HSBC Research
This project was to delve into the area of vulnerable customers, researching the best ways to connect with and provide additional support for those with enhanced care needs.
This role was extremely valuable to my area of interest in disability and accessible service design.
My role in the project
I planned and conducted stakeholder interviews as part of an internship team.
I designed and conducted semi-structured interviews in a pair.
I created a research plan, synthesised, wrote a report, and presented my findings individually.
Skills demonstrated
Stakeholder engagement, understanding their brief and presenting findings in an engaging way, clearly demonstrating the value of my research to align with HSBC’s long term roadmap.
One-on-one user interviews, sensitively navigating an emotive subject matter.
Synthesis of research using Miro and Dovetail.
Creation of insights, findings and personas.
All illustrations and visual presentation elements created.
Outcomes
This research generated insights around the main barriers preventing banking customers from disclosing vulnerabilities, or reaching out for help, which is a key focus of the service design team.
The insights are particularly valuable in relation to the Australian market, as most existing research and pilot programs have taken place overseas.
This research will inform HSBC’s ongoing roadmap to delivering more accessible service design options, and persona’s will be used in future awareness training of teams.
“That intersectionality was brilliant… it’s a big thing at the moment across diversity.”
Ayela Thilo, Executive Manager of Customer Advocacy, HSBC.
“The quote you started off with about listening wholeheartedly… I think you hit the nail on the head with how you expressed that.
… I love how you linked that back to really clear recommendations… a really good distillation of everything that you shared.”
Jasmine Parer, Service Design Lead, HSBC.
“Your visualisation on intersectionality was a killer. The ‘no vulnerability occurs in a vacuum’ insight was the best of the best!”
Sue Lim, Senior User Researcher, Harness Projects Mentor.
The Problem Space…
During this project, we interviewed users with a diverse range of vulnerabilities, each with a rich variety of lived experiences and intersecting situations.
The main challenge I encountered in undertaking this research, however, was how to even begin representing this wide range of people in just a few personas.
When each user interviewed has such different circumstances, how can we do them justice?
But upon synthesising the research, two themes emerged that were common across all interview subjects:
Listening
Wholeheartedly, without judgement.
This was a fundamental need across all interview subjects.
Intersectionality
The acknowledgement that no vulnerability occurs in a vacuum.
But how can we better listen to these people, and what is the best medium to listen through?
What are the key experiences we can give customers to make them feel respected?
Let’s take a step back and see how we got here.
Research Objectives
How to build trust with customers.
How to connect with customers, and find out about their vulnerability.
What are customers current pain points and barriers to disclosing vulnerabilities?
How can vulnerable customers be best supported?
Research Stages:
Briefing from the HSBC team
Creating a research plan
01 Planning
Writing screening surveys
Writing interview script
Choosing Participants
02 Recruitment
Conducting semi-structured interviews in teams
03 Interviews
Synthesising Data
Defining Findings
Creating Personas
04 Synthesis
Why Semi-Structured Interviews?
This research technique was chosen, as it allowed us to conduct qualitative research and gain deep insights into thoughts and feelings.
Due to the sensitive topic area, building rapport with our participants and giving time to explore their story over the course of the interview was really important.
Synthesis Method:
Quotes were directly taken from interview transcripts, and mapped around themes.
Participants
Recruitment
After recruiting participants using online services and a screening survey; and friends and family sourcing, the following participants were found:
Intersectionality
Vulnerabilities are almost always intersecting, with Mobility and ongoing health conditions most in common.
These intersecting profiles of vulnerability were synthesised into the following personas:
Chris
24, Male
Transgender + Mental Health
Trevor
23, Male
Loss of a loved one + Mobility
Sally
55, Female
Stroke + Mobility + Cognitive
Pauline
37, Female
Kinship Carer
These Personas have been created based upon the most significant vulnerabilities present in the participant profiles, with vulnerabilities or responses in common.
ie. Chris is a culmination of findings from P9 who is transgender and has mental health issues, and P7 who experiences anxiety.
Pauline is however mostly based upon P6, as an example of a customer with a unique situation that doesn’t fall neatly into an existing category.
Please view PDF’s for any accessibility needs.
The TLDR:
These personas demonstrate that banking methods often directly relate to customers vulnerabilities, and that individual situations are highly varied and specific in nature.
Common themes, however, emerge as important across all personas:
Insights
Barriers
Each vulnerability affected each participant’s ability to interact with the bank in different ways.
My research report identified key barriers experienced relative to each area of vulnerability in our participants.
The most common barriers or difficulties were in physically visiting a branch or talking on the phone, or related to accessing or receiving information.
Trust
Willingness to disclose
There were three main reasons for not wanting to disclose their vulnerability:
Not thinking the bank can help them
Not being aware of what help is available
Feeling worried that this will negatively impact their future.
A big difference was also found between participants willingness to accept help, vs. reach out for help of their own accord.
“If I tell them about a disability, are they going to either deny any services or be exploitative?”
“I wouldn’t really bother telling them, I can’t think of anything that would help.”
Communication
General
Participants generally use the app most for everyday banking, but would prefer a web form or phone call for discussing their vulnerability.
Disclosing Vulnerability
People generally want to be prompted anonymously, then share details with a real person.
This relates to destigmatising asking for help, by making it seem like a normal process and building up to more in depth interactions.
“Ideally when you sign up for an account you can tick a box, that’s how you would like to do important communication.”
“I’d rather have a very anonymous form… If it’s just another form or a very similar process, then it feels like it’s more normal.”
Which brings us back to our main question:
How can we better connect with these people?
Recommendations
Disclosing Vulnerabilities
I identified the following three steps to improve the process of disclosing vulnerabilities:
1. Allow everyone to choose their communication method up-front.
Make sure this is easy to change, and kept on record.
Include options to receive transcripts & records.
2. Check in on a regular basis, via the app or email, prompting users to disclose any need for help.
It is important to build trust here:
Making sure the process is normalised to reduce stigma.
Providing info on what help would be available.
Giving examples / testimonials.
3. Upon confirming they need help, set up a meeting with a real person.
Contact method to be flexible on preference.
Emphasis on not providing ‘cookie cutter’ solutions: most problems are complex and intersecting, so each needs to be approached with empathy.
Being assigned the same case worker or relationship manager each time would be ideal.
What to focus on:
These areas were expanded upon in my full report, with quotes supporting each area, and specific supports relating to each vulnerability.
Providing More Information
Improving Trust
Specific Supports
Reducing Stigma
“I think a lot of it is very subjective and you can’t just categorise everyone under the same umbrella”
“Sometimes I don’t fit into the criteria… if someone can go the extra mile to think from my perspective…
… if the individual is prepared to think a bit further than what their training is, as every situation especially mine is unique.”
“If they do (provide support), it shouldn’t be hard to find.”
This research made it clear not only how varied the range of circumstances and situations can be, but also how centering the user at the heart of service design is crucial for delivering a service that is accessible to everyone.
In improving the experience of our most vulnerable users, this will have benefits and increase usability for everyone.
My takeaways
This was a really exciting project to work on, and I really enjoyed continuing to deepen my experience in the area of designing for disability and accessibility.
The highlight of this project was definitely in presenting my findings back to the HSBC team - One of the most important parts of UX is in being able to advocate for the process, and demonstrate the value of the work you’ve undertaken, so it was really rewarding to apply my storytelling skills to communicate this.
The biggest challenge was in dealing with such a sensitive subject matter, and in interviewing people who had really challenging experiences. It was definitely a great learning experience to navigate such an emotive area, and it also brought home how important user research can be in advocating for people’s unique needs.