MSUFCU Accessibility

Vision Statement

How might we help Michigan State University Federal Credit (MSUFCU) make it more easily accessible and intuitive for people of various ages to have a way to increase healthy habits in debt management and saving for retirement via our online banking platform? I recommend this be MSUFCU’s top priority in the decade ahead!

Issue Statement

Not everyone enjoys the financial sphere, especially when it comes to managing debt and thinking of their future self in terms of retirement. Those who do enjoy it may have concerns about data privacy and security. Overall, MSUFCU wants to provide a way to allow their clients to manage their financial data (e.g., store, access and make changes to it). Although MSUFCU currently provides various services and an industry-wide standard for checking and savings accounts, their theory is there is more they could do to help their clients better serve their future selves financially.

Existing Data/Insights on the Client

MSUFCU is interested in providing a financial self-management service for their customers to better plan for their futures within autonomous use. Otherwise, they may lack financial security in their retirement years. MSUFCU is a company that prioritizes its customers’ aspirations and dreams. They specifically dedicate marketing and advertisement budgeting to create an ad that broadcasts our message to their customers that they want them to feel supported in their dreams and aspirations. MSUFCU's message to their customers is “Dream Big” (Union, 2023) and their motto is “Building Dreams Together” (Union, 2023). This is a great gateway into providing a service to their customers that not only supports their big dreams but also supports their retirement and debt management after they have reached their dreams. MSUFCU has a department dedicated to user experience research. This is shown by the fact they have a Chief Experience Officer. That, and they have several team members with UX roles and responsibilities and Consumer Behavior (Marketing Research and Insights). 

To MSUFCU UX Research and Design members, I provided the above initial research that has been gathered to clearly describe the current problem/opportunity as part of my research goals. This pitch seeks to obtain additional feedback and insights as well as obtain approval to dive deeper into this opportunity for the MSUFCU organization and user needs.

Thinking about the user

Above I shared why MSUFCU as an organization is interested in providing financial services for their customers. This was focused on their organization in this research goal. Refining this further into the user-centered model, their users would interact with the above-proposed financial data service enhancement (e.g., debt management and retirement savings situation needs, etc.) for the following reasons: current savings and checking account members don’t have a prompt reminding them to start planning for retirement nor a way to easily manage all of their debts within one portal view. There are outside services and products for this, such as Rocket Money and Mint. These outside products provide their users with ways of tracking bills and other debts while also ensuring financial freedom via budgets and retirement plans.

The primary user and or target audience of this Research Pitch are current and noncurrent MSUFCU members in the Millennial (1981-1996) and Gen Z (1997-2012) demographic age groups (Debczak, 2023). The secondary audience is Gen X (1965-1980). (Debczak, 2023)  The Millennial and Gen Z primary audience selection is since these age groups tend to be less resistant to trying modern over traditional approaches when it comes to financial autonomy. Consider for example how the Robinhood app brought in this younger generation to start trading stocks intuitively and excitingly (Popper, 2020). Of course, there are good and bad things to learn from this, and need to be prioritized to help users vs manipulate, deceit, or misinform (Helenowski & Levintova, 2021). The secondary audience chosen, Gen X, may be more resistant to using a federal credit union for something other than traditional savings, checking accounts, etc.

Why would this new service matter to our MSUFCU organization and their users? According to Monarch, utilizing services like RocketMoney, Mint, NerdWallet, etc. are the new and modern ways to manage finances (Monarch, 2024). This means users' needs are evolving and so should traditional banks and credit unions.

Another top reason MSUFCU should provide debt management/retirement services is because otherwise, users will simply forget. Per Katy Milkman in How to Change, forgetfulness leads to a substantial percentage of people not following through with things (Milkman, 2021). In her book, she gives an example of an experiment run by students who monitored valet drivers encouraging drivers to buckle up. Regardless of whether providing drivers a reminder four minutes before the driver gets in the car versus providing no reminder at all, 55% of drivers failed to remember to buckle up (Milkman, 2021). The experiment then reminded the drivers to buckle up as the driver was getting into their car. This led to a 25% increase in drivers buckling up if reminded as the drivers were getting in the car (Milkman, 2021). Katy Milkman goes on to apply this to voter turnout, and finally to boosting vaccinations for flu shots. The following are additional tools shared that helped in this area (Milkman, 2021):

• Planning prompts: reminder letters for flu shots asked employee recipients to jot down the date and time they planned to take their flu shot. There was no mail back address or way to convey this date/time/plan. It was a hope and hypothesis that it would lead to an increase in flu shot vaccinations. This indeed led to a 13% increase at workplace clinics when analyzed (Milkman, 2021).

