Next by PwC

What I had already done to understand the basics...

1. Stocktake on the current offering looking at the functionality/ usability, users' ability to understand data, accessibility/ semiotics, and end to end experience.
   As a new member to the team, I also asked myself - do I really understand what they do, or how to carry out a task? Did I have to re-read instructions, or did I second guess myself? If it's accounting and different widgets (our specialised area), I asked myself what skill level you need to have to understand what is being presented? Can I understand it as a newbie, or do I need prior understanding? Can you get this information at hand, or is it just assumed?


2. Immersing myself amongst the advisors See what they do. See whether they have the same pain-points as I did. Do they stumble in the same areas, or have they discovered hacks to help them through? Do the advisors instruct people, or take over operating areas of the site for their client's? Ask Advisors and accountants about earlier findings during the stocktake - whether it's a common problem needing focus, or are there other areas that they think take priority.


3. Competitive analysis. Usually considered as part of a marketing toolkit, but it's great to see what is happening in the "marketplace", how people try and sell their solutions to you, what they identify as important, and whether they focus on a niche to differentiate themselves amongst competitors. I also look at communication style, visualisations if working with API data, call to actions, and the way they allow people to onboard or trial their product as a first timer. One of the last notes I wrote was have they sold this product to me... would I use their service if I needed it? Why or why not?


4. Chats with Key Stakeholders, people of interest Understanding how they are wanting to position the project, what they find most important, how they intend to sell the project, their KPIs, definition of success etc.

The ideation phase... for the functionality of the new widget.

Pretty early on I had decided that every widget would need to tell a story. Your financial story is made up of many chapters and, when these chapters are combined... you will be enlightened!

1. In Accounting, there are always items that people expect to see when you are dealing with their financials. These are a given, they work the way that they are, and to adjust them would be recreating the wheel. They are the bread and butter for some of the widgets, and so there was no point spending time here. e.g. Balance sheet table, as part of the balance sheet widget.


2. During the course of ideation, I wanted to further develop the idea of the story. Stories have Characters, Context, and they move from one Scene to the next. Using the vehicle of stories I could expand to being able to: compare stories, story snapshot/ overview, bookmarking stories, featured stories etc. I found that these concepts transferred over to accounting well. I worked on this a lot further, apparent most heavily in widget navigation.


3. Another trick was to see whether applying my UX tools to accounting would work. I tried this with a "retrospective" - which is what UX/ CX Developers conduct at the end of an agile sprint. Usually during this time participants mention what works well, what do we need to work on, etc - basically a feedback loop. If you put an accounting lens on it - in terms of Balance Sheet widget - it could be comments added from your advisor as action points, or things to look out for for next month to improve your overall position.


4. In creating these widgets there were lots of interviews and sessions with the advisors, and stakeholders, finding out the tools and functionality they wanted to include in the redesign. Features were also proposed from myself after exploring online blogs and articles from accountants, or financial services regarding tips for preparation, what to look out for, problem areas people had etc.


5. In finding my "wow" with the new widgets I always referred back to the master document, that summarised all my work from the stocktakes and interviews etc. This helped me align new items, to make sure they adhered to our goals, mostly those about building context around situations, enabling non-accountant minded people o understand their financial situation. Any feature had to be intuitive and provide ability to deep dive and explore further and/or spark conversations to be had with their advisors.

Specific functionality on this widget actions:

1. Summary An overview of the widget at this point of time. (Controlled by date settings set elsewhere). Usually includes, as of today, maximum, minimum and averages, so the user can gain a solid understanding at that point of time. For the Balance sheet widget we did this for Assets, Liabilities, Current Assets, Non-Current Assets, Net Assets, Current Liabilities, Non-Current Liabilities, and Equity Position.
   


2. Accounting standard statement - chart/ statement/ table. Included when needed, as not every widget story will have charts to match.


3. Visuals Visuals about your current financial situation overview. Visuals can also display under ratios and scenario topic areas, where they visualise the content that's displayed.


4. Ratios As found out during interviews, ratios give a user a strong understanding of their financial position. We would list all the ratios that are beneficial, and have the ability to see trends through visuals as well as explanations on what they are calculating, and how to determine whether your ratios are healthy. For the Balance sheet widget we focused on the Current Ratio, Debt Ratio, and the Debt to Equity ratio.


5. Scenarios Super beneficial to find out what is affecting your current position, and if you altered certain aspects, what effect would it have. For the Balance sheet widget we focused on: lost income, gained income, Paid Extra and paid less. These options gave the client the ability to see how this manipulation would effect their ratios, as well as see this through a visual representation.

1. Budgets & Forecasting. Set by the advisor, these are financial/ Business targets/ KPIs that the User should be aiming for. Different for each widget, and only set once per widget, and not per category. For the Balance sheet widget we focused on goals like: "Goal: Raise your equity position by $500,000", and "Lower your current Liabilities by $25,000" etc.


2. Discussion points (future state). This would allow users to set follow-up "flags" on widgets regarding areas that didn't understand, and wanted the advisor to reach out to discuss.


3. Share a story Enabling users to share their widget story with another.


4. Adding as a favourite so that it can be easily found, and appear at the top of the lists.


5. About the story Puts the power back into the users hands so that they can understand more about their financial standing. Spend less time asking about the basics, and more time asking what you need to take advantage of the advisory services. For the Balance sheet widget we focused on signs of a healthy and unhealthy Balance sheet, what to look out for and what our iconography means. Also a chance to ask your advisor with any questions.