tl;dr

Role — Lead Designer, Lloyds Banking Group

Date — 2020

Brief — Design and deliver a brand new service that improves peoples' long term prosperity

Outcome — Alpha launched in 2020, Beta in Q1 2021

1. Context

Managing money has always been complex and difficult. Since the 1980s, telephone and then digital banking have simplified the ways people can manage their day to day finances.

But research regularly shows that people are still confused about their money and finances. Although day to day finances have become more simple, people still don't know what to do with their money in the long term, or how to achieve long term prosperity.

In mid 2019 Lloyds bank partnered with Google and ThoughtMachine to replace its aging technology.

A break from existing technology and working styles was seen as a way to help Lloyds explore radical new products and services for customers that the bank had ignored for years.

A very early vision - September 2019

2. Finding focus

A blank slate offered both opportunities and challenges - where to start?

Speaking to a broad range of users helped us to focus on one group; the 'high income professional' - a group often described as 'running the marathon without any help'.

• This group have mortgages above average wealth, and often dependents.
• The complexity of their finances is leading to accidents and poor long term planning.
• Very few have any understanding of what to do to today in order to secure a prosperous financial future for them and their families.

As well as research with the public, we also spoke to people in the bank who felt that this group of users had been ignored by over-simplified digital banking. Many believed this group needed a bespoke experience more akin to a bank manager in the 20th century.

Research soon founds two key themes.