Delivery • Windmill

Most product design projects start with desk research — also called secondary research. This type of market research involves collecting data from existing resources, making it the opposite of primary research where you go out and study things first-hand.   

But what is desk research? When is it needed, and how do you do it?  

This blog will answer these questions and explore how desk research will lead you towards user testing and continuous research throughout the product development process. 

Why is conducting research important? 

Before you decide to launch or design a product, you should get answers to several questions such as:

  • What is the current market situation? 
  • Does the market need this product? 
  • Who are your potential customers? What are their needs and pain points? 
  • What problems can you solve that competitors cannot? 
  • What do customers like/dislike about your product? 

Product research helps you make well-informed product development decisions, identify potential issues, and gain insight into your customer’s needs and desires. This will enable you to build a well-structured strategy and develop products that your customers will love. 

The consequences of poor market research 

In 1985, Coca-Cola updated its classic coca-cola drink with a new formula. The company had performed 190,000 blind taste tests on consumers and discovered that they preferred the sweeter flavour of its rival Pepsi — so the ‘New Coke’ was launched. 

The problem was that Coca-Cola had underestimated loyal drinkers’ emotional attachments to the brand. Its market research testers failed to ask subjects how they would feel if the new formula replaced the old one. 

The new formula caused outrage among loyal customers and executives were forced to bring back Coca-Cola’s original flavour just 79 days after their initial announcement. This was a costly mistake that lost the company millions in revenue. 

What does desk research involve?

As mentioned, desk research is a research method that involves using existing data. This technique allows you to gather ideas and research your market and users “from your desk.” 

You can collect this type of secondary research from published materials in reports, articles, or similar documents that are easily accessible on the web or in public libraries.

Why is it essential? 

  • Secondary data sources are easy to find 
  • This research method is cheaper than primary research 
  • This research method takes much less time than primary research 

How to do desk research in 5 steps 

Step 1: Define your research objective 

The first step is to describe what you intend to accomplish with your research project. You can identify this by answering key questions that are relevant to your market and customers. 

For example, if you are a French baker and want to create bread with alternative flour, your questions should break down every question within that process, such as: 

  • What alternative flours are available in France? 
  • Which of these flours are affordable? 
  • Among the remaining choices, which flours are easy to use? 
  • Among the remaining choices, which flours taste good? 
  • What alternative flours are currently used by bakers in France? 
  • Who are you selling this new bread to?

Step 2: Build a research plan 

You then need to decide how you will complete this research and answer the questions you have set. As part of your research plan, you’ll need to decide which platforms you will use for your research.

Some popular resources include: 

  • Government, non-government agencies, and trade body statistics 
  • Company reports and research 
  • Competitor research 
  • Public library collections 
  • Textbooks and research journals 
  • Media stories in newspapers 
  • Online journals and research sites 
  • ChatGPT

3 tips for conducting desk research: 

  1. Check the credibility of resources 
  2. Check the date on publications and use up-to-date information
  3. Avoid duplicating desk research by checking what has been done already

Step 3: Use the right tools and resources 

There are many resources available for desk research and you must choose the right tools for your project. 

Here are some reliable sources that we recommend using for secondary research:

  • JSTOR: This is a great resource to find research papers. Any article published before 1924 in the United States is available for free on JSTOR and the digital library also offers scholarships for independent researchers. 
  • Google Scholar: This is the most popular and easy-to-use search engine that can present scholarly pieces of writing on any topic you require. Google Scholar is free to use, and you can search for any type of publishing format. 
  • ChatGPT: This is a large language model (LLM), a machine-learning system that autonomously learns from data. 

There are also lots of great tools that you can use for competitive analyses, including:

  • Crunchbase: This is a live company database which updates constantly. This tool helps you identify upcoming marketing tendencies. 
  • Capterra: This is an intermediary between buyers and technology vendors within the software industry. Here, you can find the most comprehensive lists of products per industry, reviews, ratings, and infographics, and easily compare competitors. 
  • Serpstat: This is one of the top-rated SEO tools that will help you outline competitor analysis simply by entering your domain.

Step 4: Conduct user testing 

Desk research is a fast and affordable research method but it should be combined with qualitative user research to get the best results. Once you’ve completed your desk research, you can begin talking with real users and testing your products. 

User testing is a crucial part of the product design process and it is much more than simply having a functional product. It’s about maximising everyone’s return on investment and elevating the design to ensure the end product will achieve the desired goals and objectives. 

There are two types of usability testing: 

  • Quantitative testing: This focuses on the usability of a design and assesses users’ performance on a given task, such as completion rates or task times. Quantitative data is usually sourced from questionnaires, surveys, or A/B Testing
  • Qualitative testing: This focuses on the user’s emotions and identifies which design features are easy or hard to use. Qualitative data is usually sourced from interviews and user observations. 

Why user testing is important

Let’s look at an example of why user testing should be an essential part of product development…

In 1990, the well-known beer brewing company Coors decided to tap into the booming bottled-water market by introducing Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water. 

Coors kept its easily recognisable logo at the front and centre of the label. This confused customers, leaving many worried that the new beverage may contain alcohol. 

If Coors had carried out user testing, they would have discovered that the Coors name did not help sell the new product. In fact, it confused and even frightened customers. 

Step 5: Prepare a post-research report 

Documentation is essential to all areas of research, and you should start documenting right from the beginning of the process. Create a detailed research report of all desk research and user research you find. 

You can then share your research findings in the form of a presentation for your team and stakeholders.  

Final thoughts 

Desk research is an easy and cost-effective form of market research that should be the starting point of every product design project. Your desk research will guide your project, leading to effective user testing and ensuring continuous research throughout the design process. 

We hope this article has provided you with useful information about desk research and how to implement it in your next product development project. 

In this installment of our series, we’re excited to introduce Ivan Myronov, the Principal Technologist at 1PLTFRM and leader of the React team at Windmill. Join us as Ivan explores the many facets of React and shares how his team’s approach sets Windmill apart from the competition.

What Exactly is React?

Ivan Myronov Explains:

  • React in a Nutshell: React is a JavaScript library, not a framework, which means it’s more flexible and focused. It helps developers build user interfaces by managing the view layer for web and mobile apps.
  • Common Misconceptions: It’s often mistaken for a framework because it’s so comprehensive, but React is all about giving developers the freedom to structure their projects their way.

Unique Features of Windmill’s React Team

Ivan’s Insights:

  • Dedicated Practice: Our team dedicates countless hours to mastering React, emphasizing clean code and frequent refactoring to enhance project quality.
  • Collaborative Learning: We hold bi-weekly meetings to discuss our technical debt and prioritize our tasks, ensuring we’re always at the forefront of industry standards.

React vs. Angular: Choosing the Right Tool

Technical Comparison by Ivan:

  • Coding Style: React uses a declarative programming style that reduces boilerplate code and simplifies debugging.
  • Data Binding: Unlike Angular’s two-way binding, React employs a one-way data flow that makes it easier to track changes and debug applications.
  • Learning Curve: React’s fewer abstractions make it more approachable for beginners compared to Angular.

Advantages and Considerations of Using React

Why React?

  • Developer Efficiency: React allows for building applications using reusable components that are easy to maintain.
  • Community Support: With backing from Facebook and a vibrant community, React offers extensive resources for learning and troubleshooting.

Things to Consider:

  • Application Size: React apps can be larger in size, which might affect performance especially on mobile devices.
  • Virtual DOM Overheads: Managing virtual DOMs can add complexity and require optimization to ensure performance, particularly with larger applications.

