How do you design a simple and functional fintech product?

Too often, founders start with the user pain point to identify a promising product, without doing market analysis. To identify a problem for #fintech, I would use a market map to lay out the different categories of products. E.g. consumer stock-picking, family financial planning, or institutional investing. For each category, list all of the players you know. Figure out how much revenue or funding they already have. Or, is this a fragmented space with lots of little players? Then figure out how you're going to get to these buyers, even if you had the product to solve a pain point. Are you going to needs lots of funding for marketing your product, or is this a Product-Led Growth (PLG) approach that can grow adoption ground-up?

Though there is no set approach to identify a problem, defining the problem statement helps in establishing following. 1. Why it is important? 2.The Purpose 3.Gap Identification 4.Present vs Future 5. TAM A well defined problem statement is the stepping stone to a well structured solution. Market research, user's insights and assumption validation will lead to informed decisions. This will be instrumental in initial product discovery with a higher chance of achieving the product market fit in less iterations. It may further help in defining product vision and strategy leading to a validated business model.

Rather than making assumptions, I find it effective to directly engage with target users through methods like focus groups, ethnographic research, and surveys. E.g.: when designing a payments app, we spent weeks interviewing business owners to understand their pain points in accepting payments. Many complained about high fees of credit card processors and the inconvenience of keeping cash on hand. This signaled an opportunity for a better solution. The key is not just to understand user problems, but to pinpoint gaps that your product can address. The end result should be an actionable problem statement that guides the rest of the design process. Rushing this research risks creating a product that fails to resonate with user needs.

This is the most important step in any product decision, including building a fintech product. All too often, people start with a solution they have in mind and then pretend that the problem it solves is really the problem that's worth solving. Then even though technically they claim that they identified a problem, they didn't. They just found an excuse for building a solution they wanted to. Identifying the problem is being ruthless about it and asking hard questions about whether the problem is real, or you have made it up to justify your solution.

Likely at an early stage, the problem has been identified and a solution has been considered, but likely not at a larger scale to assess the market's reception. Is there REALLY a problem in the market or is it just something that's specific to the founders of the company? And with that - do I need to reconsider the original hypothesis? Does my solution work? Is the business model feasible? If the answer is yes to the 3Qs, then there's a skeleton to put some flesh on

I would like to add that before starting on solution, it is very important to understand customer segments you want to serve. Finance is a very broad problem space where customer knowledge varies greatly and directly influences solutions you can develop. Customer segment also influences regulations that apply to your solution.

To define your solution, you should know the competition first. Sign up for and try every competing product first. While evaluating those products, keep your potential product's user personas in mind, and ask yourself if those personas are being underserved by the competitor products. If so, how? This is a great start at defining a solution. Never start speccing a new product until you have done this competitive analysis.

The challenge with visionaries - whether it be founders, product people, or early stage leaders is that - there's too many things to solve! We want to change the world. In any organisations, I've come to realize the importance of the Mission and Vision statements as those become the guiding light for all the work the team does. When articulated or written down, the ambiguity or specificity of the problem and solution become very clear and if its the earlier rather than the letter, the team needs to get back to the drawing board. Clear problem = Clear solution

With the core user problem validated, think broadly at first before narrowing down. E.g.: Our brainstorm had over 50 potential features. We then went through multiple rounds of refinement and prioritization to determine the minimal set of features that would deliver the most value. At this stage I'm also a firm believer in tangible prototypes over wireframes. Turning core features into something interactive enables real-world testing and feedback. Last but not least, aligning the solution design tightly to user feedback is key to create something simple and functional. Compliance is also built into the process from the start (consulting regulations and standards) as Fintech solutions demand even more diligence here.

Your core features and functionality are defined. Now try to establish a consistent design language and brand persona that resonates with your users. Mood boards and sample layouts can help align the team and especially for fintech products, clean and minimal aesthetics often work best by instilling trust and clarity. From there, techniques like user flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes enable rapid iteration of the information architecture and key screens. Do not forget user testing to catch issues and find the right balance between simplicity and functionality. This will take time and refinement, but in the end a user-centric creative process is what separates good fintech design from the mediocre

In addition to points outlined by others, one should focus on non-IT aspects of solution as well such as support and potential hardware integrations. These can provide an edge in already crowded space.

Everyone wants to build the best UI the world has seen, but it may not be what the customers needs. The journey should serve the function/core objective of the journey first. Check in with some users for some simple A/B testing or even with colleagues/friends who are not directly working on the product and their response will very efficiently let you know if you're on the right track. It's what the user wants, not what the team wants.

In fintech, the user journey often starts with awareness and discovery of the product's value proposition before guiding users through registration, key features, and eventually loyalty. Storyboard your journey from end-to-end from the user's perspective and identify moments of delight across the major steps. Your fintech product should guide your users through notifications, tips, and milestones rather than just leaving them to figure everything out. Especially for complex services, the user journey acts as an onboarding sequence that builds capabilities and trust over time. Don't forget to Keep the user experience front and center throughout the design process is how you will create a product that will connect on a human level!!

Making a complicated product is a relatively simple job. But making a SIMPLE product is a COMPLICATED job! A great product comes from the hard, complicated work of making life simpler and easier for your customers!

Here’s a random wacky idea. Put a person behind a desk or phone. Have customers call that person who listens with empathy about the customers financial problems and needs. And here’s the real innovative part. The person behind the desk or phone offers that customer a solution that ‘actually’ solves their problem. I know. Bonkers right? Just easier to create tech designed to milk the cow.

Make sure your tech team pay special attention to security measures like encryption, role-based access, and vulnerability testing. I also believe in being pragmatic so using cloud services and open API ecosystems enables rapid progress vs. building everything from scratch (does not always apply). Testing is also a must, with both unit testing at the code level and end-to-end testing of critical user journeys. Try to leverage technology not just to enable core functionality but also to create a differentiating experience. For fintech to stay competitive, solutions must be scalable, secure yet accessible, and continually optimized based on data.

At this stage of evaluating the results , always exercise below 2 aspects of the Product for better outcome: 1. Financial Sustainability: (A) Review your Financial model against the expected outcome of the build product and adjust if necessary to ensure the sustainability factor. (B) Keep an eye on your Burn Rate (after all at the end of the day, You have update your books 😀 ) and Funding Requirements. 2. Long Term Roadmap: (A) Refine and align your Vision with evolving market trends and customer demands.

Use both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the performance. Core metrics I track include engagement, retention, revenue, and customer satisfaction. - Google Analytics Or Sensors (for China) provide the quantitative data - User surveys and app reviews give qualitative insights. Analytics are just the start, the key is taking action based on the data to optimize the product experience. I will also recommend to communicate key metrics across teams. Create a feedback loop between product, engineering, etc. As fintech evolves, the ability to iterate based on data is very important. Users today expect speedy improvements. Prioritizing a user-centric, results-driven approach is critical for any product to create long-term value.

Long Term Vision: while you continue your rigorous journey of building MVP and achieving short term goals, always maintain a clear Ling term vision of the Product. Consider how it can resolve and expand to changing market needs.

1. Think global from the start. Be aware of international markets, localization requirements, etc. Some of the best fintech solutions scale globally to expand access. 2. Prioritize privacy, security and ethical principles from day one. Users must trust fintech products with sensitive data and life savings. So design to protect users and build trust.