Will Ayling — Product Designer

Designing and launching Tide's Industry-first feature merging business banking with company registration, boosting user base during pandemic by 20%

Product Design, Onboarding

2020

Background

Tide is a UK financial technology company providing mobile-first banking services for small and medium-sized enterprises.     It enables businesses to set up a current account and get instant access to various financial services. Established in 2015, Tide is one of the first digital-only finance platforms in the UK to provide current accounts for businesses.

The Opportunity

Starting a new business often comes with numerous questions and uncertainties, making the process of registering with Companies House a daunting task. Traditionally, registering your business has been an affordable option for new businesses.  
However, what if the process was made even easier? Imagine if Tide took care of the expenses associated with setting up a limited company with Companies House, while simultaneously establishing a business bank account with Tide. This would simplify the launch of your brand-new, market-first offering.

Challenge 1, there was nothing comparable on the market

Launching during pandemic presents opportunities and risks. Aim was to secure research budget for team. Needed to create business case to get Usertesting.com. Offered free company formation with bank account, a first-to-market offering.

Challenge 1, Breakdown and approach

To understand the current market - we gathered everything possible to empathise with the product outcome and the problem to be solved.  

Desk research by auditing the government companies house flow and questions
Begin finding great examples of third parties for company formations - asking why, how and what during the process.

Challenge 1, What did I do?

Market research, We gathered similar experiences and those that allowed people to set up and register a business, revealing numerous deficiencies.

Content research, I wanted user testing and interviews to be centred around gaining insight on how people would understand the offering.

Companies House, We had several sessions with our CH account manager to understand our users better and review our prototypes weekly.

Challenge 2, The user experience must transition from the web to mobile

Tide faced significant tech debt due to rushed development. The service launched on web and later migrated to Android and iOS (e.g. applicant starts form on web, finishes on mobile for biometrics). Testing was crucial since moving between two devices during the application process was a concern.

Challenge 2, Breakdown and approach

Designing a clear and concise tone of voice and educational approach to simplify the complexity of the offer. The aim is to design a seamless and supportive experience for new Tide users who wish to incorporate a limited company.  

To ensure users understand that they have a business bank account and a registered company with Companies House, and that payment is covered by us.
To ensure that there are no hidden catches.

To provide information to users in a way that is educational and informative, without being patronising.

Challenge 2, What did I do?

Design and Prototyping, With our research we started to ideate ideas, by rapidly prototyping different solutions for the campaign screens and data entry experience.

User Testing, We tested every week to allow us to move and iterate quickly. Im proud to mention that this project began a user-research and testing culture throughout Tide.

Challenge 3, Launched during a pandemic

The OKRs for this new service were to increase our user base by 20% by the end of 2020. The numbers are achievable, and we’ve seen it in other similar launches but for a first-to-market offer it felt ambitious.

Challenge 3, Breakdown and approach

The market was researched, current products and features were reviewed, and new ideas were rapidly tested.  After this preparation, we were ready to build the product in just four weeks, using two agile sprints.

To ensure that back-end integrations and endpoints were prepared for the product.
To ensure our collaboration with Companies House was strong throughout the process.

Challenge 3, What did I do?

Designed in Phases, I divided the design process into three phases: MVP (Minimum Viable Product), MLP (Minimal Lovable Product), and Goal & Future.

Reviewed A/B testing results, During the first two weeks, we analysed daily data for two landing pages, then added a third and chose the one with the highest conversion rates.

The Outcome

Validated marketing funnel and onboarding flow, After thorough user interviews, usability tests, and A/B tests, the landing page hero was streamlined to five blocks of content and interactivity. The onboarding process was also simplified to a near 15-page process where additional business details were collected.