Client: Arvest Bank
Role: Creative Direction, Design Research, Product Design
Arvest is a regional bank based in Bentonville, AR with branches in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri.
Arvest had grown through acquisition of regional savings and loans with inconsistent processes and procedures across branches. To its advantage however, Arvest had a very high degree of personal touch and solid relationships with individual clients and small businesses in their footprint.
Over a series of projects under the banner “Community Bank of the Future,” I scoped and directed six large projects as part of a broader digital transformation and growth strategy from the CTO/CDO. These included research, concepting, prototyping, and user testing. We designed two embedded financial products for Short-Term rental hosts (e.g., Airbnb, VRBO) and SMB Medical providers. We also refactored and redesigned of Arvest’s Small Business Loan Origination software alongside a Salesforce implementer, facilitating transformation related employee events and strategy meetings, and created and trained a team on a new human-centered technology implementation process and plan for their digital team.
This project developed a set of product concepts for embedded financial service products for short-term rental hosts (e.g., Airbnb). The goal was to develop a pitch to Airbnb supported by user research and concept testing, and position Arvest as the bank servicing the products.
They key question.
Cut to the chase: Several of our concepts had very high appeal for Airbnb hosts.
Host quote showing the balancing act hosts currently have to endure, even though they may have very reliable rental income.
We identified several opportunities, ultimately deciding that "acquiring property" was not differentiated enough and likely not legally viable.
We focused on needs that served hosts, Airbnb, and Arvest.
Identification of key needs to solve.
Survey results for crisis management financial support for hosts
How this concept would support hosts, Airbnb, and guests
Host crisis management scenario
Host crisis management scenario
Crisis management screen
Crisis management prototype
Crisis management screen
Crisis management prototype
Documentation of crisis management product features
This project identified opportunities for embedded financial products for the medical industry. Research identified a promising set of needs in small medical practices that typically did not have a dedicated CFO role.
Key question
Market validation
User interviews
Cut to the chase: Several of the concepts showed strong appeal for users.
Lending is not the big opportunity...
Support and smart management is the big opportunity.
Stages of medical practice growth
Highlighting the managing stage...
Cashflow companion - a tool to help manage cashflow and credit in the gaps between billing, payment, and payroll. This is a critical (and complicated) need, especially for small medical business.
How it works
How it works
Why it matters
Why it matters
Why it matters
User feedback and feature prioritization
This project identified and designed key moments in the Business Loan Origination System in which Arvest could amplify its personal touch and regional knowledge and resources. This work fed into a parallel project led by a Salesforce implementer that was working on a standard template.
Identifying key roles that each had different needs from the loan origination software.
Identifying critical interactions where Arvest's unique differentiators could be supported by the Loan Origination System
Associate main screen
Documentation of key elements in Associate view
Documentation of key elements in Associate view
Documentation of key elements in Associate view