• Cue-based plans – In Katy’s book How to Change, Angela Duckworth mentioned cue-based plans as a top-of-the-list priority technique to improve behavioral change with the following questions in mind (Milkman, 2021):

o   How will you do it?

o   When will you do it?

o   Where will you do it?

These insights lead me to leverage the Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) framework (Laubheimer, 2017). I’ve created the following Jobs-to-Be-Done for my specific research:

• “When I am done achieving my professional aspirations, I want the financial freedom that will allow me to travel anywhere anytime, so that I can gain memorable experiences of a lifetime.”

• “When I check my debts via my online account, I want to see a connected system of all my assets and debts and easily manage them in the way I want to.”

• “If I lose my job, I want to have had a way to avoid surprises due to not remembering or not easily seeing all my transactions or debts.”

Existing Data/Insights on the topic

Let’s now look at Robinhood app user statistics and latest news. In the year 2021, an astounding six million users became consumers of the Robinhood app (Lindner, 2023). That had just followed the previous year of three million plus clients joining (Lindner, 2023). Both Millennials and Gen Z made up 80% of investors who were users (Lindner, 2023). And we can’t forget that a user can use Robinhood for retirement savings as well. In addition to the UX research insights and findings produced by Mcquire Design, surely Robinhood will start to provide other services in the future that banks and credit unions may be able to utilize. For example, users can connect Robinhood to Mint and related apps to track savings and such (Mcguire, n.d.).

It’s not just Robinhood that is in this financial space that we can leverage insights from. Per Digital Trends, here are five of the top apps users can leverage to better monitor their debt and retirement needs: YNAB, BusyKid, Copilot, Empower, and EveryDollar (Wolfe, 2023). There are many great things to say about all of these apps, but I’ve added the most important and relative points for how MSUFCU can leverage these insights toward providing similar services for our users. Starting with BusyKid, the app has created an enjoyable way for kids and their parents to create healthy financial habits while also learning (Wolfe, 2023). This closely aligns with the Millennial and Gen Z target listed above. The final app I’ve found relevant is EveryDollar as they focus on users' traditional bank/credit union accounts and allow more services to be unlocked (Wolfe, 2023). This could be something we leverage or use as a guide to create our related service in-house.

Of course, there is the pertinent concern of data privacy and security in terms of users' data being stored. This can be more than just debt tracking and retirement plans but also documents like tax returns and property deeds. For such important items, I propose we leverage or create capabilities such as Experian lists such as encrypted digital records (Egan, 2022). Experian even has a mantra that they create opportunities for businesses and users via consumer and user insights (Experian, 2024). Experian helps users with various financial services and helps companies with reducing fraudulent activities (e.g., identity and crime-related concerns). (Experian, 2024)

Research Goal – the reasoning for performing UX research

The goal of this research project is to empower leadership to make an informed decision on whether developing and delivering a product that allows clients to store and manage their financial data is an opportunity or problem that addresses actual tangible user needs.

Performing more in-depth research (e.g., primary research, quantitative and qualitative mixed methods, etc.) is vital for this project’s success to reduce confirmation bias, ensure we are inclusive and diverse with user interviews and data gathering, and be open to all other service opportunities we may identify that solve jobs-to-be-done problems/opportunities for our users.

From the research I’ve completed to date, the key UX metric category chosen is # of Call Center Support Call Increase. , The chosen Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is Avg Cost of New Offering Support  (e.g., Ease of Use). This was selected because when it comes to debt management and retirement savings, most people already are resistant or forget to do this in the first place. We want to make this new offering easy to use to make one less behavioral barrio to success. For a separate metric (estimated Completion Rate KPI), see the Appendix.

To calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) for this new offering, I’ve estimated the following:

• Converting UX Metric (# Call Center Support Call Increase) into the KPI (Avg Cost of New Offering Support and or Ease of Use):

o   # Call Center Support Call Increase (estimating 0) = Number of Contact Calls before new offering (estimating 4400 monthly) – Number of contact calls after new offering (estimating again 4400 monthly). 4400 per month is the average for call centers for customer support per LiveAgent (LiveAgent, 2024).

o   Avg Cost of New Offering Support (Ease of Use) = 0 * $5.50 - avg inbound call per LiveAgent cost (LiveAgent, 2024).

o   I do not predict there will be any additional cost associated with supporting the new offering (debt and retirement management) as Millennials and Gen Z have proven to be able to use financial apps such as Robinhood, RocketMoney, and Mint, and are eager to do so to set up their future selves for success.

The above numbers were all based on research and estimations. These are not exact financial calculations but aim to provide information to approve my Research Pitch proposal and grant funding for further advanced research methods to be carried out.

In conclusion, based on my research I see only positive gains for the user experience if Michigan State University Federal Credit Union provides the new service offering of debt and retirement management as described above.

What: Research questions (or hypotheses)

The following is a list of research questions (and rationale) used to then create User Interview Questions on behalf of meeting customer opportunities that align with MSUFCU’s business objectives:

1. What is the one thing a new customer would be lacking in their account portal?

   • This question aims to ensure the scope of the research is realistic to achieve within a given period. The hope is to focus on what would be the biggest thing that could prevent MSU Federal Credit Union from keeping its customers after the initial acquisition.

2.  What assumptions can be tested to better understand the customers’ current problems?

   • The thought process here is to ensure proper discovery techniques are used. That, and to ensure our findings are relevant to the end users' needs versus making assumptions based on any bias’.

3.  What factors are preventing account holders from being able to securely store their data in their accounts?

   • The rationale here is to ensure we are not too vague in our research goal/questions which could lead to confusion and a lack of clarity. It would be a shame to interview users based on research goals that missed the mark. This will lead to missed business objectives and wasted time with end users.

Why: Research goal(s)

An overview of this project's research goal is to ensure MSUFCU has a product that allows clients to store and manage their financial data if and only if insights become known showing that is an opportunity or problem that addresses current user needs.

The research questions and rationale provided above are necessary to prevent confirmation bias, ensure we are inclusive and diverse with user interviews and data gathering, avoid assumptions, and be open to all other service opportunities we may identify that solve jobs-to-be-done problems/opportunities for our users.

How: Methodology

The following recaps the above research questions with a proposed method of gathering data/findings/insights needed and justifications to do so as part of a generative/formative research methodology:

1.  What is the one thing a new customer would be lacking in their account portal?

2.  Proposed technique: qualitative research. I’ve selected qualitative research in the hopes of better understanding the preferences and needs of customers. I would turn this research question into a question suited for use in a user interview. Additionally, I would add the user interview question to a survey I would send to current users (e.g., a survey question that would pop up within a normal user journey in their account). 

   • Justifications: I’ve selected the above technique as this is part of the generative research process that aligns with industry best practices. 

3.  What assumptions can be tested to better understand the customers’ current problems?

   •  Proposed technique: look at current ways MSUFCU is addressing their customers’ problems/pain points to ensure assumptions aren’t being made in terms of user journeys and flows. A method that would aid in this research is user analytics in addition to user feedback surveys.

   • Justifications: the reasoning for this technique selection is it falls within the formative research process of evaluating current designs geared towards identifying user pain points.

4.  What factors are preventing account holders from being able to securely store their data in their accounts?

   • Proposed data collection technique: I would ask to see any behavioral data usage for current and former customers to see where there was any fraudulent activity done to their accounts or any reviews they left regarding data sensitivity concerns.

   • Justifications: I’ve chosen the above observation strategy to request to analyze data to identify any patterns related to user actions.

Who: Participants

For the above research goals and questions, I plan to recruit and interview 25 customers who can join one-on-one sessions, focus groups, and other formats (ethnography observations, etc.). I plan to recruit these customers by leveraging MSUFCU’s current user base using random sampling research standards to ensure proper professional practices are adhered to.

