Design Thinking & Design Research at Credit Karma

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Yasmine Khan

Senior Design Researcher, Credit Karma

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Yasmine Khan Senior Design Researcher, Credit Karma

Yasmine Khan works as the Senior Design Researcher at Credit Karma. Prior to focusing on research, she worked as a UX Designer at Credit Karma, AutoDesk and Wells Fargo. At Credit Karma, Yasmine focuses on developing actionable empathy within the product development process through research insights and design thinking methods.

@yasmineakhan

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User Testing Webinar Design Research at Credit Karma

Yasmine Khan, UX Research & Design

FinTech User Research at Credit Karma

Overview

When & Why we do UX Research

Examples of impact

How we share & react to research: Design Thinking

QUANT vs QUAL

Quant data is a flag that tells us what’s happening

Qual UX Research tells us why it may be happening.

We use quant flags to narrow in on people and topics.

USERS WANT IT

IT’S BIZ VIABLE

IT’S ENG FEASIBLE

USEFUL? USABLE?

DESIRABLE?

We observe user needs..

.. in order to create balance

IMPACT

Before Design Research

Strong business point of view Fuzzy user point of view

Before Design Research

Our shorthand can be full of jargon. It’s not always clear - or we don’t always agree - on how everyday people would describe or frame ideas.

Before Design Research

We had a lot of feature ideas, but we aren’t sure how much everyday people would value and prioritize them. Understanding why something is valuable helps design too.

Sometimes, we learn something that changes our perspective on priorities.

We knew buying a new car could be a hassle, we didn’t realize the gravity of the situation. Every single person we spoke with had car dealer H O R R O R stories.

Potential Features - Before Research

Auto financing

Insu

ranc

e sh

oppi

ng

coun

selin

g

Jargon jargon jargon

End of lease assessment

Background shopping

Monetization strategy

jargon

Vague notions

Reports driving insights

New features

Potential Features - After Research

Feature 2 “Help me understand x”

Feature 1 “How the user frames it”

Feature 3 “What users care about”

Feature 4 “Framing from users”

TYPES OF USER RESEARCH

Product Design has 4 important areas “Discovery” (aka Research) happens continually

1 DISCOVERY

2 IDEATION (design)

3 PRODUCTION (building)

4 ITERATION (re-design)

Foundational Studies identify “the right idea”

Iteration Tests “Did we get the idea right?”

Make sure we’re climbing the right hill.

Identify the Right Idea

Then Get the Idea Right

What do people value? How much? Why? Are we answering questions members actually have? Are we solving for important UX issues?

See if we accomplished our goal.

Are we repeating missteps or making new ones? Hopefully, we’re making new missteps with every iteration.

research approaches

Inductive (open ended studies

like the auto one I just shared)

Identify our biases, blind spots, and opportunities

Make a deeper emotional connection

with motives.

Usually an interview that informs at the Foundational phase.

Deductive (top down tests)

Understand if the design works as intended - why or why not?

Find out if A works better than B for

users, and why.

Usually an unmoderated test or interview during the iteration process

vs

Depending on the depth we want to get to, there are different methods available to us

ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERVIEWS We visit the users in their homes

around the country.

REMOTE INTERVIEWS We do a video call with screen

share with users.

UNMODERATED REMOTE Users from a panel get a link to a website and some prompts to follow through on.

When they’re done, we get a video.

EXAMPLES

Basic 3: Act Like an Assistant

LEARN > TRY > MEASURE IMPACT

Based on watching people shop for credit cards, I developed 3 basic principles for our offers.

1 Provide Context

Telling me why a product is good for me, personally, helps me understand its value.

“Since you ___ we recommend ___”

When applicable, show me the tradeline info to underscore this message.

*Pretty much required for anything discovery piece (i.e. not on a shop page)

2 Promote

Comparison

Easy to scan apples to apples comparison helps me feel confident in my choice.

Visually align all terms to compare. For each vertical, and user type, research and test the items that need to be compared at a glance.

3 Set

Expectations

Explain unfamiliar processes and provide definitions

“You’ll get a call with final rates if you’re approved”

“APR Means…”

--

S.L.A.P. & K.I.S.S.

Say it like a person

Keep it simple silly

When we applied the “BASIC 3” we saw a significant site wide revenue lift

Before

BEFORE “BASIC 3”

AFTER

My Recs

TACTICAL INSIGHTS

Score Simulator is exciting, but hard to find

But they confused the sample statement for the simulation.

Only 1 of 14 actually identified and clicked this second CTA to open the score simulation tool.

12 of 14 were excited to use the simulator to calculate how paying their card would impact their score. .

GATHERING INSIGHTS SHARING INSIGHTS

Spoonfeeding insights.

Sharing insights is like teaching and I was doing some old school teaching.

Brains are not empty vessels to be filled.

At best, overwhelming. At worst, boring.

(Big ups to Jerome Bruner & Howard Gardner for laying the ground for Constructivism in schools, btw.)

Constructivist Education Theory Responding to curiosity and actively facilitating

discussion + critique + exploration

Frame Opportunities

Define the Challenge

Brainstorm Ideas

Try Experiments

INSPIRE Challenge

IDEATE Challenge

IMPLEMENT Challenge

•  User Centered

•  Separate observations from inferences •  How might we.. •  Sketch •  Test hypotheses

Observe People

Form Insights

Define the Challenge: Build user confidence in our suggestions

Brainstorm Ideas sketches

Try Experiments Usability tests

Watch UT clips together

Write HMW’s together

Observe People Users SAY they feel like these are ads.

Form Insights People are weary of spam but grateful for informed suggestions

Frame Opportunities How might we do a better job of demonstrating that our suggestions are informed by data?

Write insights together

Sketch together

WORKSHOP

1 OBSERVE watch clips together

•  As we watch, I ask people to take notes of anything noteworthy.

•  An observation is something people SAY or DO, not an inference.

•  Then, we break up into groups and make 1 post it

for each observation.

•  Last, we do “Zen” or “Dot” voting on the most important observations to narrow in on.

2 FORM INSIGHTS collaboratively

A good insight is: •  Authentic •  Not obvious •  Revealing

For example.. When people go to the car dealer, they feel powerless. The dealer has all the information and the power.

3 FRAME OPPORTUNITIES collaboratively

Write “How Might We..” For example..

How might we build users’ confidence when they are looking for a credit card.

4 BRAINSTORM collaboratively

•  1 - 2 min brain dump. No one will see this •  5 - 7 min quick sketch •  5 - 7 min refine your sketch. •  Followed by silent “zen voting” aka ”dot voting”

and discussing why we voted for something. Rules of engagement:

It’s not a competition. The challenge is to build on each other’s ideas, not correct them.

Share ownership of synthesis + take-aways

Collaborative journey mapping creates shared understanding of complex experiences.

Thank you J

Questions?