Understanding the challenge
Due to several external factors, FairFX needed to migrate over £12m and 70,000 personal customers from their three existing single currency cards (USD, GBP & EUR) and app, to a new system that was based on multi-currency functionality. This new system also had to support joint account/card usage for a wide range of use cases such as children, partners, friends, family, at home help and more.
To do this as seamlessly as possible, we needed to develop a migration process that saw every customer recarded onto the new multi-currency card, and develop two new apps that were completely independent of legacy platforms. All this needed to be done in less than two months alongside an ongoing rebrand. What a challenge!
Requirements for the new solution
The main purpose of the new product was to facilitate mutli-currency transactions globally. In addition to this, an account would need to hold up to 12 cards which could be assigned to people chosen by the main account holder.
To manage these cards effectively, top-up, currency exchange and card-to-card money transfer functionality was required. That’s not all. To integrate other FairFX services into the offering and aid cross-sell efforts, the system also needed to be a platform for cash and international transfer services, and offer cashback on card purchases.
Research and information gathering
Prior to our first kick-off session, I worked with the performance marketing team to gain data insights to help inform product direction. A problem that we knew coming into the project was tracking issues with the existing app, meaning we were limited in certain areas. But by adapting and changing our approach, looking instead at revenue and other data streams, we could see that 96% of users were only using the product to manage their currency cards, nothing else. We could also identify that over 65% of users opted for mobile over desktop.
All this information gathering meant that by the time we held a stakeholder workshop, we were able to allocate small dev resource on web and shape the product towards a multi-currency tool, rather than a card mangemenet tool.
We carried out an audit of the two prepaid card products currently in use - Equals Go and FairFX. The Equals Go card had been launched in 2018 to replace FairFX but due to tech issues, was only released to a limited number of customers. For the new product, we were building on the top of Equals Go tech, so it was important for us to understand the existing issues, architecture and flows.
In-app user experience was identified as a key area of improvement in order to drive top-ups and currency exchange - two of its key features.
Workshops and UX brainstorming
Workshops with key stakeholders, product owners and customer services reps were held initially to establish a wireframe for the product, before further sessions were used to define specific features and functionality.
As we were in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, I used Zoom and Figma to run these sessions, allowing for open communication and live collaboration in the same file. I created a structure and working process for these sessions, mapping out current journeys, breaking down the app into separate flows and benchmarking with competitor products.
By the end of these sessions had we had identified three different approaches and areas of focus for the product, with each taking a very different approach. The first was centred around the card (similarly to the existing product), the second focused more on the management of multiple currencies and the third was targetted towards utilising one currency at a time.
Prototypes and users testing sessions
Thanks to our geometry design system that we implemented, I was able to make a quick start and move forwards with high-fidelity prototypes. I future-proofed the variants until we had a skeleton that was ready to develop over time. Using this framework allowed the development team to build far more efficiently.
Once we had a clear direction, I ran user-testing sessions through UserZoom Go that helped me identify potential issues and what was resonating with customers. A good example of this was the introduction of a large ‘+’ button in the app that allowed users to immediately top up. The button generated controversy within the business but performed well in user-testing and therefore stayed in the product. Throughout the entire process we were lead by user feedback alongside input from lead engineers, customer services, marketing and product.
Initial release and problem solving
Within 4 weeks we had a two MVPs (native mobile app and responsive WebApp) ready in Figma and a migration flow that was able to be quickly implemented by our team of 8 developers. By this point we were ready for a small release to a select group of users to identify bugs and learn from user interactions.
Unfortunately, the unforeseen insolvency of Wirecard meant a very aggressive migration of the entire customer base was needed, starting on the first day of the Beta release…
Working in tandem with customer services allowed us to rapidly identify bugs and address issues. For example, with the old app users could check live exchange rates which wasn’t part of the MVP, this meant it quickly became our priority.
The second challenge we had at this stage was how to process and prioritise the feedback. To bypass tracking issues that were limited by the rushed release, we worked with marketing to send out surveys for specific and detailed feedback.
We moved quickly through design, build and launch to bring the functionality of the app up to the level expected from our customers who had used the previous products. Once that was complete, Linked Cards (multiple cards in one account), cash orders, international payments and cashback were prioritised.
Learnings and results
My main takeaway from this project was to avoid large-scale changes when made at speed and be patient when comes to migrating a large customer base. Scale of work like that has to be a segmented and detail-orientated process, if it’s not, there will be considerable challenges and blockers along the way. If going down that path is unavoidable, it’s best to be transparent with both your customers and stakeholders - manage their expectations and educate them along the way.
I’ve found that a vital part of the feedback process is working closely with the product owner to separate isolated user issues from the broader problems that are impacting a wider numbers of customers. Quite often the loudest voices in terms of feedback can be about minor or very specific issues which have little impact when resolved.