The Money Account is a relatively unique "debit-like" account that allows users to earn PC Optimum points via everyday banking activities. 1-in-3 first-time users reported confusion surrounding funding their bank account, and don't understand the incentives and benefits provided.
Type
UX
Mobile-focused
Role
Sole Product Designer / Design Lead
on the Money Movement outcome team
Timeline
4 Months
January to April 2022
During Q1 2022, I was an Associate Product Designer for PC Financial's Money Movement outcome team where we were faced with ambiguity at the beginning of this project. The exploratory work done helped shape and flesh out key features we wanted to highlight, and I worked closely with product management to explore a rejuvenated onboarding process.
The result of this strategic work has influenced the incentives provided to encourage first-time, returning, and "power" users to top-up their accounts to reap the benefits and offerings that PC Financial provides, giving the debit account a unique position in today's market by leveraging Canada's most popular loyalty program, PC Optimum.
PC Money Account is an everyday bank account that rewards you when you use it to make a purchase, pay bills, or fund your account via payroll or direct deposit
Accepted everywhere Mastercard is, this no-monthly fee account gives you unlimited everyday transactions and rewards you with PC Optimum points when you purchase at participating stores (and everywhere else you shop).
How does Money Account differ from other standard debit accounts?
It is digital online self-service money management account. This means you can pay bills (including pre-authorized withdrawals for things like gym memberships and utility bills), and transfer funds between banks.
You earn PC Optimum points every time you use your card to make a purchase online or in-store.
Since the release of Money Account in 2020, customer enablement has been at the forefront of improvement, with several key challenges...
1 : Unintuitive onboarding
After documenting the first-time user journey, there were visible gaps in comprehension within mobile onboarding, specifically surrounding first-time funding.
2 : Lack of awareness
In past research, 1-in-3 first-time customers mentioned that they had difficulties understanding the different ways to add money to your bank account.
3 : Lack of incentives
At the time, the current benefits and offerings being promoted to add funding to your bank account were not communicated well to the customer, and didn't provide a large enough incentive or initial push to actually use the account.
Incoming transactions into Money Account have shown consistent performance and improvement, however, to achieve 2022 targets, we needed to accelerate the following three areas
1 : Streamline and simplify first-time funding
Build a more intuitive first-time funding experience via Interac e-Transfer, EFTs, and payroll + pension direct deposit. Explore both in-app and in-digital profile flows. Attempt to reduce number of clicks and amount of data entry required.
2 : Accelerate speed and efficiency for ad-hoc re-funding
Make it easy for customers to do ad-hoc. Set a preferred method and amount for one-click account funding. Preferences for funding rails.
3 : Build a hands-free recurring funding experience
Allow customers to pre-define funding criteria for an automatic funding experience. Enable timing and balance thresholds as types of criteria to initiate a transfer. Payroll or pension direct deposit as primary funding rail.
This project's key performance indicators and results are highly sensitive. Although I can't disclose specific details regarding these topics, you may contact me to learn more 🔐
As an overall summary, I worked mainly on strategic planning via user research, analysis, and rough prototyping to enact on quick wins that would encourage users to top-up their newly opened bank accounts. Several cross-functional teams were consulted, including product management, design, engineering, and portfolio management through design-organized kickoffs and recurring workshops to align on the best path forward (both short-term and long-term).
As of 2024, the main goal of this initiative has been achieved and/or released.
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