Case Study: Ain’t That a KYC in the Head?
The Problem
The product development team at a startup software company was developing a new application to assist compliance departments at banking and financial services companies with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. The startup company had completed the alpha phase of development and needed end user feedback on the concept before proceeding to the next phase. Several team members had experience in Know Your Customer compliance and the company’s advisory board included compliance executives from a handful of large companies, but the team wanted fresh perspectives from potential end users, including those currently using competitive applications.
Critical Issues
Fresh Perspectives End User Experience Direct Testing
The Solution
Maven conducted an electronic survey of Compliance Officers and risk management professionals in order to screen a set of potential end user testing candidates. Respondents were asked a series of questions about their experience with Know Your Customer software applications, their opinions of different KYC platforms, and their willingness to conduct a short test of a new alternative system. After reviewing the results, the customer selected ten individuals to participate in the test. The identities of the testers remained confidential to the customer. Maven had each participant sign a supplemental confidentiality and intellectual property agreement, after which they were provided with instructions for downloading and installing the application. Two weeks later, Maven conducted a follow-up Electronic Survey of the participants to gather their opinions of the new application and suggestions for areas of improvement. Through the Survey the product development team identified two major functional issues and over a dozen valuable feature improvements that were implemented in the next version of their Know Your Customer platform. The customer will use the same virtual focus group for future testing of the product.
“End user testing is very challenging. Finding the right set of testers is difficult, and even when you do find them it is tough to remain objective about their feedback when you know them personally. Maven solved both of these problems. They quickly assembled the right group of Know Your Customer compliance experts and the anonymous Survey approach helped us to get unbiased results.” – Senior Product Design Engineer
