit cards
DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
Based upon our research we created a persona of a female small business owner in order to help conceptualize how GenEQTY could assist her through all stages of building a successful business.
User persona
Feature sketches
DIGITAL DESIGN:
We created a screen flow in order to visualize the way that our onboarding, account aggregation, dashboard, virtual credit card, business check-in, autopay, and loan offer features would integrate together.
DIGITAL DESIGN:
We created a screen flow in order to visualize the way that our onboarding, account aggregation, dashboard, virtual credit card, business check-in, autopay, and loan offer features would integrate together.
mobile app screenflow
PROTOTYPING:
We then collaborated to design an interactive prototype in Adobe XD that tied all these features together.
PRESENTATION
NEXT STEPS
NEXT STEPS
We presented our product strategy and digital designs to Dionne and other stakeholders. In doing so, we used the narrative of our persona, Sarah, as she progressed through the phases and getting her business off the ground, overcoming the hurdles that many small businesses face, and finally securing the necessary investments to grow her business.
At each stage, we demonstrated how the GenEQTY mobile banking platform learned more about her business and helped provide vital lines of credit along the way.
selected slides
NEXT STEPS
NEXT STEPS
NEXT STEPS
MOVING FORWARD:
Dionne's plan is to take the research, documents, prototypes and presentation deck that our team assembled for her and use them to find the necessary funding to get the mobile app and website developed.
OTHER WORK:
