An eight-month journey to build a digital wallet from the ground up

CLIENT: SnapPay Inc. / Snaplii App

THE CHALLENGE

SnapPay is a Canadian tech company offering mobile payment gateway solutions to enable Chinese payment instruments Alipay, WeChat Pay, and China UnionPay acceptance for North America merchants. On Dec 2020, the company decided to design and develop a digital wallet, Sanplii. I was then brought in to help the company build the App from scratch.

MY ROLE

Director, Product & Experience

Researcher

Discover workshop facilitator

Culture and practice builder

THE OUTCOME

Since its first launch in Feb 2021, more than 150 local businesses have signed up for Snaplii's membership marketing and operation service. In addition, more than 6,000 users have registered as Snaplii App users in 6 months. The business is growing fast.

The MVP kicked off without any user and market research

When I first joined SnapPay, the team had already decided on what they would like to build - it's a digital wallet that enables users to purchase a physical gift card from a local grocery store and then activated it in Snaplii App. Once it's in the digital wallet, users can track their balance and transactions, and pay using their phone at the check out. However, this product vision is purely from a business perspective, and there was no user and market research to validate the idea. In addition, the team had already set up an ambitious goal that they will be delivering the App in 2 months as this is part of the agreement they had with 10 grocery stores in Toronto and Vancouver.

So there was no time to waste. I rolled my sleeves and got ready to deliver!

Action 1: Rethinking the Product Requirement Document

When I first saw the PRD, I took a deep breath because the entire document was written from a systems perspective, what the App can do, which information will be shown, and how the system is designed to respond. It's not straightforward to see how these features related to the tasks and goals users would like to accomplish. Therefore, I immediately created a mind map through which the team could clearly see how these features are related to the customer journey. It not only helped the team to quickly identify a couple of missing puzzles from the product(s), but also assisted them prioritize the backlog for the future. For me, this set a good foundation for information architecture and site navigation. So one stone killed two birds.

Action 2 - Ideate, wireframes and high-fidelity mock ups, all in 2 weeks

Did I mention that we had only 2 months to deliver the App? This meant that there were only 2 weeks for design. And the resources? Only me, a junior designer, and a freelancer. In the end, I literally did all the wireframes and flows, while the freelancer did the high-fidelity mock-ups. No style guide, no design system, no existing illustrations, everything from the scratch. To save time (not only the time for design, but also the future development), We had to make some design trade-offs, such as using native app components, such as tabs, model windows, and icons, instead of customized elements. They might lack some personality, but they are totally suitable for an MVP. Plus, we can always iterate on it.

Action 3 - It's never too late to conduct user research

The team didn't get a chance to do any research upfront. However, that doesn't mean we should skip it altogether. The challenge is that SnapPay doesn't have a user search practice set up. No vendor recruit participants? No problem, we asked internal employees who were not engaged in the project to be our participants. No online remote testing account? No problem, I collaborated with the development team and creatively solved the problem using a free QA test application, FigmaMirror, QuickTime, and Zoom. It was a crazy few days, but we managed to conduct two rounds of interviews with 14 people.

The goal of user research is to identify the usefulness and usability of the product. Thus, the interview was divided into two parts: 1) a conversation about people's attitude and behaviour in using gift cards; 2) usability testing through which participants were given specific tasks to complete.

The findings were mostly positive. The App is easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to navigate. However, some of the feedback concerned me because they seemed to be potential roadblocks that might kill the product.

4 alarming finding from the user research

01

Most people felt that it's not appropriate to give a gift card from a grocery store as a gift to friends and family

03

People were confused why they had to buy a physical card and then activate it in the App

02

People won't buy a grocery gift card unless there is a at least 5-10% discount.

04

People were frustrated when they realized that they couldn't use the physical card in store

Those findings enabled the team to make iterative changes during the development phase. More importantly, it helped the executive team to see the product risks they were unaware of but soon were confirmed by the market.

Is the MVP a success? The answer is maybe

The Snaplii Digital Wallet App was launched in 2 months from the ground up. It established the technical foundation of a digital wallet with a set of critical features that not only enable shoppers to buy, activate, pay, and manage e-gift cards using Snaplii, but also provides local brick-and-mortar stores with revolutionary mobile payment methods and critical consumer behaviour insights

700+

Number of user signed up the Snaplii App

13,000

Number of e-gift card sold in 2 months

$200,000

Value of the e-gift card sold (mainly in 2 Toronto-based stores)

However, the product soon hit a road broker once the supermarkets stopped giving a discounted price when users purchased the gift card. This caused a sharp decline in the number of cards sold along with customer acquisition.

So, what's the future of the product? The company already has business relationships with hundreds of small-medium retailers in food service, healthy & beauty, automotive, education, and entertainment. Many of them have deployed membership programs with thousands of members enrolled. These businesses are in desperate need to digitalize their member management and marketing systems. Besides, members of these businesses are also hoping to have an easier way to track their spending and balance. It seems that Snaplii's existing infrastructure can be easily scaled to fit the market needs.

Release 2 is all about membership card, but this time we will start with some strategic work

Before I joined SnapPay, there was no formal design team or design practice. User-experience, user-centred design, user research, co-design, and collaborative workshops were all foreign concepts to the leaders and employees of the organization. But, hey, that's why they brought me in, right?

I approached the top 2 leaders in the company, CEO and the Chief of Staff, and had individual conversations with them to discuss what we might do differently for release 2 to avoid having to face the challenges we encountered after MVP was launched. During those conversations, I suggested running a "discovery work" to help the team to have a better understanding of the market, the competitors and the users. I was delighted because my proposal was well received!

Conduct competitive analysis

Created a template for the team to track the strength, weaknesses, and opportunity areas for Snaplii. The team investigated more than 15 direct and in-direct competitors' App, including Paytm, Paypal, Venmo, UGO, Moola, Rakutan, Paygo wallet, skrill, Paymi, Perk Hero, Stocard, Starbucks, HongMall, etc., to get inspirations on design and features.

Learnings from competitive analysis

Simply sign in/sign up process via social media
Gamification to increase retention and loyalty (ie. Amplii)
Personalized experience via customizable card design (i.e Venmo, Starbucks)
Give awards, points, or cash back and provide various ways to redeem it (i.e Rekuten)
Buy cards for others
Contextual action button while presenting the card (ie. Starbucks)

Release 2_CompetitiveAnalysis_Cropped.png

Facilitate value proposition workshop and define "how-might-we" statement

To ensure a product-market fit, I led a discovery workshop with business and marketing teams. Together, we mapped out users' needs and pain points with the product we are about to offer. The team discussed from both B2B and B2C perspectives.

Release 2_ValueProposition_Business_edited.jpg

Insights from value proposition exercises

Delivery and takeout platforms are taking 15-30% of the gross away from restaurants, however, most of the restaurants are now relying on these platforms to attract diners and keep their businesses going.
Small-medium size restaurant owners, in general, don't have the knowledge and tools to run and manage marketing campaigns. Besides, the channel to gain customers is limited, costly and not effective.

How might we statement (B2B)

How might Snaplii help small-medium size restaurants to establish and grow their private traffic so they can improve customer acquisition and retention without building an e-commerce website?

How might we statement (B2C)

How might Snaplii help budget-curious consumers to discover membership cards and deals offered by quality local retailers so they can save money when they buy and consume?

Come up with preliminary backlog

Prioritize features based on the consideration of the value provided to businesses and users, and the easiness to implement.

Top priority backlog items for businesses and consumers

B2B

PRIVATE TRAFFIC PROMOTION

Generate and share membership card details, coupons, and deals that have already been published in the App via social media

SELF-SERVE VIA BACK-END OFFICE

Issue daily/weekly special offers and a variety of coupons (cash, full-discount, free-dish, $1, combo dish, new dish)

DATA ANALYSIS

Coupon/points collect, redeem
Card registration, top-up, renewal, and payment
Acquisition and conversion statistics
Regular reporting and statement

IN-APP PERSONALIZED MARKETING

Cross-sale for non-competitors who are doing business in close proximity
Targeted offer based on users' purchase behaviour
Encourage top-up
Freeby depending on $ spent
New member points award

B2C

OMINI CHANNEL ENABLER

Sign up for membership card and collect coupons via social media links, in-App, and in-store
Top up, renew, check the balance in App and via POS

FUN, COMMUNITY-BASED EVENT

Summerlicious / winterlicious events
Secret gift boxes with surprise coupons from restaurants nearby
Easy contest to win awards or coupons
Freebies depending on $ spent
New member points award

REFERRAL PROGRAM

Share membership card, store, and coupons via social media
Order cards as a gift
Collect points or rewards when referring

CONNECT TO ONLINE ORDERING

View menu and enable customers to order online and take out by themselves

Priority backlog items

Create proof of concept

After the team had a much clearer product version, I then worked with another Jr. designer to brainstorm and sketch out mid-fidelity mock-ups to help the team further validate our ideas through a proof of concept.

User research with targeted user group

The workshop at the beginning of Discovery also helped the team to identify the ideal user of Snaplii App and the upcoming membership card feature. Therefore, when I was planning for the user research for the proof of concept, I can be very specific about whom I need to recruit.

Olivia

North York, Toronto

Business Analyst @ TD Bank

GOAL

Save money while enjoying high quality food and services that are exclusive to me

PAIN POINTS

Hard to compare prices on varied food delivery platforms
Overwhelmed with the deals shared via WeChat, yet felt those deals are not trustworthy

NEEDS

Know what is on sale directly from the restaurants I choose
Share deals with friends

BEHAVIOR

On mobile all the time
Dining-out with friends often
Prefer to use mobile payment such as Alipay and WeChat if it's acceptable by the merchant.

