Business Banking
Made Mighty

They employ 70% of the local workforce and contribute to nearly half of Singapore’s GDP. That’s the formidable force of SMEs.

Despite their significant impact, we found the market to be largely underserved with banking and their associated digital products focused heavily on corporates.

Where were SMEs’ needs being met?

A time unlike any other ⏰

With a burgeoning small business market in spite of COVID-19, and the onslaught of digital banks, it was an opportune time for UOB to get strategic with its digital experience for SMEs.

MY ROLE
I was part of the ambitious team revamping the ecosystem of App, Public Website (PWEB) and new-to-bank customer experiences. I primarily led the PWEB track, which was heavily content driven and involved strategies around revitalising the client’s content hub.

I was actively involved in the process from concept to delivery, and stopped working on the project when it reached the design support stage.

THE TEAM
4 Designers, 3 Researchers, 2 Writers, 50+ Developers, 4 Product Owners & many more.

Kickoff: Finding our north star 🌟

In the initial stages of the project, we were able to leverage pre-existing field research done across UOB and non-UOB customers. We combined these insights with the opportunities we observed from across 20 competitors – local, global, digital and traditional – to form our unique viewpoint. 

Early Insights
Users want…

To understand their data better and receive actionable insights

To speed up their banking actions

Opportunities
Users could benefit from…

Networking with one another and the community

Insight driven banking to understand their business better

Automation and simplification of banking actions

The problem, reframed 🖼

We partner SMEs at every stage by providing curated information and convenient banking experiences.

Further Insights: Engaging real business people 👥

Throughout the process, we tested our designs extensively to ensure their usability, efficacy and real-world resonance.

35 users

New and existing bank Business Banking customers across 5 industry groups

It was here that we gained clarity on our user base and their different needs as Decision Owners, Payment Makers and Payment Authorisers.

It was also obvious that in spite of all of the extraneous items we had to offer in our beyond banking proposition, these would ultimately pale in value if certain functions were too complex.

Much of this functionality was locked in potential due to legacy issues, but we continued to troubleshoot around it and solution for the best experience we could offer.

The redesign:
A mightier Business Banking 💪🏼

Actionable, curated insights 🥊

If there’s anything we’ve learnt, it’s that SMEs are in a constant struggle for enough energy, time and manpower. As a response to this pain point and users’ desire for smarter banking, the Business Overview was born.

We stop asking users to do the work by parsing through raw data, and instead curate what they need to know.

Every message is tailored to specific scenarios so users know exactly how they are faring, and should they need to drill down into details, the facts and figures are easily accessible.

Our brand also spoke with a dialed down sense of formality – we recognised our audience as down-to-earth folks who just needed human and simple language.

Unlocked our content’s potential 🤝

A key tenet of our proposal was to reinvent the content hub for SMEs (f.k.a. BusinessConnect) and establish a stronger content strategy that would move away from product pushing to addressing user needs in meaningful contexts.

The intent was ultimately right – to act as a resource for SMEs starting, running and growing their businesses – but had gotten lost with a marketing led approach and was not being maximised.

It had also accrued many siloed sub-brands and content formats, undermining the efforts to build a holistic knowledge base discoverable by and desirable to users.

With the digital ecosystem in our hands, we:

1. Housed everything under one roof 🏡

Every article, video, seminar and event came to be part of SME Hub. While sub-brands had the potential to be framed independently, we created a scalable space for all current and future content marketing efforts to be discovered in a single, inclusive platform.

2. Embraced a multi-channel approach 📱 🖥 💻

When we examined the content hub, it became evident that it was limited by being accessible only from the public site. Other channels were greatly underutilised, undercutting the impact that UOB’s content marketing could deliver.

We drew the connections and developed this into a multi-channel approach where content could be integrated seamlessly on the app and email communications. Content would be organically discoverable across these customer touch-points, and just as crucially, be conveying the same message about the UOB brand.

3. Created a sustainable plan 🛣

Great designs fail if the right resources aren’t present to sustain them.

We recognised that if this was to work in the long-term, it needed frameworks in place. I co-led and pitched the content ideas for SME Hub in the next year to come, as well as concepts for a longevous content strategy. It was received positively and has since grown into an independent project involving a team of 4 to write, create content and design.

Conserved design intentions 🔍

We also saw the opportunity to strengthen design roots on an organisational level by systemising our designs across all 3 tracks.

We witnessed much fragmentation occurring in other segments’ products and saw this as an opportunity to bring alignment and provide thorough documentation for the Business Banking segement.

The Impact: Users, not products, at the centre 💟

All 3 tracks (public website, MightyBiz app and key customer journey forms) had launched successfully by Aug 2021 after an arduous 11 months.

Where banking products and marketing were central in the Business Banking digital ecosystem, we were able to bring the focus back to users – all of this validated by rigorous testing.

More work is to be done – but it’s a solid start to bringing digital transformation to UOB Business Banking.

Until next time. Thanks for reading!