Natwest - Access to Experts Beta

I started this project by working on a proposition piece for Natwest to understand the needs of their SME business customers. This led to us creating an ecosystem for users, that would be their primary financial partner. A single place that users could go to manage most elements of their business and finances, whilst also having a place to gain access to experts, helping them to achieve their business goals.

After presenting the 8 week proposition project (view here) to key stakeholders within the business, we managed to secure budget to create a Beta product. This was a fantastic opportunity, and I was really excited to be able to continue from all of the research and discovery work, into an actual product with finalised designs.

Building out the concept & Usability testing

To start this 6 week project we decided to build out the concept from our learnings of the previous one. These were the questions that we based the concepts on:

  • What did users find most/least useful from the qual and quant testing?

  • What was the most important thing that needed to be considered when creating this Beta concept?

  • What is achievable for Natwest to build and launch in such a small time frame?

  • How would the product we are building benefit the business?

Once we had answered these questions within the team and with the senior stakeholders, we then started to create our Beta concept. I began creating a site map and UX wireframes that would be tested with users. I created the UX screens very closely with the Natwest design team, and using the Natwest brand guidelines that were already in place.

I also ran the usability sessions with our user group. This group of people were a mixture of people from each persona group that we had already outlined, that also used various banks for their business banking needs.

The Beta:

After the round of usability testing, I then refined the designs from any feedback and started to design them in high fidelity UI. For this again I worked very closely with the Natwest design team, getting it signed off weekly by their Head of Design.

We also had weekly check-in’s with the senior stakeholders that were involved in the project, to make sure that what I was designing, was meeting their expectations. Together the agency and client worked really well together, and we created something that we felt (and our users felt) filled a huge gap in the Business Banking market.

Users finally had access to things that were only tailored to their business, whether that be events, accelerator programmes or mentors. These things were also closely aligned with their business needs and goals, meaning that users could get the best out of the Natwest offering.

This also had a positive effect on the business, as it meant with users no longer being overwhelmed with choice (which usually didn’t fit their needs), more people would start to participate in the courses and programmes that had been funded by Natwest, and generally people had a much better knowledge on how to access experts.