Reimagining Banking for Small Business Owners
Gateway Validation Sprint
One of Americas largest banks partnered with BCG Digital Ventures to validate the potential of launching a digital first bank addressing the specific needs of small business owners nation-wide. Gateway offers multiple services to help small business owners manage their finances and business, via a harmonized, modern digital interface.
Over the course of a 10-week validation sprint, my role was to lead the research and product design strategy work stream to help validate the desirability of the idea. I managed a team of 3 product designers and researchers and worked in close collaboration with client stakeholders and subject matter experts, business strategists, product managers, and engineers.
Research and User Testing
Product Design Strategy
UX and Visual Design
Research phase
We conducted ethnographic research & concept testing to understand customer pain points and needs to further refine and validate the Gateway concept. The goal of the research phase was to focus on answering key questions to help us understand the value proposition for small business owners and prioritize key features.
- What are the core frictions we are solving for?
- Which segments / types of businesses does Gateway resonate with the best? The least?
- What are our target segment’s latent needs that we can fulfill with Gateway?
- How well does Gateway test with our target segment?
- What does our target like about Gateway the most? What do they like least? What needs to be changed?
- What are the most important features that need to be prioritized for the MVP launch? What can wait until later phases?
Concept overview
After our research phase, we were able to refine the concept based on user and expert feedback and prioritize the core elements that would solve our target segments biggest tensions and needs.
Concept development
To illustrate the concept, we designed a storyline highlighting the value proposition and core feature set of the product experience to be used to gain stakeholder alignment and buy-in.
Concept video highlighting the value proposition and core feature set of the product experience.
The video has been cut to protect the privacy of the client.