The Co-operative Bank

I was hired at The Co-operative Bank to lead the design of a new mobile banking app MVP project.

My brief was to help enhance their mobile banking offering in order for the business to remain competitive and relevant following some struggles it had faced in recent years.

I led UX/UI design for the bank's new iOS and Android mobile banking app, and its website, working with marketing, brand, research and business-wide stakeholders.

Shortly after starting in my role, I quickly realised that the MVP project was ploughing ahead at a significant pace and that the UX team had not yet been engaged.

Requirements had already been defined and development of the new app had started, using outdated and sub-optimal technology, without any design input.

From my knowledge and experience, my assessment was that the product being developed was heavily flawed, both in its functionality and usability, and wasn't a viable product to release to customers. The 'V' in MVP didn't stand up, which could have resulted in an exodus of customers and further challenges for the bank to tackle.

My first course of action was to plan a series of UX activities in collaboration with the research team, gathering quantitative and qualitative data about the proposed MVP and the impact it would have on customers if it was to go live, as well as capturing insights regarding customer needs and priority of requirements for a mobile banking application.

I started to cluster insights and analyse the findings from the research, and also documented my own UX/UI analysis of the app as it stood.

I also proactively reached out to build strong relationships with the product owner and development lead for the project. I wanted to better understand the proposed requirements and technological constraints in detail, as well as ensure UX engagement in the project moving forwards.

With insights in hand, and a strong level of alignment and understanding between the UX team, product owner and the development team, we had several discussions on how we might proceed differently with the project.

We then collectively presented to senior leadership a proposal for a project re-launch, using the data captured to validate our reasoning. We presented the problem space and where we were, the data to support and rationalise the need for a re-launch, and an aligned solution and new approach to the project for their feedback. Problem and solution, hand in hand, so all leadership needed to do was approve.

The bank's senior leadership approved the project re-launch, with a strong emphasis on the need to move quickly. I collaborated further with the project team to put our product team and new way of working into action, and began working on design solutions within design sprints.

Two-week design sprints began within one week. They included ideation and discovery activities with project team members and key stakeholders, rapid design and prototyping, and validation testing with real customers. Design sprints fed two-week development sprints, so a robust pipeline of delivery was in place.

Design, development and product stayed closely aligned and communication was strong. The whole product team took over an entire floor of the office and worked shoulder to shoulder, and everyone took part in each other's stand ups, workshops and planning sessions.

My focus was not only on building the product, but also on launching it and migrating and onboarding users. Close to launch, I brought the web and marketing team into our project team, sprints and process, so an onboarding and migration plan was in place for existing online banking customers to download the new app and set it up with minimal disruption to their financial management, and so that everything new or existing customers needed to start using the app was available online.