The Virtual DOM Explained

How React Uses the Virtual DOM:

  • Efficiency in Updates: React creates a virtual copy of the UI in memory, which it updates based on changes in the data model before rendering those changes in the browser efficiently.
  • Myth Busting: It’s a common myth that the virtual DOM provides unmatched speed. However, React’s real benefit is in making the development process faster and less error-prone.

Entering the Field: Advice for Graduates

Ivan’s Advice:

  • Stay Curious: React is a gateway to modern web development with a robust community and a plethora of learning resources.
  • Master the Basics: Solid knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS is crucial before diving into React to fully leverage its capabilities.

React’s Role at Windmill

Problem Solving with React:

  • Enterprise Applications: React’s modular nature makes it ideal for rapidly developing enterprise-level applications and expanding existing applications.
  • Legacy Projects: It’s excellent for incremental upgrades, allowing teams to refactor and improve legacy systems gradually.

Windmill Digital offers a variety of digital product design and digital product strategy services that will help you stand out against your competitors. For more information, contact us here.  

The WealthTech industry has been rapidly growing in recent years, driven by advances in technology, changing consumer preferences, and increasing demand for personalized financial services. WealthTech uses technology to manage and grow wealth, including tools and services such as robo-advisors, micro-investing platforms, digital brokers, account aggregators, private banking solutions, and more.

One of the key technologies that is revolutionizing the WealthTech industry is language model AI, particularly large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-3. These models have the ability to process vast amounts of natural language data and generate high-quality responses that are often indistinguishable from human-written text.

Perspectives of LLMs in WealthTech industry

In the context of private banking, LLMs can be used to provide personalized investment advice and create more customized investment portfolios. Private banks can use LLMs to analyze vast amounts of data from a client’s financial history, investment goals, and risk tolerance to generate tailored investment recommendations. This can help private banks provide more personalized services and deepen client relationships.

LLMs can also be used to automate certain aspects of wealth management, such as account opening, KYC/AML checks, and portfolio rebalancing. This can help private banks reduce costs and increase efficiency while also improving the client experience by reducing the amount of time and effort required to open and manage an account.

The future of WealthTech looks promising, as large language models (LLMs) continue to revolutionize the industry by providing personalized investment advice and automating certain aspects of wealth management. With the ability to process vast amounts of natural language data, LLMs can generate high-quality responses that are often indistinguishable from human-written text. As the industry continues to grow and innovate, the use of LLMs is expected to become increasingly widespread, helping private banks reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve the client experience.

Enabling WealthTech with Topaz, Windmill and AI

Windmill is supporting and accelerating the growth of visionary WealthTech companies by providing readymade solutions for WealthTech automated journeys with Topaz or premium customized tailor-made experiences with Windmill and our AI partners.

Topaz – building premium WealthTech journeys in months instead of years

One of the biggest challenges for WealthTech companies is providing value fast and an experience that is premium for its clients so it can stand out. Topaz provides a premium experience to private clients by improving service levels and engagement, deepening relationships, and enhancing company efficiency and compliance.

Topaz offers a range of solutions, including a 360-degree wealth view, cash banking in a single place across multiple existing accounts, secure document management, and personalized, curated channels for market events, ideas, proposals, and regulatory communications.

Windmill – building digital experiences that inspire and innovate

At Windmill, we offer digital product services to bring ideas to life. Windmill’s design and development services provide value at all stages of the digital product development lifecycle, including venture building, product design, digital transformation, and development with tons of experiences in the banking and wealthtech space.

Windmill has worked with financial institutions, banks, mortgage houses, Trust Management companies over two decades and supports our partners with premium award-winning experiences.

At Windmill, the team starts with understanding their clients’ needs with various product discovery workshops and creates a shared understanding of the problem, global product vision, the customer segments and their needs, and the value proposition. They follow that with a lot of sketching, concepts, prototyping, and iterative testing with customers.

Windmill runs multiple design and discovery sprints as needed and builds these successfully and iteratively with their agile development team.

Conclusion

The WealthTech industry is rapidly expanding, driven by technological advancements and changing consumer preferences. The emergence of innovative solutions, such as large language models, is revolutionizing the industry and creating new opportunities for private banking and wealth management.

Companies like Topaz and Windmill are leading the way, providing premium, customized solutions that improve efficiency, deepen client relationships, and enhance the overall client experience. As the industry continues to grow and evolve, investors and service providers alike will benefit from the continued innovation and disruption in the WealthTech space.

Neo banks, also known as challenger banks, are rapidly gaining popularity due to their innovative features and user-friendly interfaces. These digital banks offer a premium experience for clients with seamless and convenient access to their financial information and transactions. However, building a neo bank from scratch can be a daunting task, especially for financial institutions that lack the necessary technology and expertise.

That’s where Topaz Digital comes in. As a platform solution provider for financial institutions like single family offices, multi-family offices, private banks, external asset managers, and trust companies, Topaz Digital offers a comprehensive suite of tools and capabilities that can help neo banks create their client-facing digital offering.

Tailored, market-ready financial user experiences in a matter of months

Key benefits of partnering with Topaz Digital:

Our team of visionaries and experts can provide neo banks with the guidance and support they need to succeed in the highly competitive digital banking landscape.

Topaz Digital’s platform solutions are designed to guide customers through some simple steps to create their digital offering quickly, helping them stay ahead of the competition and meet the changing needs of their clients.

Seamlessly integrated apps give users an impressive front door: Users can enjoy a seamless and convenient digital banking experience with all operations and support taking place digitally, leading to increased engagement, a deeper relationship with the bank, and ultimately, higher client satisfaction.

The Future of Banking is Digital

Neo banks are rapidly changing the face of banking with a digital-first approach.

Contact Topaz Digital today to learn more about how we can help your neo bank succeed in the digital age.

Let’s talk about Wealthtech. If the last fifteen years or so have been characterized by an intensive drive to digitalize almost all aspects of our economy, it’s fair to say that wealth management has been something of a laggard in that respect. A conservative industry based on trust and close relationships, it’s understandable why wealth management could be wary of the atomized, impersonal nature of digital relationships.

However, we have come to see that those fears are mostly unfounded and a wide range of companies, called Wealthtechs, have shown how digital solutions can supplement (or even replace aspects of) the delivery of wealth management services.

But as Wealthtech is a new industry, and one easily confused with its better-known cousin, Fintech, we want to take the opportunity to provide an in-depth explainer about what Wealthtech is, what problems it solves, its history, and its future.

What is Wealthtech?

First, let’s define what Wealthtech actually is, as there is some conflicting information out there on the subject.

Definition of Wealthtech 

Wealthtech is a subset of Fintech, which is the delivery of a broad range of financial services through digital means. Within that, Wealthtech is focused on delivering wealth management services digitally. 

The question is: What has digital enabled in the wealth management space that wasn’t possible previously? 

Broadly speaking, solutions fall into two categories: solutions that expand the availability of wealth management services to wider social groups; and solutions that leverage digital to deliver traditional wealth management services more effectively. 

Perhaps it would be helpful to look at the difference between eToro and Betterment and why one can be considered Fintech and the other is Wealthtech. eToro is an investment platform that lets customers buy and sell a wide range of assets. It allows them to get hands-on with their investment portfolios and become individual active investors. We would argue this remains Fintech, despite its services being used to build one’s wealth. 

On the other hand, while Betterment also allows its customers to invest in the stock market, it requires them to consider their long-term financial goals, risk appetite, and investment horizons. It does not allow its customers to trade individual equities (or other asset types), deploying algorithms to invest instead in passive funds. It treats its customers like private wealth clients. Therefore, we can consider Betterment a Wealthtech company. 

