New concept: Finance plan for the end of life
Protecting financially your loved ones
One key part to protect your family finance is life insurance. Here is where we started, life insurance in a transparent and flexible way. But that would be just the beginning! With time the platform will become a marketplace and an information hub for users. They will be able to store digital assets safely and share them with their loved ones.
Personalized platform
Personalize the platform by “writing your story” as part of the onboarding flow. When we have your information we can recommend the right products and show the prices straight away (no pre-quotes).
The key is that the user will choose what to buy with help and guidance from the platform.
Create your trusted bubble
We introduce the concept of “custodians” in the platform. These are the trusted people that you choose.
The custodians have a key role to play after the user passes away. They will be able to access the information on the platform and start the claiming process on the platform.
The key to access your information and start the claim is the death certificate of the main user.
The design process
I worked on the project while I was in Founders Factory. My role was to take the idea from the Concept Team and create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Here I will explain the process I followed to translate the initial concept into a prototype in 6 months.
The concept was around digitalizing the afterlife transition. It focused on four areas: life insurance, wills, funeral planning, and digital assets.
Defining the user
When I started this project the concept was focus on young adults. But while doing the competitor analysis I realized that they were targeting senior adults. That is why I started by understanding better the user.
I did several interviews and surveys on both age groups (millennials and +60 years old) and this is what I’ve learned:
Senior adults are more aware of the possibility of death (probably experience from a close relative) and they are thinking (or doing) something to be prepare for that.
What they do to be prepared: they will had created a will when their child were born (but didn’t update since then)
Millennials are not aware of the risk of something that could happen to them, they don’t talk about death. They are more worried about their digital life, because they have multiple finance accounts (pension, bank, investment…)
What they do to be prepared: the only case they will do something is if they start a family
User persona: Adulting
After analyzing the data, I realized that what the people cared about was their finance.
And the triggers to protect their finances from a fatal event were:
Buy a property
Start a family
2. Defining the MVP and wireframes
User journey map
I mapped out the full journey, from planning to the paperwork after death. It starts with the key actions for the users to plan and ends with the key actions for the family to manage.
That way we will have an overview of the full process.
What will be the problems we will solve in the MVP?
Finance: the number one worry for the user is their family finances.
Trust: people don’t trust the life insurance industry. That is because the buying process is confusing and obscure.
Communication: making sure that the loved ones get the information they need. That will make the claiming process easy.
From user flows to usability testing
I created the user flows to understand better the user journey. The flow will start on the website until the payment screen.
With that information, I create basic wireframes. I like to do usability testing early on in the process, that way I can adapt and change quickly.
In my experience doing testing with low fidelity prototypes helps to get honest feedback.
Some the the learnings after a few rounds of testing:
Critical points
Payment: people feel payment is too soon and don’t feel confident to put their card details.
Layout: some people missed the create a plan section.
Things to improve
Questionnaire: a combination of a friendly paragraph and a single question per page.
Clear next step: make an easier onboarding, with next steps so users don’t get lost.
Positive feedback
Pension: people find value on having the pension details available (and it’s free).
Simple and easy: it feels easy to change and update the platform with your needs.
3. Branding and final prototype
I kicked-off the work in the brand with a workshop with the stakeholders. It is important to understand the buying persona and the competitor landscape. Equally important is to define the company principles, because these will define the brand style.
Bequest’s principles:
We are you-centric
We want to offer a personalized experience. Each person has their own personal circumstances and we want to offer you the best solution tailor to your life.
We make life easier
We want to do things in a new way, a platform that will give you transparency and control.
We are supportive
We remove confusion and stress. We offer you our knowledge so you need to make informed decisions and guide you to achieve your peace of mind.
We are reliable
We choose carefully all of our partners. Your trust is really important for us and we want to make sure we deliver our promises.
I created a few mood boards that reflected these principles in different styles. Then I presented them to the stakeholders and had a discussion about them. In the end, we decided to combine two of them to create the brand style.
Style: Adulting
The target users are experiencing a transition in their lives. They are starting a family. Everything changes around them and they want to bring control back to their lives.
Style: Kids at home
When there are young kids at home everything is fun and an adventure. The house is full of energy and joy. The life of the target users has changed and the future should be optimistic.
The challenge: Even if we are focusing on new parents, the vision is that this product is for everyone. The "custodians" will target different users.
Recognizable and simple
Geometric figures form the logo. These represent the adapting pieces of the product, and each user will be able to make their own.
It's simple and colorful, which will make the brand easy to recognize. Also, I wanted to reflect transparency and honesty, important to create trust.
