As a researcher, part
of my job is to figure out exactly what it means to create breakthrough customer
experiences the way other tech leaders have done. The most important thing that
I’ve learned in decoding user experience innovation is that success is much
less about the experience than it is about the user. Truly
understanding the way a user interacts with something – their understanding,
their pain points, and their motivations – is the key to unlocking experiences
that allow them to engage in entirely new ways.
In an effort to
understand how to make banking “smart,” my team set out to explore other industries
that had gone to market with smart products. While we found inspiration from
all corners of the tech world, one industry beacon showed a number of
interesting parallels; fitness trackers. It was a solution that approaches a
sensitive topic in a complex category immersed in an over-crowded industry with
few mass-consumer solutions. And thus, we set out to learn how we might create
a ‘fitness tracker’ for peoples’ finances.
Enter, People +
Money – an event crafted to share research explorations throughout Capital One.
P+M, as a platform, emphasizes the user (people) behind the experience (money)
and it’s been a catalyst for true innovation internally. With our fitness
tracker exploration, we’ve had the opportunity to share industry parallels,
innovations in the fitness category, and analogous solutions to the world as we
know it at Capital One. People + Money has been an invaluable experience for me
and I’m excited to watch as others explore the users behind the experience.
- Caleb