Both the above groups target the customer not the service provider, but Wealthtech solutions also exist that improve the lives of the wealth managers themselves, either allowing them to serve more clients or serve existing clients more effectively—or both. The term for Wealthtech solutions for wealth managers is “Advicetech”, although this term is not as established. 

Click here for a deeper look into the differences between Wealthtech and Fintech. 

Wealthtech Solutions 

Wealthtech companies comprise, by our count, seven distinct verticals.

Robo-Advisors 

Robo-advisory platforms provide algorithmically generated investing and financial planning services. New clients will complete a questionnaire that assesses their risk profile, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) views, time horizon, financial goals, and other key criteria, forming an investment basis. The platform will then invest typically in passive investment funds. 

Robo advisors can deliver services at scale, allowing them to charge lower fees. Clients can also open accounts with a smaller investment pool and can access the service at any time. On the downside, they have fewer investment options available. 

Robo advisors make up the fee deficit through processing larger volume of transactions, thanks to their larger client base. 

We’ve dug further into this topic in our blog, ‘How Wealthtech is democratizing investing’. 

Robo Retirement 

Some firms offer algorithmically generated retirement planning. The general approach is similar to the robo-investment platforms, just with a tweaked end goal. 

Micro Investing 

For people who struggle to set aside a monthly sum for investing, micro investing allows customers to round up their daily purchases to the nearest primary unit of currency (dollar, euro, pound sterling etc) and invest the margin in their portfolio. This allows the customer to slowly build up their investment pot without having to adjust their behavior or spending. 

This model is possible with zero investment fees and the advent of fractional shares. Fractional shares are a portion of a share that’s less than one whole share. 

Digital Brokers 

Digital Brokers automate services provided by traditional brokers in verticals such as insurance and mortgages. Robo advisors can also be considered digital investment brokerages.   

Account Aggregators 

Made possible by Open Banking regulation introduced in the 2010s, account aggregators use APIs to bring together an individual or household’s financial accounts (savings, current, and investment) in one place. 

Private Banking Solutions 

The ultra-rich have different, or extended, needs in terms of managing their wealth than the layman. Companies such as Topaz bring together a raft of existing technologies to offer end-to-end private wealth solutions that make wealth management easier for both clients and advisors alike. 

In the tug-of-war between automated and traditional (in-person) wealth management, a third way, hybrid advice, is winning. Hybrid advice empowers clients to handle certain tasks themselves while retaining the ability to talk to their personal financial advisor, building and maintaining the key element of private banking—trust. And for the advisor, such solutions automate laborious processes so they can focus on their biggest value-add—building relationships with clients. 

Advicetech 

Advicetech companies provide software solutions that help wealth management firms improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their operations. While the term was coined relatively recently, Advicetech is perhaps the oldest type of Wealthtech, with financial planning and stock-picking software first appearing in 1998.

Find out which six Wealthtech companies we think are delivering outstanding UX.

History of Wealthtech

Now, let’s take a look at the big picture: how Wealthtech began, what its adolescent growth phase looked like, and what’s happening in the industry in the early-mid 2020s as the industry matures.

Stage 1: Origin of Wealthtech 

Before Wealthtech really started in around 2008, proto-Wealthtech companies and services existed before then. Financial Engines, now known as Edelman Financial Engines, began providing retirement planning and fund-picking software in 1998 for instance; while software that supports wealth managers has also been around since the ‘90s. 

Stage 2: Growth of Wealthtech 

The release of Betterment’s platform in 2008 can be considered to mark the initiation of the Wealthtech movement. Betterment was perhaps the first robo-advice platform and, as of 2022, is the largest globally. Wealthfront went live in 2008 as well. Betterment’s release coincided roughly with the 2007 Financial Crisis. Some commentators have drawn a link between the two, arguing that people looked to new ways to control and stabilize their financial situation in a turbulent time.  

No doubt that’s part of the equation. A more likely factor, however, was the coalescence of new consumer tech becoming available, namely the original iPhone in 2007, and the tech industry becoming a distinct entity. Together, businesses had new challenges to solve and new channels through which to deliver their solutions. With sophisticated software and hardware in consumers’ pockets for the first time, app-delivered services became viable.  

Not too dissimilar to Betterment, Nutmeg, a London-based robo-advisor, arrived in 2011. Other robo-advisors that sprung up in the following years included Scalable Capital (Germany), Wealthsimple (Canada), Stockport (Australia), Moneyfarm (Italy), TrueWealth (Switzerland), and 8 Securities (Asia-Pacific). There are an estimated 100 robo-advisors around today. 

Micro-investing pioneer Acorns was founded in 2012, followed by Stash in 2015. 

Robo-retirement company RobustWealth was founded in 2015 (but was absorbed into its parent company, Principal, in 2021, three years after its acquisition).  

Stage 3: Consolidation of Wealthtech 

While the world’s biggest financial institutions had incorporated robo-advisory technology in their own offerings for a while, the 2020s saw a change in their digital advice strategy. A period of consolidation began and many of the most successful robo-advisors were acquired for large sums. Nutmeg was acquired by JPMorgan in 2021 for nearly $5bn and Wealthfront was acquired by UBS a year later for $1.4bn. 

This is where we appear to be currently: the best Wealthtech companies have proven their business models and have drawn the attention of the financial world’s big beasts. 

Future of Wealthtech 

What does the future hold for Wealthtech? Who can say for sure, but here are some of our predictions: 

Further consolidation 

It seems likely that further acquisitions of some of the biggest Wealthtech companies will follow Nutmeg and Wealthfront. Although still small in comparison, robo-advisors have built up sizeable AUM (assets under management) and have a proven business model. Companies could also be acquired for their analytics models and plugged into established offerings, finding synergies that way. 

Betterment is still independent—could this change in the next few years? 

Increasing technological sophistication expands appeal of robo-advice 

While there remains scepticism about robo-advice (albeit not evenly across age groups), the continuing improvement of advice and advice delivery will see robo-advice gain ground on human/expert advice. Just as how shopping on mobile phones feels normal to most people now (compared to ten years ago when people were still suspicious of it), taking advice from an algorithm will be normalized. 

Algorithms will be improved in terms of analytics and personalization; while AI and natural language processing will allow customers to talk to live chat robots as if they were a human wealth manager. 

Private Wealth solutions will gain clients 

While many Wealthtech companies target the mass market, companies such as Topaz will hone their private wealth offering, delivering an exclusive digital experience that mimics, or even improves on, the delivery of traditional wealth management services. The tech industry has been somewhat slow to turn its attention to private wealth management and a great opportunity exists to digitize many aspects of the sector, improving client experience and uncovering cost efficiencies for wealth managers. 

Increased investment into the sector 

Investments in Wealthtech companies has dramatically risen in recent years, and we expect this to continue. According to Fintech Global, Wealthtech investment in 2020 was more than double the 2019 figure, of $9.2bn vs $20.9bn—and that latter number only covered Q1-3 2020. The total number of deals grew by 7% in the same timeframe, suggesting that the average value per deal was greatly increased. 

While it’s probably fair to say we can’t expect Wealthtech investment to double every year, certainly there is momentum behind the growth.

Conclusion

Wealthtech is an industry to keep an eye on. At Windmill, we have been solving Wealthtech problems for clients for many years, such as delivering a slick onboarding experience, enabling a holistic view of wealth in one place, and, most importantly for us, building our own Wealthtech company, Topaz. If you have a problem with an aspect of your service, consider Windmill as your partner. 

In this installment of Windmill’s Thought Leadership Series, we sat down with Alexander Molchanov, our seasoned engineering manager who also leads the HTML/CSS team. Alexander provided valuable insights into his area of expertise and discussed his experiences working at Windmill.

What is Windmill’s HTML/CSS team responsible for? 

