4 months service design and ethnographic research project on village banking for CBA “Commonwealth Bank of Australia” in collaboration with Rhizome ( anthropology consulting firm ). The findings of research along with design concepts were complied on “CBA Innovation Booklet”, and presented in front of HQ board members. It serves as guideline in leading following innovation projects.
CBA - Village Bank Innovation
Social Innovation for local business and community
Type: SERVICE DESIGN / ETHNOGRAPHIC research i Partners: jin ge, cLARA HUANG, ZENITH XU, YANG LU
Brief
With a team of marketing & anthropologists, we develop a design challenge focusing on identifying potential segments and user needs for CBA development in Tier-3 and below cities
I work as a freelancing service designer / researcher and took part in whole design process with cross-team members for helping clients adopt a design thinking mindset, empathize more with their audience, develop new service concepts and optimize all the service touch points.
We used a mixed methodology of Ethnographic tools, Lean Start-up, Lean Branding and Marketing Matrix Analysis.
With the help of business designers, anthropologists, creative professionals and CBA marketing specialists, we set up a design methodology to guide us through the research phase and drive us to find meaningful insights from users and the different stakeholders.
Our Approach
Combination of marketing strategic tools and ethnographic observation enabled us to see the big picture ( market needs ) and also into the details ( user thoughts and actions )
21 days field study research plan:
4 cities, 6 branches visited
7 focus groups- industry, civil office and business
53 interviewees ( local community and CBA s )
What came out from the research mostly highlighted that CBA was not perceived as a reliable financial resources and total lack of brand awareness and perceived value in terms of convenience and personalized services from local perspectives.
User Research & insights Definition
Observations into peoples’s daily and work context
Interviewing local business, entrepreneurs
Market Analysis
We followed marketing strategic planning matrix and ethnographic insights to identify piloting cities and 3 target segments for further ideation in workshops with stakeholders
“Consumption capacity & pattern matrix”
Entrepreneur ( High＋leading )
Retailer ( High＋leading )
Family with kids ( High＋traditional )
Piloting cities
Decentralized Service Industry & Light asset
Centralized Manufacturing & Heavy asset ( Government support)
Marketing Matrix of Piloting cities and persona profile selection
Opportunity areas and ideation
In The CSM, we stated the problem in:
“How might we redesign CBA customer experience and branding image so that they can form long-term relationships with their clients?”
We identified four possible opportunity areas:
Revamping brand positioning
Personalized product to promote business growth
Easy and accessible digital tools / platform
Financial literacy programs for increasing networking
Ecosystem of CBA service
Result
“CBA Innovation Booklet”serves as guideline in leading following innovation projects. We produced service touch point design, ecosystem and feasibility study with diversified teams, creating a creative brief and expect to improve the overall customer experience in the future.
B2B / B2C personalized loan products
RM Assistant ( iPad / websites )
Entrepreneur networking platform ( online / offline )
Children literacy program ( competitions / piggy bank )