One Main Financial
One Main Financial makes personal loans to the sub-prime market. They wanted to better understand their customers and prospects, and how they go about making borrowing decisions. We designed a mixed mixed method approach, including: in-person interviews, diary studies and social listening. I was the research lead.
““...that you’re not able to provide for your family. It makes you feel very unmasculine....it makes you feel like a loser. “”
In Person IntervieWS
We conducted in-person interviews in Charlotte, Chicago and Southern California to understand how people perceive and go about borrowing.
DIGITAL DIARY STUDIES
In order to better understand the online borrowing journey, we conducted digital diary studies in parallel.
SOCIAL LISTENING
We reviewed comments and ratings on popular social media and ratings sites.
Findings
Findings were presented in the form of personas, journeys and recommendations. A more complete view of findings can be shared on request. Here are a few examples.
Assumption: Sub-prime borrowers were disengaged with credit scores. They had low awareness of the importance of credit scores.
Finding: We found this to be untrue for the majority of sub-prime borrowers. They were highly aware of the importance of credit scores and were often highly engaged in checking and managing their scores.
Assumption: Borrowers would find the necessity to complete the loan application in a physical branch to be deterrent.
Finding: We were surprised to hear, in our digital age, how many borrowers found value in the the physical branch.
Breville
Breville makes high quality kitchen appliances, such as juicers, espresso machines and more. Before embarking on a site redesign, they wanted to gain a deeper understanding of people’s relationship with cooking and their approach to appliance shopping.
DIGITAL DIARY STUDIES
In parallel, we conducted multiple digital diary studies to understand the purchase and post-purchase journey for people buying espresso machines, countertop ovens and juicers.
KITCHEN VISITS
We conducted in-person interviews in Denver, New York and London. This interviews took place in the kitchen, where we asked participants to cook something as part of the visit.
University College
University College, the school for professional development at University of Denver, engaged me to understand the prospective student journey. They used that understanding to inform the design of a new responsive website. I conducted usability testing on the new site design in progress in order to fine tune the experience.
REMOTE INTERVIEWS
I interviewed a geographically and demographically diverse set of participants about their journey through considering further education.
USABILITY TESTING
Once site designs were available, I tested desktop and mobile prototype designs with participants across the country.
Findings
Assumption: Prospects compare the educational program they are considering to other programs.
Finding: While of course comparison does take place, one key finding was that the true competitor in most cases, is not pursuing additional education at all. Prospects are quite skeptical about the return on the investment of time and money in any program, and need additional reasons to believe that further education will help their career.
A complete set of findings can be shared upon request. This includes, personas, journeys and strategic recommendations for a new site design.
Ask me about:
Helping Slack’s learning organization fine tune their curriculum
Researching and designing an educational approach for developers learning a new tool (OneReach).
Usability testing and diary studies to help the Save the Food campaign refine their Meal Prep Mate tool.
Researching the needs of property managers offering managed WiFi for Spectrum Communications.
Uncovering barriers to use for KeyHero.
Understanding how well a new site met the needs of caregivers, for the Alzheimer's Association.
Researching and designing an educational approach to make design principles come to life, at Spectrum Communications.
Usability testing to help the Beyond I Do campaign succeed.
And work with Twitter, IHS Markit, Standard & Poor’s, Grupo Breca (a Peruvian conglomerate), and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.