Alexander Molchanov: Well, first of all, Windmill is a company that cares about design solutions, and, as such, there is a big team of great designers who create innovative experience designs. The HTML/CSS team works closely with designers to implement their vision and any avante garde ideas they have in the first-class web applications of our company. By keeping a keen eye for small details, using the best approaches and modern technologies, and improving the final results with several stages of testing and reviews, we bring this experience to end-users.  

We are also responsible for design systems, responsive design (rendering on displays of various sizes), accessibility, image optimization, SEO, email templates, and print styles, etc. Sometimes we can work independently on some types of projects, but mostly we work together with other development teams, such as Angular and React, on large, complex web applications. 

What are the key technical skills for HTML/CSS developers at Windmill?

AM: Of course, HTML and CSS are basic and key skills, but that’s not all. The list of key skills also includes SCSS, SVG, WAI-ARIA, JavaScript/TypeScript. Also, our work involves knowledge of React and Angular (at least at a basic level), GIT, design and build tools, UI component libraries, package managers, design systems, and so on. There are even more secondary skills, but it makes no sense to dwell on them. In total, the list of skills and knowledge areas in our Team Levels Framework consists of 87 items at the moment.  

We used to also learn and practice jQuery, PHP, MySQL, server administration for our WordPress-based websites, but now another team is in charge of that, so we have more time to hone our core skills and learn some new related technologies. 

What other Front-End teams are there in the company? 

AM: Currently there are four Front-End teams in the company: HTML/CSS, Angular, React and CMS. Each team has many excellent specialists in their field, who have years of experience behind them and are still intensively developing to reach the peak of their capacity and efficiency. Depending on the requirements of the project, selected technologies and some other aspects, front-end developers from different teams form mixed sub-teams and united in squads with other teams (such as Back-End, Quality Assurance, Management, etc.) jointly develop modern and high-quality products of the company. This model has proven itself, especially in large long-term projects. 

What do you think is the advantage of highly specialized Front-End teams? 

AM: The main advantage is the ability of such teams to create projects of any complexity with well-thought-out solutions and excellent quality. 

It’s no secret that every developer is limited in the way of his development by a number of factors, for example, the ability to assimilate a certain amount of information per unit of time, free time for learning, memory stability, monotony or technological limitations of projects, and so on. In addition, technologies do not stand still and are continuously developing, supplementing, changing every day. Also, new auxiliary tools appear, new specifications come out, more and more libraries and frameworks are invented, while something becomes irrevocably outdated and loses its relevance. 

And all this leads to the fact that it is easier for developers with a smaller technology stack to stay on the wave of relevance. They have more opportunities not only to go as far as possible into the jungle of their technologies, experiment, practice non-standard approaches, understand the slightest nuances and specifics of the selected technologies, but also more often and deeper to track any innovations. They hone their skills almost to the ideal, can solve the task of any complexity within their specialization, write cleaner and more optimized code, make fewer mistakes, use significantly fewer hardcodes and workarounds, etc. 

If we talk about developers with a wider technology stack, they are more versatile, but at the same time, their knowledge and skills in each individual technology are less than highly specialized developers. Therefore, the quality of their code and the visual part are often worse; complex tasks take longer to solve or are even rejected; or for some solutions, cumbersome alternatives or third-party libraries are used instead of several lines of correct code, etc. As a result, projects can look worse, work slower, have more different problems, and it’s harder to maintain them. 

Nevertheless, any specialists are in demand now. As for the choice between highly specialized and cross-functional specialists, it depends primarily on the company’s goals, expectations, and quality requirements. 

Does knowing other technologies make you a better web developer?

AM: I think it’s useful to be familiar with other technologies. This can help you better understand all stages of project development, work with other teams more easily, resolve various problems. But it’s important to find the line because spending too much time on other technologies can negatively affect your core skills. In addition, not all technologies might come in handy, so it’s not really good idea to waste your time on them. Everything must be wise. And everything needs a reason. As for me personally, I can spend up to 20 percent of my time studying other technologies that are interesting to me and useful for projects. 

What are your main responsibilities as HTML/CSS lead? 

AM: All my responsibilities can be roughly divided into 3 groups: general, project-related, and intradepartmental.  

The general responsibilities include the development and updating of standards and technical documentation as well as universal modules and libraries; the introduction of new technologies and optimization approaches; the development of trial tasks and evaluation systems; prescreening candidates and holding technical interviews; communicating with other leads and top-management around high-level questions; knowledge sharing between departments; and participation in resource planning and allocation, and so on.  

Project-related responsibilities contain the following: communication with clients and team members, analysis of the project goals and technical expertise, project planning and estimation, support in resource management, work on project architecture and technical solutions (together with other leads), technical documentation, regular code reviews, VQA, development strategy, and refactoring plans.  

I also have intradepartmental responsibilities, which include department development strategy, team expansion planning, technical onboarding and continuous support, integration scheme, mentoring, team documentation, OKR process, inventing and conducting various training events (like code hackathons, workshops, technical meetups, etc.), review and verification of developer skills, supporting materials and learning programs, review of developers seniority level, knowledge sharing, introduction to new technologies, team motivation, resolving various issues, and corporate events. 

What is the prevailing atmosphere in your team?

AM: Actually, I’m very proud of my team. This is the case when the team consists not only of cool developers but also of good sociable people. We have a very friendly and exciting atmosphere. All the guys in the team are very positive, without arrogance and pomposity, they are always ready to help each other, support in any matter. We often hold various events, like to brainstorm and resolve issues together, periodically meet outside of business hours to discuss work and personal issues. Of course, it helps to work better, easier and more fun! 

What technologies have you started using in recent years?

AM: Since we stopped supporting the Internet Explorer on our projects a few years ago, and nothing else holding us back, we have begun to use the full power of modern CSS. We have started using CSS Grids, CSS custom properties, content-based intrinsic sizes and context-based extrinsic sizes, logical properties, new functions, various modern properties and values that were not supported by IE, etc. We also abandoned almost all vendor prefixes, stopped using different fallbacks and polyfills, optimized old mixins, and so on.  

With the start of React projects, we mastered a new javascript library and a number of new knowledge, started using [React UI library] Ant Design, learned styled-components, discovered new auxiliary tools for facilitating our work and automating some processes. There are also many interesting plans for the near future, but it is too early to talk about them. 

How does the HTML/CSS team ensure the best implementation of projects?

AM: We always take care about the quality of our work. Years of experience, responsibility, well-coordinated teamwork and a number of established processes help in this matter.  

So first of all, it is an individual approach. Even at the project planning stage, we carefully review all the requirements for the project and the client’s expectations, thoroughly analyze them and choose the best suitable technologies taking into account possible risks and scalability. 

Secondly, in the process of working on a project, each piece of code goes through several levels of thorough code reviews by different developers. Also we do visual quality assurance, stress-testing, conduct code optimization sessions, and so on. 

Thirdly, we have multi-level testing, which includes both automated testing and manual testing in various conditions at different levels: by developers, tech leads, designers, QA engineers, and managers. 

Fourthly, we periodically conduct global code review sessions between sprints and collectively decide what can be improved. There is always something to cut, optimize, redo or refactor. Thus, the project code is not littered and is always under close scrutiny. 

Finally, we carefully test the project at the stage of completion and put the final touches on it.  

What are you doing to train HTML/CSS developers quickly and effectively? Are there any training activities in the team? 

AM: I think we have succeeded in this direction. In addition to a good mentorship model, OKR process, general development programs and shared training materials, we have a number of training events within the department. Some of them are code hackathons, workshops, technical meetups, master-classes. 

