Re-discovering credit monitoring product (app)

Challenge: Unlocking Equifax's Full Potential

Equifax offers a range of credit monitoring consumer products, but users struggle to understand the value proposition and features of premium tier products, hindering upgrades and revenue growth. The lack of self-discovery and feature clarity limits the business's ability to upsell and monetize user behaviors effectively.
In short, it was imperative to transform the credit monitoring products to boost user engagement and drive monetization growth. Elevate the offerings beyond market standards by streamlining products and features, delivering exceptional value, and exceeding customer experiences.

GOAL:

• Improve product feature discoverability and understanding

• Enhance user experience to drive premium-tier product adoption

• Develop effective upsell and monetization strategies

• Streamline the user journey to increase engagement and revenue growth

My Role and Deliverables:

I was a Discovery Researcher, Product Strategist, and Business Strategist in this project. On the client side, I collaborated with a Director of UX, a VP of Product Management, and an Account Manager on my team. Below is a list of some deliverables for this engagement.

Deliverables:

• Market and Industry Research

• User Research

• Usability Testing

• Data Analytics

• Research Synthesis

• Goals and KPI identification

• Roadmap & Prioritization

APPROACH & METHODOLOGIES ADOPTED:

I embarked on a multifaceted research approach to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive design strategy. This helped me understand the product and form the foundation for a successful design strategy.

Consumer Insights & Trends - What Customers Need:

First, I analyzed consumer insights reviews to identify patterns and trends across culture and business, providing valuable insights into evolving customer expectations. Additionally, I reviewed existing consumer research to understand current behavioral trends and preferences.

Expert Evaluation and UX Audit:

Next, I conducted an expert evaluation and UX audit of various product experiences, supported by myEquifax, to identify usability issues, pain points, and areas for improvement. This assessment helped pinpoint opportunities to enhance the overall user experience.

The Good

1. All products and features exist on one single platform
   All myEquifax products exist on the same platform, allowing the business to upsell/cross-sell to customers efficiently and ensuring a seamless experience after upgrades.

2. The design system is consistently utilized & assists in creating a harmonious experience
   While we discovered some visual inconsistencies, the overall platform uses the GCS Design System and has a unified look and feel. (This does not mean there isn't room for improvement within the system's components and design.)

3. Dispute Center is integrated into the experience and easy to find
   A clear differentiator from competitors, Equifax doesn't hide the dispute center and makes it easy to begin the process from within your account. Equifax has a deep repository of educational articles

4. Equifax has a repository of educational articles
   Unlike competitors, Equifax provides a deep repository of educational content for consumers and offers helpful on-page information and Q&A about features & functionality. (On the negative side, knowledge articles are not well-integrated into the myEquifax experience.)
   

Opportunity Areas

1. Flat site hierarchy & navigation make it difficult to use the application
   The site information architecture is flat, forcing the user to do the hard work of creating relationships between content. The lack of meaningful groupings of features and dependency on a long, stacked, left navigation makes it difficult to find and use the application functionality.

2. Design System components don't scale effectively, and there is an over-dependence on iconography
   Overall experience degrades as products become more complex and the interface scales down to mobile devices. Both result in extended scrolling interfaces that make navigation and content discoverability difficult across all device types and sizes. Reliance on iconography to communicate complex functionality is ineffective.

3. Data isn't leveraged to contextualize and personalize the experience
   Application functionality & content are siloed within the experience, failing to connect the dots so users take appropriate actions and truly benefit from their relationship with Equifax. The experience fails to use the data available at a system level to talk to the individual personally and provide guidance and education.

4. Lead Gen/ Savings offers aren't integrated into the score and report pages
   Users primarily visit the score and report screen as they are the crux of the application. However, the lead gen and savings offers are not embedded into these high-traffic pages, resulting in a missed opportunity to help consumers understand the value and relationship between credit and offers and drive engagement.

5. Brand aesthetic and voice are under-developed and threatened by unbranded integrations
   While the myEquifax experience has a few unique aspects (such as the score dial color gradient, icons, and bright color palette), the overall design aesthetic is generic (white and gray). With new third-party integrations implemented without myEquifax branded skins, the site risks further diminishing the brand voice.

Market & Industry Research:

Finally, I benchmarked myEquifax’s competitor products and best-in-class fintech experiences, shaping customer expectations and informing recommendations to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. This comprehensive analysis enabled me to:

• Inform the optimal user experience

• Assess the product's current standing in the market

• Identify opportunities for differentiation and growth

Below is the list of competitors that I used for my market research.

