Small Businesses' Money Movement Needs
Lead Ux Researcher
Zions Bancorporation
Overview
Small businesses often struggle with fragmented financial workflows, juggling invoices, payroll, and banking—especially when nobody on the team is solely focused on accounting. The bank needed a clear view of these users’ real-world needs to determine which product initiatives would make the most impact.
Research Objectives
1. Define the Jobs-to-be-Done for small businesses around money movement.
2. Identify pain points and satisfaction levels in making and receiving payments.
3. Understand why customers sometimes choose other banks or FinTech platforms—what works, what doesn’t.
Methodology
Conducted 20 in-depth interviews with small business customers.
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Part A: Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions for deep discovery.
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Part B: Structured interviews to gather specific stakeholder-driven insights.
Key Insights
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Support depends on the role. Businesses managed by owners need much more financial support than those with dedicated accounting staff.
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Integration is expected. Owners want seamless connections between their bank accounts and accounting tools to simplify payments and invoicing.
Strategic Impact
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Leadership prioritized products related to the pain points found in this study.
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Leadership prioritized features addressing the key pain points uncovered in the study.
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Outdated, misaligned products were deprioritized to focus on customer-centered solutions.
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Personas were enriched with findings from this research, improving targeting.
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Presented these findings at the annual banking affiliate conference—senior leaders, including the CEO, responded positively and requested additional qualitative studies.
Reflection
I learned that early stakeholder involvement drives ownership and support for research efforts. I also discovered that using both open-ended and structured questions ensures you surface unexpected insights while also addressing “must-know” areas.
Want more?
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