Code Hackathons help developers to improve their practical skills on the top level, better analyze tasks and make the correct decision, look at problems from all angles, think outside the box, improve their ability to work under the pressure and with tight deadlines. And all this without real stressful situations on the project, but in a gambling and interesting way. 

Master-classes help broaden the horizons of developers. At them, we analyze all possible options for solving one problem in different ways, both obvious and very unexpected alternatives, find and discuss the best approaches, share experience and ideas. 

Workshops have many different advantages: learning new technologies and the latest updates in existing ones, consolidating old knowledge, improving teamwork skills, and finding common interests by developers. Fairly often these events take the form of quizzes, mini-games, interactive exercises, collaborative coding, or group discussions. 

As for technical meetups, they can be held by developers on absolutely any topic that is useful to the team. The history of all meetups is archived and available for new developers to study. 

Usually, we have up to ten events per quarter. This is enough to constantly improve the overall technical skills of the team, and at the same time not overload the developers.

What are the career prospects for developers in your specialty? 

AM: Our specialty is a good option if you would like to start your career in web development because HTML and CSS are key technologies in this area. Each web developer, regardless of direction, should know at least the basics of these technologies. After a few years of study and practice, you can choose your future path: Continue to grow and become a great specialist in this direction, or easily switch to Angular or React (for example) or to technical project management, or whatever you like. There are no boundaries here. The main thing is to know exactly what you want and where you would like to go. Any specialists are valuable in the market, but only if they are good. 

What advice would you offer fresh graduates pursuing a career in your profession? 

AM: The most important thing is to be diligent and attentive. Try to spend as much time as possible on learning and practice, at first preferably not only during the day, but also at night. Do not miss the chance to dig deeper, experiment, look for popular solutions to average problems and compare them with your own solutions. Always think and analyze, do not learn automatically.  

In terms of learning itself, it is now much easier because there are guides, videos, and courses available on the internet for any budget. You can experiment with different types of training and understand what you like best and understand better. I would highly recommend taking some interactive courses. I will not advertise any specifically for obvious reasons, but you can easily Google and choose the best ones by rating. 

Interactive courses are a very interesting approach where you learn theory and immediately practice in a playful manner. This causes additional interest and excitement and makes learning not boring at all. In addition, it would be good to find an experienced mentor who will help you with advice, direct you on the true path, and point you in the right direction. A good mentor will shorten your learning time by several times and help you avoid the most common mistakes. 

Finally, could you say a few words about working for the company? 

AM: I’ve worked at Windmill for over 5 years. That already says a lot. We have a good general atmosphere in the company, with many great specialists, interesting complex projects, high team morale, and good career opportunities. What else does a developer need for happiness and self-realization? Of course, there are some challenges that can happen in any work, but they are rare, minimal, and quickly resolved. So in general everything is great! 

Windmill Digital offers high-quality product design services. Our experts are highly skilled in their field and are experienced in creating exceptional products for our broad range of clients. For more information, contact us here. 

Whether business or personal, who wants to dwell on their problems for long? Fortunately, the former can be solved in the least time: Design Sprints. If you’re wondering how they can help banks, you’ve come to the right place. But first, let’s expand on what a Design Sprint is in the first place.  

Design Sprints is a valuable method used in product design, where new ideas are tested and prototypes are made in one week. In some cases, it can last a few extra days. They are the quickest way to solve product-related problems and gain customer feedback. And if you’ve got the right team, you’re off to a good start.  

In this blog, we will take you through the five Design Sprint phases for banking projects.  

Phase 1: Explore  

In this phase, you identify which challenge you’re trying to solve via the Design Sprint. Get people from different departments in your company to create a dynamic team. You want to have all sorts of ideas on the table before deciding which one to prototype later. Consider making an Empathy Map during this phase to understand your customers better. You have even had lightning demos where team members share inspiring concepts linked to your competitors’ products. This can help you think outside the box.  

If you’re a bank seeking to offer 24/7 customer service but at a lower cost, you’ll consider how you can do this during this phase. Should you opt for live chats? What about AI? Do you have human operators or automated ones on calls? You’ll weigh the pros and cons of everything. 

Empathy Mapping is a key tool Windmill uses to understand our customers’ customers. Read how it works here.

Phase 2: Define  

During this phase, the different problem solutions are weighed. You’ll be refining the ideas your team came up within the earlier stage. The product manager, designer, engineer, marketer, user expert, and decider will all share valuable inputs. You can also study trends in the banking industry related to your product or service to generate deeper insights.  

Use a storyboard to visualize all the ideas and present your information. The storyboard will also allow you to clarify each step of the problem you’re solving and help you determine what needs to be prototyped. You don’t need to identify every user flow; focus on how you can create a realistic prototype that can provide you with genuine customer feedback.  

Phase 3: Prototype  

When creating your prototype, don’t add unnecessary aspects, as it’s a better idea to keep one flow constant. The main goal is to make a less costly, scaled-down version of your product, as this will help you identify any issues with its design. Not only will you be giving life to your ideas, but you’ll also understand your product’s workability. The designer in your team has to understand your vision correctly to achieve your vision for the prototype.  

Jake Knapp, the brains behind Design Sprint, says in his book, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days:  

“Prototype mindset. You can prototype anything. Prototypes are disposable. Build just enough to learn, but not more. The prototype must appear real.”  

Phase 4: Validate  

During this phase, your customers will test your solution and give you valuable insights regarding the prototype. You’ll know how well you met your customers’ needs and whether you created the right prototype.  

Consider inviting potential customers to interact with your prototype and have an interviewee question at least five customers. These interviews will be witnessed by the Design Sprint team, who will then note down any important takeaways from the interview.  

Phase 5: The pitch  

During this phase, you’ll show your prototypes and their conclusions to your client. You will also be making a report of all the ideas gathered during the Design Sprint to share with potential investors and stakeholders.  

Conclusion  

Design Sprints can help banks solve complex product issues inexpensively and quickly. Ensure you have the right team members that bring unique ideas to the table best suited to their expertise. This will not only help you reach an efficient solution, but you’ll be viewing the problem at hand from multiple perspectives. The five phases of Design Sprint can be effective if attention is paid to every detail involved within each phase. You might even achieve your business goals as you meet customer needs.  

Windmill Digital offers high-quality product design services. Our experts are highly skilled in their field and are experienced in creating exceptional products for our broad range of clients. For more information, contact us here. 

It’s all about that moola when it comes to finance applications. The cost of creating a finance app is no joke, but it’s certainly one that’s worth every dime in your pocket. The cost will vary accordingly, whether it’s a banking, stock-related, mobile, or bitcoin app you’re creating. You want to create an app that meets your business goals. One that’s not only high performing but also includes new-edge features that give you a market edge. Digital banking services are also rising, with 46% of people exclusively using them to manage their finances.   

Now would be a good time if you’ve been in a rut about creating your finance app.   

This blog discusses the various costs of creating finance apps and the various development, labor, and development/design factors you need to consider.  

Consider the basics  

When working out the costs of a finance app, know that there exists no standard cost. The type of the app, its functionality, who it’s built by and where it’s built all affect the price. Every business has its own needs and goals, which plays a role in determining the cost of an app. You do, however, need an approximate budget and time estimate to get started.   

At a base level, a finance app that offers users a secure and seamless online transaction method can cost $40,000 minimum. It can take around three to four months to create it. On the other hand, a finance application consisting of basic functionality and user interface can cost you somewhere between $30,000 to $50,000. If you’re looking to integrate modern technologies and enhanced solutions, you’re looking at a cost between $50,000 and $65,000. A highly complex finance app can cost you $80,000 plus.   

To find out how the financial app development process might look, read our blog, How to build a finance app.

Your team  

As mentioned earlier, your development team can affect the cost of your finance app. Factors like team size and their hourly rates can significantly impact your app cost.   

A local app development agency, on the other hand, can cost about $120,000. Local developers offer a more efficient development process that avoids time-zone-related delays. 

However, the cost of MVP development significantly rises with local app development agencies as the costs vary according to geographical locations.   

Freelance developers cost around $30,000. These are independent contractors you can separately hire to develop a finance app. While freelance developers can offer greater insights into your app development process, they can be inconsistent as they may have other clients’ projects simultaneously. Signing an NDA with a freelancer is important as it’ll bind them from transferring confidential data to your competitors. 

On the other hand, an outsource development agency is a remote team you hire at another location. It’s managed by a third party who always employs the entire team. An outsourced agency can cost around $40,000. Not only are these less expensive to run, but they’ll connect you with experienced business analysts, senior-level app developers, etc. A disadvantage would be that time zone differences can disrupt the project’s progress as these teams are hired remotely. Constant monitoring is also required, which can be tedious.   

Costs by location   

The costs related to finance applications can vary from country to country. Expect to pay top dollar for a banking app made in the USA, costing about $500,000. In Ukraine, costs may run to $175,000 and in India $105,000. Investment apps can cost around $180,000 in the USA, $60,000 in Ukraine, and $30,000 in India. Consumer finance apps cost about $240,000 in the USA, $80,000 in Ukraine, and $50,000 in India. Insurance apps cost roughly $300,000 in the USA, $100,000 in Ukraine, and $75,000 in India. Lending apps cost around $270,000 in the USA, $90,000 in Ukraine, and $65,000 in India.   

Other factors to consider   

Other factors that may impact the cost of your finance application include its features. The more complex your features are, the higher the cost. The operating system of the finance application, i.e., whether it works on iOS or Android, will affect its cost too. Whether your application is native or hybrid can also affect its cost. The development cost of native applications tends to be higher. Security is also another investment, as you’ll ensure you meet the necessary security requirements. Third-party APIs also cost a considerable amount of money, and your cost will vary according to how many integrations you need.   

Conclusion   

Finance applications are certainly an investment worth making if you put your money in all the right places. Think about how your costs can vary according to geographical or developmental reasons. Having an experienced team on board is helpful because they’ll offer you their expertise. It’s good to have a rough estimate in mind and take it from there. Consider all the ways you can get the best out of your money. Hiring a remote team in a less costly place, for instance, can help you save money. 

Windmill Digital is experienced in creating high-quality finance apps, customized according to client needs. Our experts are trained and highly experienced in their field and will ensure they meet all your security and UX requirements. To start building your own finance app, get in touch. 

A Design Sprint workshop is like a travelator. You know—one of those moving walkways you find in airports. You have a problem: the walk to the terminal is 10 minutes but the gate closes in five minutes. The solution: a moving walkway that gets you there twice as fast. 

A Design Sprint accelerates the early stages of the product development process. It saves time by getting you to your goal, faster. And it saves money by avoiding costly failures. Catch that flight! 

For a bank, where risk aversion is high and where excellence in delivery is critical to customer trust, Design Sprints hold particular value as they place empathy with the customer at the heart of the process. All too often banks trip over their own internal complexities and fail to deliver a customer-centric solution. By centering the customer from the very start, this problem can be avoided. 

The success of a Design Sprint workshop for a bank hinges on several things. First, the skill of the facilitator, who is responsible for the ultimate success of the workshop. Second, the size and composition of the workshop team will influence results. Thirdly, a space (real-world or virtual) conductive to creativity and co-operation is needed. 

If you’re thinking of running a Design Sprint workshop, here’s how to nail those three factors. 

Facilitation—not so easy 

Facil might be Spanish for “easy”, but facilitation is anything but. The facilitator is responsible for guiding the Design Sprint workshop towards a successful conclusion. The list of things a facilitator needs to get right for that to happen is long, covering a broad set of interpersonal as well as practical skills and design expertise—a rare combination. 

Building the Sprint 

Participants in the workshop need to be firing on all cylinders. That makes it crucial to plan an engaging agenda so that the team maintains focus and does not suffer from mental fatigue. Structure the day around a series of activities of varying types and durations and front-load the day with the more demanding activities. 

Before the workshop starts, it’s good practice to research the company you’re working with to reach a basic level of familiarity with the company, their products, and the challenges they face. It’s easier to build a rapport if you can show you’ve made an effort to get to know them. 

Send out an agenda prior to the workshop that contains the activities, objectives, and an explainer of design thinking principles. This prepares the participants for the workshop, sets expectations, and soothes any apprehension participants may have. 

Choose a selection workshop activities or tools are relevant to the project, touching on those that build empathy, define the problem, generate ideas, and find new approaches. When building a digital solution for banking, it’s likely that the problem is already fairly well defined, such as digitizing a manual or paper process, while building empathy with the user might get to the core of the problem more quickly. 

It’s good to strike a balance between activities that bring together the whole team, versus breakout or even individual activities. There are great many activities to choose from. The king of workshop activities is Journey Mapping, which aims to describe how a user can reach their goal by thinking about the journey in structured terms. 

The Interaction Design Foundation provides a laundry list of activities to choose from: empathy-building activities, define the problem activities, ideation activities, and sketching and prototyping activities.  

Who’s in?

The size and composition of the Design Sprint workshop team has a big influence on its ultimate success. Aim for a maximum of eight participants; any more and you will run into co-ordination issues. Someone needs to be the designated decision-maker for if or when the group is divided. Typically this will be the most senior person in the team. 

Invite a broad cross-section of your company to get a diverse range of viewpoints. Even though they do not have specific design or product skills, people from marketing, finance, sales, and technology (to name a few) will be able to contribute their unique perspective and provide insight into the practical realities that govern a product’s success. For example, someone from marketing might have a good sense if a product has innate appeal, or someone from technology might know more about the opportunities presented by technology. 

Space, man

In-person 

Drab, dark, unventilated or restrictive environs will stifle the creativity of any Design Sprint workshop. An ideal workshop room has natural light, whiteboards, and wall or glass panels for putting up posters. Make sure to book the same room for each day of the workshop—moving sticky notes from one room to another is a real pain! 

Stationery is important, too. The group will need pens, sticky notes, dot stickers, markers, tape, small and large paper sheets, and scissors. Design Sprint workshops are highly visual and participants need to be able to get ideas out there unhindered. 

One advantage of in-person workshops over online is that food can be provided. Slow-release energy is suited to long spells of concentration, things like nuts (albeit carried an allergy risk that needs assessing), flapjacks, and bananas. 

Online  

Online workshops need some adaptation to be successful. A collaboration tool is indispensable; the two best known are Miro and Figma, which allow group members to work simultaneously on the same board. As well as interactive whiteboards, they allow for voice and/or video chat, making communication easy. Despite that, anticipate lower productivity and allocate more time to each activity. It takes a high level of proficiency to work as easily in Figma or Miro as on paper, despite the excellent UI of both programs. 

Closing thoughts

Running a successful Design Sprint workshop is not easy, but this guide will hopefully point you in the right direction. However, if you want the services of an experienced design team with 300+ sprints under their belt, get in touch today.

Manually managing your finances is becoming a thing of the past. With finance apps on the rise, managing investments, spending, and budgeting has never been easier. For users, finance apps are a great way to keep track of their spending from virtually anywhere. Finance apps can also help create workable budgets based on their income and spending. Studies have demonstrated the material impacts of certain decisions on satisfaction and usage rates. For instance, around 57 percent of users opt for other financial services due to inefficient integration. So, if you’re thinking of creating a finance app, having optimal integration solutions can make that 57 percent choose you instead.

