A major bank wanted to develop a card product that better served consumers traditionally excluded from access to financial services.
In order to understand how target consumers would use our client's product, I contracted a market search vendor to recruit target consumers to speak with us in a data compliant, third-party facility. Throughout the project I managed all interactions with our market research vendor and day-to-day engagement with our client stakeholders. Once in-field, I collaborated with the client's research manager over three consecutive days to iteratively test messaging and product concepts in real-time, probing on acquisition, usage, and brand drivers. We found that our consumers were constantly exposed to predatory check cashing and payday loan shops, which provided easy, but costly access to cash, and put them deep into debt. Above all else, our consumers wanted a transparent path to building better credit. After concluding our research, I presented the key findings and business implications to senior client management, resulting in a follow-up engagement focused on designing product graduation pathways for these consumers.