When and where: Research schedule and logistics

Regarding the schedule proposal, I recommend the one-on-one interview sessions take place over two weeks starting in Q2 of this year (2024). After the one-on-one interview sessions conclude, I request a focus group to take place spanning over three days. The final formats may not last longer than one week after that to ensure our participants don’t start to disconnect. In terms of logistics, I will share full details regarding video login information (e.g., free Zoom, etc.) and time options to connect based on participants' availability. 

Lastly, the budget allowance should not surpass $3,100 based on the following factors: $30 hourly rate for my research efforts including 25 hours of interviews, 6 hours of focus group sessions, and 5 hours of additional research formats needed. Also, this includes $8 for Google Workspaces monthly account for Good Survey form creation, Google Doc interview Q&A documentation, and video needs (if Zoom doesn’t work for everyone). The incentive ($2,000 included in this estimate) will be dispersed amongst all participants who make it to the end of the full process.

Conclusion

In closing, the focus is to ensure previous product requests are based on qualitative and quantitative research methods and advise pivots be made based on these insights that will be presented upon the conclusion of this research process.

References

Debczak, M. (2023, March 10). Age Ranges Millennials and Generation Z. Retrieved from Mental Floss: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/609811/age-ranges-millennials-and-generation-z

Egan, J. (2022, September 14). What Is the Best Way to Store Your Financial Records? Retrieved from Experian: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-is-the-best-way-to-store-your-financial-records/

Experian. (2024). About Experian. Retrieved from Experian: https://www.experian.com/corporate/about-experian

Helenowski, M., & Levintova, H. (2021, October 7). Trade More. Think Less. How Robinhood’s Design Gets Inside Your Brain. Retrieved from Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/media/2021/10/robinhood-trading-app-design-ui-ux-video/

Laubheimer, P. (2017, August 16). Jobs-to-Be-Done vs. Personas. Retrieved from Nielsen Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/personas-jobs-be-done/

Lindner, J. (2023, December 16). Must-Know Robinhood User Statistics. Retrieved from Gitnux: https://gitnux.org/robinhood-user-statistics/

LiveAgent. (2024). 10 Call center benchmarks. Retrieved from LiveAgent: https://www.liveagent.com/research/call-center-benchmarks/

Mcguire. (n.d.). Robinhood UX Mobile App Research. Retrieved from Mcguire Design: https://mcguiredesign.com/portfolio/robinhood-ux-mobile-app-research/

Monarch. (2024). The modern way to manage your money. Retrieved from Monarch: https://www.monarchmoney.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_campaign=530755383&utm_subcampaign=1349103291487393&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=rocket%20money&utm_content=&wpcid=530755383&wpcrid=&wpkmatch=p&wpkwid=kwd-84320105413544:loc-190&wpkwn=rocket%20money&wpscid=1349

Popper, N. (2020, July 8). Robinhood Has Lured Young Traders, Sometimes With Devastating Results. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/technology/robinhood-risky-trading.html

Union, M. F. (2023, April 24). Dream Big with MSUFCU. Retrieved from MSUFCU Youtube Channel: https://youtu.be/AKch9ARYZIo?si=SIPQKF70mdhDv7DU

Wikipedia. (2024, January 16). Michigan State University Federal Credit Union. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State_University_Federal_Credit_Union

Wolfe, B. (2023, December 4). The best personal finance apps in 2023 for iPhone and Android. Retrieved from Digital Trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-personal-finance-software-and-apps/

Appendix

•  (#) of users who completed the goal(s) of new offering / total (#) of users who have the service offering. Since all current members will automatically have the service offering once delivered it would be an estimated 300, 000 (Wikipedia, 2024). For # of users who completed/used the new offering, I estimated 58.4% of all users would initially use it based on Robinhood stating that percentage of users use their service across all platforms (Lindner, 2023). This was a good estimate for this Research Pitch as I’ve compared above how Rohinhood targeted the younger generation for financial service use and has changed the way users see financial tasks.

• 175, 200 / 300, 000 = 58.4% Completion Rate.