You might be creating a finance app to meet your customers’ financial needs, to offer better user interfaces, or to meet your overall business goals. Modern technologies like artificial intelligence integrated into finance apps also mean less room for errors. Finance apps can also be the safest way of making financial transactions or managing savings.

According to research by UBS, revenues from fintech are were likely to increase from $150 billion in 2018 to a hefty $500 billion by 2030. There’s no doubt that it’s on its way to become one of the fastest-growing sectors globally.

In this blog we discuss some key things that a company needs to get right for finance app success.

The role of Design Sprints in finance app design  

One of the first steps to creating a finance app is carrying out a Design Sprint. You can expect to see a finished version of your product and gain customer feedback at the end. You will also save considerable amounts of money as you’ll be starting small.  

At Windmill, we conduct Product Design Sprints in-person and online. The Sprint is divided into five steps. They consist of defining the challenge, the ideation phase, creating prototypes, validating prototypes by testing them with users and stakeholders, and lastly, making a detailed report that includes the product proposal that can then be shared with investors.  

Branding considerations such as app names or icons are also considered during Design Sprints and can be tested with users. 

After the Sprint

You may decide on having additional workshops after the Sprint if, for example, you’re not satisfied with the prototype or did not receive positive user feedback. These follow-up workshops or iteration workshops are shorter in duration and will give you the opportunity to create new, higher-quality prototypes better suited to your customers’ needs. You can even conduct a Code Sprint as this will test out the various options available to you in terms of product architecture, frameworks, etc.  

After the sprint, many Design Sprint teams also choose to polish existing prototypes and get more data points. The main aim is to create a prototype with the same usability features as a finished product.   

Clean UX design 

A clear, well-defined UX design is key when it comes to creating finance apps. For instance, an overcrowded interface full of details is avoided by users, who prefer simplicity. UI/UX experts will be able to guide you on how to create finance apps that appeal to users with their design. UI/UX trends are also constantly changing, and design is constantly evolving as technology improves and offers new possibilities—so your app should evolve with it. While the aesthetics of your app are important, so are logic and convenience. This means ensuring it runs smoothly and has a simple user-interface. Users should be able to get from point A to B conveniently.  

User flow diagrams are best used by UX designers to determine the flow of an application. It helps them visualize these needs by mapping them. If you build a user flow diagram with your development team, it should assimilate with the UX design. Other ways of creating clear UX designs and better usability include an introduction of the app consisting of the workings of its main features, using graphs where appropriate, simple navigation techniques or reducing scrolling. 

Technology considerations: coding language and integrations

When creating your finance app, it’s a good idea to determine which coding language or library you can use. Angular is one of the most popular technologies used in fintech, but it also helps in transforming the functionality of apps, hence improving the UX. It has a fast development process, as well as better speed and performance compared to other technologies of its sort. Its array of features, programming style and maintenance are some of the many reasons it’s chosen by developers.

Having seamless integration with other relevant services such as chatbots are also key, as it can offer users a convenient method of communication. Connecting your app’s interface with popular payment platforms like PayPal or Apple Pay can offer ease of payment for users and they’ll be able to make their payments directly from your app. Integration is a fundamental aspect of finance apps as it optimizes UX and attracts more users. APIs are widely used for integrations as they help different platforms communicate and fasten the development process.

Security

It’s vital for users to trust you with their confidential financial information and be assured that their money is safe in your hands. Mistrust in the security of your services can reduce the number of people willing to use your app. A great way to ensure your app is secure is to include a two-factor authentication. Oftentimes, a third authentication method is also used in the form of fingerprint scanning.  

Open-source libraries shouldn’t be trusted blindly too. Research by Trend Micro (2021) found that security threats related to open-source libraries increased by 2.5x over the last three years. Eliminate email as a form of customer correspondence and instead try opting for AES-256 encryption as it’s a lot more secure and can also be applied to chats! Research has found that 96 percent of phishing attacks are done via email.  

Conclusion

Finance apps are a brilliant way to help people manage their wealth better. Understanding what will give your users peace of mind when using your service is crucial. With the rise in cybercrime, it’s important to maintain a high level of security so users know they made the right decision opting for your services instead of your competitors. So in a nutshell: start with a design sprint, follow up, then deal with the necessary design considerations.  

Windmill Digital is experienced in creating high-quality finance apps customized according to client needs. Our experts are trained and highly experienced in their field and will ensure they meet all your security and UX requirements. To start building your own finance app, get in touch. 

Digitally delivered financial services, known collectively as fintech(s), have become, very quickly, an enormous industry. According to research from CBInsights, fully one-fifth of all unicorns (start-ups valued at >$1bn) are now fintechs, a sharp increase on even a couple of years ago. 

This is great news for consumers and businesses, who can manage their finances in an increasing number of slick, convenient ways. But more of a challenge for large banking industry incumbents, whose tried-and-tested methods and products are being, well, tested by a sea of small companies with big ideas. 

It’s a situation that places the onus on banks to constantly question whether their services and delivery can be competitive going forwards. For that reason, the rapid digital transformation of products and services is perhaps the number #1 issue banks are grappling with today. 

And the best way to start the transformation process and fend off challengers is a Design Sprint. 

How much time does the Design Sprint process require of me? 

A Windmill Design Sprint, all-in, takes ten days. Product heads and Directors in banks are busy people, and experience has taught us that time is of a premium. As such, a Windmill Design Sprint has four days of workshops, instead of the traditional five, of which just two days’ stakeholder participation are required. 

The Design Sprint process 

Before a workshop begins, Windmill conducts preliminary research. Then begins the five-step process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. 

Day 1 – Empathize 

The first day is about defining the challenge, building empathy user personas, and mapping how customers will interact with your product. For a bank, such work will include looking at existing actors, systems, workflows, and problems in order to build out a vision for the product. 

The Design Sprint facilitator will guide the workshop team through a series of exercises, such as building an Empathy Map or a Journey Map. These are worked on in sessions of up to an hour and help a team understand the unique needs of their prospective customers and begin to design intuitive and intelligent solutions.  

Empathy is a critical element of a Design Sprint and foundational to the ultimate success of a product.  

Day 2 – Ideate 

Now that the team has a solid understanding of the problem, it’s time to ideate. It’s the job of the facilitator to create a high-performing space, literally in terms of having posters of personas on the walls and figuratively in terms of creating an environment in which people are comfortable sharing ideas.  

To coax the most interesting ideas from the workshop, the facilitator will guide the team through activities such as Lightning Talks, How Might We, Affinity Mapping, SWOT Analysis, and Value Proposition Canvas. Being spontaneously creative is difficult and hard to repeat, so the value of the activities is providing the structured environments that allow ideas to flow reliably and repeatedly. 

And remember, this is the final day that requires stakeholder participation. At this point, you can put your feet up and rest assured that Windmill will handle the remaining stages of the process. 

Day 3 – Prototype 

With the problem understood and potential solutions mapped out, the team turns to prototyping. The goal is to build testable prototypes that can generate useful data. They don’t need to function or even look nice—in fact, the aesthetic usability effect says that attractive designs can actually degrade test data quality by concealing flaws. 

Day 4 – Test 

Experts in user testing will write test scripts and source users, who could be sourced internally or from a user testing company. Testing may seem unnecessary but is actually fundamental to the success of your product. It also re-establishes the user at the center of the process. Testing data will inform the next iterations and everything that happens after a design sprint. 

