Overview

Neo’s loyalty program aims to provide an intuitive experience for users to effortlessly earn and spend cashback. I expanded the program's capabilities to accommodate a new type of partnership, enabling users to own multiple co-branded credit cards and redeem rewards in diverse brands.

✓ How does this project help the business and users?

– Provide a structural foundation for co-branded partners to launch multiple credit or debit cards with Neo

– Empower users to easily comprehend distinct card benefits and rewards systems from various co-branded partners

– Drive business growth by expanding partnerships and acquiring new users through co-branded cards

✓ What was my contribution?

– Developed comprehensive UX frameworks that provided clarity and guidance to the team during ambiguity

– Instilled a design-driven approach in the team roadmap by translating UXR and competitive analysis findings into actionable design strategies

– Orchestrated efficient design delivery by breaking down a complex project into manageable tasks and assigning them to a team of 5 designers

✓ What was the business impact?

– Established new channels, paving the way for an unprecedented potential acquisition of 6 million users

– Supported the successful launch of Neo Financial's partnership with TurboTax, resulting in the introduction of their first debit card

– Accelerated time-to-market by 45% for future co-branded card launches by preparing the app's structure to accommodate partnership expansions

Design Process

During the ideation phase, I envisioned an long-term, ideal state to guide the team's efforts. Then I collaborated with product managers and engineers during the implementation to adopt an incremental approach. This allowed us to strategically tackle any complex challenges efficiently while facilitating time-sensitive business cases.

Define problem

I recognized a significant challenge with Neo’s loyalty program – it was originally tailored for users with only a single card. However, with the emergence of new co-brand partnership opportunities, it became evident that we needed to address this limitation to successfully launch new co-branded cards.

01 Use Case Map

✓ Outlining the design scope with a focus on high-impact use cases

After identifying the core problem, I crafted a use case map to illuminate the specific areas within the loyalty program that required an update. This approach enabled the team to establish the project's scope and validate crucial decisions in collaboration with stakeholders.

02 Priority Roadmap

✓ Strategizing agile iterations for swift deployment

To further refine the project scope within the designated timeline, I collaborated closely with product managers to develop a priority roadmap. This strategic roadmap fostered alignment across the team, ensuring a shared understanding of both the MVP and the long-term vision, setting the stage for successful execution.

Research

Competitive Analysis

After gaining clarity on the internal motivation of this project, I conducted a competitive analysis to observe how other products have been addressing similar challenges. I chose three prominent fintech apps — Koho, Ampli, and Drop — that have high market share, have similar elevator pitches to Neo on the app store, and were frequently used by Neo colleagues as points of reference.

Slide deck I created to share my insights from competitive analysis with the team
✓ Turning insights into action items

Furthermore, I transformed the insights derived from the competitive analysis into tangible action items, equipping the team with valuable leverage to enhance our approach to the project. In close collaboration with engineers and product managers, I organized these action items by the required effort and the potential impact they would have.

Ideate

01 Information Architecture

✓ Assessing functionality through a holistic lens

In the initial ideation phase, I crafted a comprehensive information architecture for the loyalty program, considering both the existing state and the ideal future state. This step allowed me to validate the project's impact on the IA from a holistic perspective. Continuously iterating on the ideal state, I actively sought feedback from product managers to refine and optimize the IA, ensuring alignment with the goals and objectives we defined as a team during the previous steps.

02 Key User Flow

✓ Unifying UX landscapes: Connecting different segments of the user journey

To validate the impact of the IA update on key user flows and ensure a more seamless user experience, I examined the connections between various segments of the rewards experience. Through the creation of the diagram above, I visually demonstrated how this structural update would connect and enhance the user journey, fostering a more cohesive and intuitive loyalty program experience.

Explore & Iterate

Wireframe

✓ Making iteration process more collaborative

To promote a collaborative and streamlined iteration process for wireframes, I implemented two key approaches. Firstly, I documented the key insights derived from previous feedback sessions, ensuring that everyone involved could review the wireframes with an understanding of the contextual background. Secondly, I presented the pros and cons of each idea I proposed, enabling my team to effectively compare and evaluate different solutions, identifying the most optimal resolution to address the problem at hand.
✓ Improving the efficiency of design hand-off to developers

Screenshot of the developer workshop I held

I took the initiative to organize a workshop with developers to foster a collaborative environment for receiving their valuable feedback on the design hand-off process. Through open discussions, we identified successful practices and areas for improvement, leading us to develop a systematic approach to streamline the hand-off process. Subsequently, I crafted a comprehensive dev-ready checklist (shown below) that designers incorporated into their design deliveries. This transformation significantly enhanced the efficiency of the hand-off process by 60%, enabling developers to swiftly implement designs with precision.

Dev-ready checklist and dev note template I created based on the feedback from the workshop

Reflections

What I learned from this project

1. Envision the ideal and execute incrementally for success

In the lo-fi phase, I adopted a broad scope of exploration, addressing diverse use cases and future business scenarios, while transforming it into concrete short-term and long-term plans. This approach enabled the team to achieve rapid victories through MVPs, steadily progressing toward our ultimate goal.

2. Embrace assumptions and iteratively test for timely project delivery

Due to the project's tight timeline aligning with a partnership launch, I crafted designs without the validation of user research. However, following the project's launch, I collaborated with a UX researcher to conduct user testing. This taught me that it is acceptable to initially build based on assumptions as long as the team is committed to validating the designs through iterative testing with users, especially in time-sensitive projects.

3. Reference and research are the keys to great ideas

While exploring mobile apps and delving into design guidelines, I solidified the concept of a brand-switching experience. I learned that designing a new user experience doesn't always entail creating entirely new components and interactions. Instead, it involves strategically selecting from widely adopted patterns and components utilized in other successful products.