I appreciate having a "VIP" experience without a high price tag

young-woman-go-shopping-2021-04-06-02-24-44-utc copy.png

Insights gained from users

Similar to the user research I did in MVP, I divided the interviews into two sessions so I could assess both the likability of the product and the usability of the App. On one side, all users were able to successfully search and sign up for a card, top-up a card, check balance, as well as collect and redeem coupons. On the other hand, we uncovered the following insights which were very helpful to rethink the product offering.

Users are unlikely to sign up or buy a membership card from a restaurant that they haven't tried before, and a deep discount doesn't help either unless the restaurant is very reputable
Users are willing to explore new restaurants if they can try dishes for only $1-5 with the coupons they received
Users really appreciate a sense of VIP experience with exclusive deals offered to them
Users would like to see more gamification features, such as win a contest, get awards from the points they collected.

After 3-month of hard work, Release 2 is alive!

New features, such as buying, topping up and paying using reloadable membership cards, collecting and redeeming coupons online and in-store, hugely strengthen Snaplii's B2C capabilities as a digital wallet. The product has also matured as a B2B SAAS provider with innovative membership operations and marketing features such as membership data analysis and transaction statements. More than 2,500 consumers have joined Snaplii in the first 3 weeks after R2. Meanwhile, 100+ local stores subscribed and become Snaplii's business partners.

What's after Release 2?

The team faced three challenges in particular after Release 2.

How do we know if we are on the right track? We have businesses subscribing to our membership marketing and operation service, but how about end-users? Will they find Snaplii App useful? Will they use the App to make payments or top up balances?
Why would businesses and users choose us? What are the key differentiators for Snaplii to win the market? Is Snaplii a tool or a platform, or a SAAS? Is it a digital wallet or a card management App? How are we going to market it?
How can we build our backlog collaboratively and efficiently?

I then took a series of initiatives to help the team resolve those questions.

Define key business KPIs and create a dashboard

Together with the Head and Product and Chief Officer, we decided on 7 KPIs to track our earlier performance from a business perspective.

7 Business KPIs

1. Total Snaplii users (by channel)

2. Total Snaplii App registered user

3. Total Active Snaplii users (at least one transaction)

4. Active monthly users

5. Top 10 merchants (member registration vs transaction)

6. Accumulated transaction amount/times

7. Retention rate

Planed and facilitated product positioning workshops

As Snaplii keeps expanding its business to a broader industry, it is important to make it crystal clear: What is Snaplii? Why our customers should choose us? How are we different from our competitors? The answer to those questions will help Snaplii streamline marketing efforts and create effective marketing messages that drive more leads and sales.

Following April Dunford's product positioning framework, I then led and facilitated a total of 5 workshops until we reached an agreement on the core value Snaplii will offer. This strategic work greatly helped the team to plan the roadmap, prioritize features, and design directions.

WHO: CEO, CCO, and lead from Product, Marketing, and Operation

HOW: 7-step process (Competitive Alternatives, Unique Attributes, Map attributes to value themes, Who cares the most, Market category, Layering on a Trend)

B2B PRODUCT POSITIONING

Empower businesses to build and grow their digital membership

B2C PRODUCT POSITIONING

Selected merchants, quality products, and decent deals for people who appreciate life

Standardize product requirements process

After Release 2 was launched, the Product & Experience team received overwhelming feedbacks, including new features recommendations, UX/UI improvements, and of course bugs. However, the team doesn't have a standardized way to collect and assess those requirements, which have caused serious problems, from urgent and important issues that were not addressed on time, to the trust issue between teams.

Noticing the challenges the team is facing, I organized a series of meetings to help the team to come out with a procedure that helps the team to work more effectively.

The solution

1 Tool to Track

We choose Excel to track all initial requirement because it is accessible and familiar for all team members

3 Criteria to Assess

Does it align with our product positioning?
Does the feature offer scalable value for our targeted businesses and consumers?
Is it feasible based on the resources and existing product infrastructure?

3-level approval and review procedures

Preview between team lead and team member (on-demand)
Review among team leads (regularly, twice a week)
Review with executives (regularly, once every two weeks)

Reflections

Joining a fintech, especially at a very earlier stage, can be nerve-racking and rewarding. The pace is extremely fast and the decisions need to be made fast. Being a product lead, I am responsible for the overall product vision and direction. I review PRDs, write stories, prioritize features and define the roadmap. As an Experience Lead, I am responsible for the design strategies, the visual style, the interactions, and roll my sleeves all the time to create artifacts from user flow, wireframe to high-fidelity mock-ups.

Looking back, I would say these learnings are most striking:

Focus on solving the most important and urgent issues
Find out Why we are doing what we are doing
Embrace the unexpected and act fast