Deem Finance

Deem APP New Everyday Account
FEB — APR 2020


Deem is a financial institution in Dubai that went through a series of brand recreation in 2019 to provide better services to their customers. Our team assisted Deem to launch their new APP with a better visual and user experience that aligns with their new business strategies. 

MY ROLE
Designer and lead client communication – discovery, user reaserch, design, testing


Deem App 2.0 concept design

The Challenge

During the re-branding, Deem chose the Kony banking solutions to building their new system because of its long list of ready-to-go features and fast to market clam. Later the product team discovered Kony solution has a lot of constrictions and complications that slow down the production severely.  

The new Everyday Account prepaid card product had to build with the Kony solution. The product team faced the challenge of designing and developing a set of features in a tight schedule to launch before Ramadan. 

Set the Foundation


We started with communicating with the Deem product team  agreeing on the ways of working in particular agile project management and the habit of using a Kanban board. These operation methods were new to the Deem team but later got applied to most of their project management.

After we had interviewed most of the state-holders, together we suggested the first draft feature backlog that was achievable within the timeline and aligned with the product strategy.


Discovery Phase


Our team began to talk to the Deem product owners and MasterCard product specialists to figure out the business process and requirements. Besides, we studied the existing user flows and features in the Kony platform. The goal was finding the best possible design solutions without deviate too much from what Kony platform provides to speed up production time. After gathering the information and researches, the design team started map out first draft user journey.   
︎︎︎Kanban boards and draft user journeys

Workshop records

Business Process Workshop

We reviewed the draft user journeys with the Deem product team and found that there were many uncertainty on the product business process and MasterCard requirements. We then organized a workshop with Deem product owner, project manager, head of developer and MasterCard credit card specialist.

The goal was to identify all the questions and uncertainty in user applications evaluation process, evaluation duration, digital card availability, physical card delivery, user identification and card activation…etc. We used orange post-it to map out the user journey/business requirements; green for the backend system actions; red for questions to be answer.


The workshop successfully got the whole team on the same page and prioritized the problems to solve. The designers and developers continued to make progress while the Deem product team made decisions.   

The Solution Team

We believe there is no “the design team” and “the development team” but “the solution team.” Developers were involved in the early “post-it note design” stage rather than receiving a “final design handover” after one month.

In Figma design, we include a chart for user flow, user interface, user experience, background actions, and API layer. So that the team could make sure every design was taking considered by all necessary aspects.



Compromises and Future-proof

The Everyday Account had several wallets–main wallet, currency wallets and saving wallet that is attached by default. Without changing the product listing structure, Everyday Account’s Saving wallet could be listed with other existing products as if it came from no ways. This could lead to confusion and create stress for the users.

To solve this issue with the aim that launching a new product on time, we separated the listing evolution into stages:
1. First Private Beta Release–first private Beta release to be able to test technical solutions with working software.
2. First Customer Facing Release–ensure quick go to market and gathering of feedback from real users.
3. Final Consumer Facing Release


This plan provided enough information about the situation and responding strategy. The team and the management could make a more comprehensive decision together.


Everyday Account user interface

Outcome

It was an interesting project for me to work with client as one team. This collaboration with Deem was a great success. However, shifting priorities and changing the product strategy had delayed the launch of a few features, the team still delivered all the promised design and functionalities. I learned some important takeaways from this project related to product, business processes and client communication.

Assumption Is the Mother of Failures
Everyday Account was developing simultaneously with application design and production. There was a lot of business process complication and many third parties involving in this collaboration. The workshop was a great practice that brought everyone together. If the team made many assumptions without verification, this project would be a complete disaster.  

Requirements Change Adaptation
Clients often facing resource distribution issues, product structure changes. These reasons lead to reprioritization and constant changes in the scope of work. We had to reiterate our design to make the functionalities achievable within time and technical constraints. Sometimes, we had to make compromises yet avoiding technical debts while still providing value to the users.

Frequent Communication
The core team had daily standup and weekly demos. Most of the issues had been discovered and discussed in the early stage. We gradually built credibility through frequent and effective communication with the stakeholders. We gain their trust and get them to view us as experts. They began to respect our judgment more and questioned our recommendations less. The client also felt more comfortable to come to us with questions and seek out our opinions. This credibility allows us to be more productive and add more value to the business. 
Deem App 2.0 concept design

Deem 2.0

In order to reduce costs and gain more control in product development. Deem has planned to replace Kony and re-write the platform in their 2 years roadmap. We created the Deem 2.0 vision design to show how building Deem's platform could produce more consistent quality and obtain the flexibility to grow as the brand expending.

eospanpan@gmail.com