{"id":21,"date":"2019-12-20T00:32:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T00:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alisonreingold.com\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2020-01-01T03:01:24","modified_gmt":"2020-01-01T03:01:24","slug":"the-new-bank","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/alisonreingold.com\/?page_id=21","title":{"rendered":"The New Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prompt: <\/em><\/strong>How might we respond to the rapid evolution of financial technology and meet the needs of millennials in the year 2030?<\/p>\n

Proposal:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0The New Bank is a personalized and responsive institution that acts as a clearinghouse for consumers to sell new commodities to corporations, while partnering with nonprofits to have a meaningful impact on society.<\/p>\n

Collaboration with Jennifer Varat, Durba Samanta, and Sophia Myers, with guidance from KPMG XDE Practice<\/em><\/p>\n

Process<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Research + World Building<\/h3>\n

We dove into the wealth of research on the future of finance and saw a few recurring predictions: We are moving towards a cashless society. Transactions will move faster and with less friction. More financial data is going to be available to regular people. The government is going to have to deal with complicated new financial products. Big financial institutions are going to face stiff competition from start-ups.<\/p>\n

We interviewed several subject matter experts and one important insight was technologies like bitcoin and its underlying blockchain evolve and mutate very quickly. Rather than trying to predict where bitcoin will be 50 mutations from now in 2030, we decided to focus on what aspects of these new technologies appeal to consumers, like speed, transparency, decentralization, and bring those aspects into our future design.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Empathy<\/h3>\n

We spoke with 45 millennials about their current financial habits, how financially literate they considered themselves, and how they planned to achieve their financial goals. Some people were carefully tracking their finances and plotting their paths forwards, while others were trying to stay \u201coff the grid\u201d financially and keep things simple. \u00a0Overall, many users were looking for transparency, new ways to exchange value, reassurance, convenience, and a sense of altruism.<\/p>\n

We plotted our interviewees on the classic, four part technology adoption curve. The very leading edge are Pioneers, people who see new technologies and are active in their mutation. Next are Early Adopters, who are not technology savants but are actively looking out for new technological opportunities. Most people are in the Majority and wait for the Early Adopters to popularize and humanize technologies. Finally, there are Late Bloomers who are generally uninterested and wait for a new technology to become socially mandatory before trying it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ideate<\/h3>\n

Based on the interests our users expressed, we brainstormed normal, illegal, and ultra-futuristic ways that financial institutions could serve user needs. Ranging from free ATMs that distribute money to people in need to banks publishing every transaction of political candidates during an election, our ideas were revolutionary for users but could not be profitable for a financial institution to execute. We mapped the tension points between user desires, financial institution practices, and technology trends. From this map, we could narrow our ideas down to four prototypes.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Prototype + Test<\/h3>\n

Care vs Core Checking<\/strong> was a new checking account that charged a few higher fees in service of banks being about to make loans to deserving community projects. From testing, we learned people liked embedding altruism into a financial product but were turned off by the higher fees.<\/p>\n

Loan Repayment<\/strong> was a storyboard where a person could obtain a bank loan but, in addition to paying it back in cash, could pay it back using personal data or outsourcing their device\u2019s computing power to the bank. We saw that people were interested in these new values but needed some reassurance from advisors.<\/p>\n

Pulling on the desire for reassurance, we created a newsfeed on TDAmeritrade called Trust Circle<\/strong> where users could share financial transactions with friends and family, offer each other advice, or crowdsource financial decisions. We learned most users were intensely self-conscious about sharing their financial transactions.<\/p>\n

We created FinGenius<\/strong>, a program to lay over other products and explain financial terms, like Rap Genius. People appreciated the explanations but accessible language is becoming table-stakes for any new financial products.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Solution<\/h3>\n

The New Bank <\/strong>combines the most attractive features of our prototypes. To make the product more personal and reassuring, The New Bank pulls from user data to offer targeted loans that are specific to the user\u2019s wants. An artificial intelligence draws users in and explains each step in the loan process with no moral judgment. Users can pay back the loans in cash but they can also choose a \u201cNew Value\u201d that might make more sense for their lives in the future, such as their personal data, their DNA, or their electricity. We incorporated an altruistic component from Core vs Care that allows users to sell their New Value to a bank and have some of the profit go to a cause of their choice.<\/p>\n