SENDING MONEY HOME - SOCIAL IMPACT MEETS FINANCE
• REMITLY GLOBAL

2019 Tech Pioneer World Economic Forum Award
30% Revenue Increase, Increased Satisfaction 9x

OPPORTUNITY

Joining Remitly as its first product / design executive, I was excited to work with this conscious business. Coming in without any primary research on Remitly’s product experience, there was ample opportunity to assess and improve the experience for Remitly’s customers, and increase our customer base as well as our revenue. Our marketing strategy also required a brand optimization along with segmentation and marketing personas consistent with our corridors.

Operating in four countries with limited growth post-launch, optimization and innovation was a priority. And, while Remitly was working in a somewhat crowded space, their basic business model was solid. We now needed to invest in our product to differentiate and to meet our growth goals. I prioritized optimizing the customer experience while investing in high impact innovative product features.

APPROACH & STRATEGY

My first act was to interview all stakeholders, and then conduct and end-to-end audit of the customer experience, creating a early draft of a journey map to visualize where and how customers interacted with Remitly. With many touch points both digital and physical, a seamless, trusting experience was absolutely necessary when managing sensitive tasks like sending money. I immediately set up a VOC program to capture customer service content pointing to current areas of friction in the UX.

I then introduced user-centered product development practices and trained my team in their use. I expanded to training product and marketing managers in these methods, too. With autonomous project squads, having PMs with this perspective helped align the designers’ methods with their process and mental model of product development.

Our research evolved as I touched on multiple areas needing integration and standardization - and just good UX. With data in place, I developed an overall product/design strategy for all customer touchpoints while creating specific sub-strategies for certain features, or areas of the business. As I led the design and product teams towards winning solutions, we iterated on solutions using a combination of research modalities and techniques.

Also teaming up with our AI/ML expert, we began to ferret out interesting patterns which I then took to customers in mixed method studies to innovate new features and product lines. Armed with valuable customer data, we optimized and introduced innovative aspects to the user experience. Concurrently, we optimized our brand through discrete segmentation and targeted market strategies, laying the groundwork for a successful global expansion to 100+countries.

PROCESS & METHODS USED

Research & Strategy
Competitive analysis, Secondary research, Diary studies, Contextual inquiry, Customer interviews, Card sorting, AB testing, Concept testing, Usability testing, Benchmarking, Product strategy, Product roadmap

Product & UX Design
Storyboards, Wireframes, Customer journeys, Design sprints, JTBD / User stories, Personas, AI UX & Product design, Content design, Design system, Prototypes, Design strategy, Design roadmap

Product Marketing
Behavioral insights, Attitudinal insights, Customer interviews, Customer segmentation, Focus groups, Corridor personas, Persona marketing strategy, Ad optimization, Brand optimization

As discussed above, my work covered many aspects of the Remitly experience. As Director, I was involved at some level with every initiative even if at the supervisory level. I worked to reduce silos between product teams and departments, introduce qualitative research to the process amongst other techniques.

One of the more successful practices was the utilization of Design Sprints to work through a problem to a testable solution within a week. We did this repeatedly especially when focused on Growth oppportunties.

One project I worked on, Resolutions & Amendments encapsulates all the methodologies, practices and dynamics I introduced while working with Remitly. If interested, you can read more here.

RESULTS

I created a winning strategy seamlessly integrating innovation, design thinking, and market responsiveness into Remitly's trajectory.

Research artifacts are confidential. I am happy to share details in a zoom call.

Customer journey map
Illustrates highs and lows of their experience after diary study, usability testing, contextual inquiry, and surveys