By examining the broader competitive landscape, I was able to develop a more nuanced understanding of the market dynamics and user needs, ultimately informing strategic design decisions for myEquifax. The exercise helped to paint a clear picture of where myEquifax product was in the race.

Market review highlights:

1. Registration Made Easy & Transparent
   Competitors leverage smart third-party integrations to make points of friction easier for the user, such as social logins for registration and login. They also address security concerns during registration, explain why personal information is needed, and explain what is done to ensure its safekeeping.

2. Clean & Easy-to-Understand Navigation and Menus
   Navigational structures organize related content into logical groupings that are meaningful to the customer and communicate the application's value and purpose.

3. Adaptive Multi-Device Experiences
   Rather than forcing a mobile-first approach on desktop or a desktop-first approach on mobile, competitors create adaptive UI components that enable optimized experiences across device types.

4. Strategic Cross-linking between Offers & Functionality
   Competitors don't assume users can connect the dots - they make sure features and content are logically organized and that promotions are strategically placed to drive engagement.

5. Single Page Credit Reports
   Credit reports are clean, orderly, single-page experiences. There are no accordions, and users can easily find an account by name without understanding how to classify it.

6. Disabled Product Features
   Competitors don't hide features that users haven't paid for yet - they disable them. This helps expose the user to functionality and keeps the full capabilities of the application at the forefront of the user's mind. When the user realizes they need something, it's easy to buy it.

7. Application Awareness
   Competitors are developing application awareness based on user behaviors and activities, which allows them to encourage users to engage with functionality and content that supports the specific stage of their journey.

8. Simple, Educational Data & Coaching
   Competitors contextualize the user's experience with data points from their customer’s credit reports, helping to educate and guide them throughout their credit journey about their credit health. Using a mix of short-form tips and interactive tools, competitors provide on-demand coaching to their customers.

In addition to all the above analyses, I also brought together qualitative and quantitative data to uncover hidden patterns and drive innovation. By integrating these two perspectives, I helped to identify key themes and trends in customer feedback and behavior, quantify the impact of qualitative insights on business outcomes, and develop targeted solutions that address real needs and pain points.

Data-Driven Strategy and Goal Setting:

Leveraging a comprehensive analysis of these research findings, I established a strategic framework that defined goals and key performance indicators (KPIs).

I uncovered vital features that drive customer value through a rigorous analysis of customer insights, Voice of the Customer (VOC), competitive analysis, and data analytics. These features were categorized into different sections of the experience if they had to be tackled by various teams. To prioritize these features, I employed a strategic framework that categorized and mapped them by:

• Value: Impact on customer experience and business goals

• Level of Effort: Resource requirements and implementation complexity

To ensure a successful product launch and long-term success, I developed a whole product strategy that outlined the product's development journey. This strategy consisted of four distinct horizons, each with a specific focus and objective. Additionally, I assigned the above features to a horizon bucket, aligning them with long-term strategic objectives:

• Horizon 0 - Solidify our foundation: Quick wins and incremental improvements

• Horizon 1 - Go beyond the number: Strategic initiatives and capability development

• Horizon 2 - Embrace our responsibility: Visionary innovations and game-changing solutions

• Horizon 3 - Become a true ally: Customer journeys and loyalty

Product roadmap:

The primary challenge in developing a strategic roadmap stemmed from the need to sift through diverse data points spanning various dimensions. The conventional methods of presenting a roadmap within a linear timeline proved impractical. At that point, I devised a framework that considered several critical factors: customer and business value, urgency, level of effort, and priority. This approach enabled a more comprehensive and nuanced assessment of strategic priorities, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and enhancing decision-making processes. As shown below, I established a strategic roadmap to ensure the product's long-term success. This framework considered four key factors:

1. Horizons: As identified earlier

2. Urgency: The level of importance and time-sensitivity

3. Value: The potential impact on customer experience and business goals

4. Level of Effort (Size): The resources and complexity required to deliver

Recommendations based on a data-driven hypothesis:

Once the strategic roadmap was in place, the next crucial step involved prioritizing efforts effectively. During this phase, I developed a data-driven hypothesis to guide the prioritization process. This approach aimed to pinpoint opportunities for quick monetization gains while simultaneously enhancing the overall customer experience. By leveraging data insights, I was able to identify actionable strategies that aligned with the business objectives and could deliver tangible results.

Learnings for the future: