USAA
Nex gen payments experience that safeguards members’ financial futures.
Deliverables
Stakeholder workshop, Design research, Data synthesis, Insight development, Archetypes, Concept validation, Product roadmap
The Challenge
As part of their commitment to improving the lives of their customers, USAA was looking to reimagine the next-generation payment experiences for members and prospects across every point of contact. Over 20 weeks, my team worked to gain a deep understanding of the current business and technical landscape surrounding the payments experience to help inform a portfolio of next-generation concepts.
The Process
We spent time in the field with members and prospects to understand how they pay their bills and pay other people today, to learn how the experience can be improved, and to inspire completely new ideas to transform the future of the payments experience.
What we discovered was that the individuals' fundamental beliefs, processes, and handling of money is primarily shaped by our experiences with our parents' fiscal habits. By talking to participants of all ages, including an entire workshop facilitated with kids ages 8-13, we determined that age does not fully determine adoption of digital advances in money management.
We mined 1,614 research observations in order to glean five key insights and develop four distinct mental models to design against.
Nine concepts were measured against key insights from research and narrowed down to four low-fidelity prototypes to take into user validation.
Delivery and Results
Three concepts powered by an intelligent financial data engine were delivered to USAA in order to provide a differentiating payments experience for their members.
Basecamp: An intelligence engine and financial command center that unites all components of a member’s payments experience into a single, smart interface that can be accessed on any device.
Universal Shopping Cart: A persistent tool that shops with members across any online retailer allowing them to add items into a single, secured shopping cart that can be accessed anywhere at any time on any device.
Smart Card: A highly advanced, physical card with a gestural, digital interface that houses a Member’s entire portfolio of debit, credit, and gift cards.
Allowance Advisor: A robust budgeting tool that helps both individuals and shared households alleviate the uncertainty of their financial future through shared financial management.