KOHO
Problem & Objective
KOHO is a Canadian fintech company that provides digital banking services, encompassing prepaid Visa cards and mobile banking apps. KOHO has a specific objective of increasing the monthly frequency at which users deposit funds into their accounts. My responsibility was to develop a product strategy aimed at improving the user experience of adding funds to their accounts.
Currently, if you want to add funds to your KOHO account, you cannot do so directly within the app. Instead, KOHO directs you to a page where they instruct you to go to your primary bank app and copy/paste your custom email and security questions to initiate an e-Transfer.
KOHO currently uses interac e-transfer as their primary loading method.
An Interac e-Transfer is a method for individuals to electronically transfer money from one participating bank to another. The issue with this method is that it involves multiple steps for the user, which also necessitates them leaving the KOHO app and opening their primary banking app anytime they want to load funds.
A flow that forces users to leave the KOHO app can be problematic for users for several reasons:
- User Experience Disruption: Switching between apps interrupts the user experience and may lead to frustration, especially if the user needs to perform a quick or seamless transaction.
- Time-Consuming: Switching apps and possibly having to log in again can be time-consuming, particularly if the user is in a hurry to complete a transaction or check their account.
- User Confusion: Users may find it confusing or difficult to navigate multiple apps, especially if they are not familiar with the interface or functionality of the app they need to open.
- Inefficient Workflow: It disrupts the workflow by adding unnecessary steps to the process, making it less efficient and user-friendly.
Plaid is an American fintech company used by more than 4,500 companies to connect users to other third-party financial applications. This includes Venmo, Acorns, Betterment, and many other fintech companies.
After some research, I discovered that integrating Plaid as the primary method for adding funds, rather than using e-transfers, could be significantly more efficient.
Plaid Link enables users to securely connect their financial accounts in seconds, without the need to open another app. Once they've connected to their bank, the process of adding funds becomes a matter of just a couple of taps.
The most laborious part of using Plaid is the initial setup. Through some user testing, I discovered that this process can either be really easy and fast or a bit more time-consuming, depending on whether the user knows their bank account's username and password.
Once they've connected to their bank, the process of adding funds becomes a matter of just a couple of taps.
Users will be able to simply specify how much they would like to transfer into their KOHO account. This dramatically reduces time and complexity.
While the method of connecting to your bank has many pros, it's not perfect.
User does not have to leave KOHO and open up another app.
User does not have to copy and paste email, security questions, etc. everytime they want to load.
User can set up recurring transfers so they can maintain a certain balance automatically.
It can take 2-3 days for money to show up in account unlike e-transfer which can be a few minutes.
Users first time connecting to bank can be difficult if user doesn't know account information.
Conclusion
When it comes to KOHO's primary objective of increasing the rate of monthly loads, I believe it's imperative to streamline the request process by reducing the number of steps and minimizing friction. The current method of e-Transfers is both complex and time-consuming, and this level of friction significantly impacts the frequency of transfers. However, using Plaid can greatly reduce this complexity. One minor inconvenience with Plaid is the time it takes for users' money to reach their accounts. Given that the target demographic is Canadian, they may not be as accustomed to waiting as the American demographic. Nevertheless, this presents an opportunity for an upsell by front-loading the transaction for subscribed users.