Days 5-10 – Reporting 

With the workshop stage of the Design Sprint process wrapped up, the Windmill team compiles a product proposal and workshop report. The report contains actionable data as a basis for decision-making. We know as well as anyone the level of rigor needed to make decisions at a bank, but thankfully have numerous success stories of taking on full-stack development work of financial services products. 

Conclusion 

Whether it’s revamping an ageing app, moving into a new space, or taking advantage of new technologies, Design Sprints are ideal for banks under pressure from challengers. A Design Sprint is the first step to product success. Book a Design Sprint now. 

You’re thinking about buying a Design Sprint workshop to kick-start the solution to your biggest problem. But you know a Design Sprint is just the first step in a longer process and that more work will come out of the back of it. 

What is that work, exactly, and what is the path to turning initial work into a market-ready product? 

This blog will discuss what happens after a start-up completes a Design Sprint workshop and has decided to progress with the development of the project. 

Iteration workshops 

With a decision made to move forwards with development, the next stage will often be a series of follow-up workshops, sometimes called iteration workshops. These are similar to a Design Sprint proper but take much less time. The team already knows each other, the problem is well defined, and the solution is starting to take shape. 

Iteration workshops allow teams to fine-tune aspects of the solution, build new prototypes, and gather additional testing data. A design team will normally ask back their original testers as their familiarity with the prototype product provides an advantage.  

When testing a prototype, even negative feedback is useful as it can be used to refer to further along the development process. And on the other hand, even with a positive overall response, further clarifications of assumptions are needed.  

Code Sprints  

Similar to an iteration workshop is a Code Sprint, which brings together a coding team to test out options in terms of architecture, infrastructure, frameworks, and libraries. The intention is to provide great certainty around development feasibility and possibility. The team works intensively to build a number of functioning prototypes in a few days. Application architects, data scientists, engineers, and product managers 

Polish the prototype

During this stage, start-ups focus on making high fidelity versions of the initial prototype created during the Design Sprint workshop. Though this version of the prototype does not need to be working software, it does, however, need to look and have the usability of a finished product.  

You may also show the new version of the prototype to more users to gain feedback. This will help you improve or many any necessary changes to it. A refined version of the initial prototype can also help strengthen the company’s internal momentum as it’ll keep up with the product’s new quality.  

Make a functional spec 

For software solutions, a team may turn the prototype into a functional spec document. A functional spec document will contain detailed user stories, assumptions about integration points, product roadmaps, budget estimates, and so on. 

Creating a functional spec document will help you create a structured outline of your game plan, increasing your chances of success. Oftentimes, teams focus on the grand vision of the product and demand higher budgets for product development. This can increase perceived/actual cost and risk. It may be a good idea to focus on your MVP first and ensuring it offers optimal UX.  

Determining timeline and budgets in advance can also help you identify future tradeoffs and gain clarity on costs of the product development process in the long term. Start-ups can consider getting estimates from external vendors. Often the internal team’s budget estimate is greater than the vendors’, and by choosing the latter, you might just end up saving money! 

MVP and beyond 

With a solid product basis in place, a team can proceed to MVP (minimum viable product) build-out. How a start-up decides to approach product development can vary. Some companies might just offer design services, but others, like Windmill, offer development services as well.  

An MVP is built incrementally according to Agile development practices. Product backlog, Sprint backlog, and product increment are the three main artefacts of Scrum. Product backlog contains all the features and functionality needed in the product; Sprint backlog is a backlog of features selected for a Sprint; and product increment shows the items completed in a Sprint. 

Windmill has found value in combining the product owner and Scrum Master roles. According to Sarika Kanade, ‘Product owner and scrum master should act as the main client/partner liaison and point of contact regarding the product definition and release roadmap. They should create constructive and positive relationships with the client using remote tools, working directly with clients to understand their business goals for the software and objectives for the product.’ 

Once the MVP is developed, it can be released and the team can continue work towards MMP (Minimum Marketable Product) and MMR (Minimum Marketable Release) stage. Work towards the final product will need the input of many teams, including the design, marketing, sales, finance, and testing teams. 

Conclusion 

Design Sprints must not be seen as standalone projects. Start-ups need to stay on track and not lose focus post the Design Sprint or the product development and launch process may suffer too. It’s also important to not lose motivation if the prototype created during the Sprint doesn’t receive positive feedback and take it as a learning lesson, as it can be a stepping stone to greater, higher quality products.    

Windmill offers market-leading design and build services that take an initial idea all the way through to final release. Find out how Windmill can solve your biggest product challenges today. 

Design Sprints are one of Windmill’s core competencies. We use Design Sprints to help customers battle-test their ideas, examine their product-market fit, and identify market opportunities, and much more. We’ve run hundreds of them successfully over the years.

So why would we write a blog about why Design Sprints fail?

Partly because it’s a catchy title. But also because to do something right, you need to know what can go wrong.

So here are some of the biggest pitfalls a design team can run into—and how to avoid them.

Is a Design Sprint the right solution to my problem?

The biggest reason for the failure of a Design Sprint is using one to solve a solution that it isn’t suited for.

Design Sprint is a quick and dirty process that tests out ideas fast. Some projects are simply beyond the scope of a Design Sprint—or conversely, too narrow.

A Design Sprint is best at solving a tightly defined problem. That’s why defining the scope of a project is always the first step.

This graphic visualizes how a broad problem will result in a solution that scores low for concreteness; while a narrow problem results in a highly concrete solution.

Additionally, a Design Sprint isn’t needed when a product is already well defined, or if the problem is too small, like the development of a component.

Losing track of the Design Sprint process

One interesting aspect of the Design Sprint process is that, while it’s a creative process, it’s also highly structured, with defined roles and steps and relies on thorough admin/organization skills. It’s only by strict adherence to the process that creativity can flourish.

According to Moenika Chowdhury, a UX Researcher and Facilitator at Windmill

Common failures from team members can be the lack of note taking during meetings, not updating tickets, and failure to inform the team about changes they are doing. This can lead to inefficient work with tasks being done more than once, and overall confusion.

Sometimes a company may decide to tackle a problem by self-running a Design Sprint, and in doing so overlooks the importance of a skilled facilitator. Bad idea. A skilled facilitator is crucial to the success of a Design Sprint, using their talents to stimulate energy among the team, push the process forward, mediate conflicts, create a safe environment, and keep people on track.

Not enough stakeholders

A successful Design Sprint needs a variety of stakeholders in the room. A sprinkling of founders, engineers, marketers, designers—even board members—will add greatly to the sprint. According to Google Ventures, the ideal design sprint team should consist of about four to eight people.

It takes multiple teams to deliver a product to market, so getting those viewpoints makes sense. For instance, engineers might voice concerns about their ability to create specific features within their current architecture, while the marketing team may require more time to successfully promote the new feature.

Vitaliy Bobrykov, a UX Designer here at Windmill, has seen the criticality of a mix of stakeholders:

The team should have participants from different departments, like developers, product owners, business analysts, customer support, etc, in this case, we can have a versatile view of the problem. There must be a decision-maker in case the team gets stuck with a choice.

Communicationbreakdown

Effective communication among the design team is essential to the success of a sprint. Without it, the process can get bogged down. Some common communication mistakes include lack of note-taking during meetings, not updating tickets, and not informing the team about any changes in their design sprint processes in due time.

Effective communication between the client and business is needed to manage expectations, and without it, frustrations can arise.

A design sprint process that is not communication-oriented is bound to fail. It’s important to present design artefacts such as prototypes, user interviews, scenarios etc. to the audience using the correct medium of communication.

Takeaways

There’s an easy solution to all these problems: work with a company that has teams of experienced designers and facilitators and a proven track record of delivering successful Design Sprints.

Get in touch to harness the power of a Design Sprint and fix your biggest product problem.