Financial services are changing. Our client understood that a digital cross-border payments platform was key to remaining competitive in the market. After internal efforts stalled, we partnered with the bank to accelerate the development of the platform.

Why Elixirr?

Having partnered with our client for over 6 years, we understood the business context, strategy, and internal challenges underpinning this project.

The bank needed a partner to help develop their cross-border payments proposition. We were the best firm to help them achieve this, as we have access to a network of dynamic startups, venture capital firms and accelerators through our global innovation ecosystem.

In addition, our rapid design approach enables our clients to develop solutions at pace. Frequent customer testing enables us to iteratively design propositions, ensuring the MVP is fit for purpose. This methodology accelerates time to market, saving valuable resources compared to developing products internally. Combined with our leading digital design and build expertise, we were the natural partner of choice.

The challenge

The client had been exploring new digital cross-border propositions for some time but was struggling to transition from the concept to a tangible product. In running the proposition development sprint, Elixirr had four key objectives:

  • Illustrate the value of customer-centric design and rapid prototyping to deliver a market-leading digital cross-border payments proposition.
  • Validate product-market fit at pace through an iterative test and learn process, before investing significant time, capital and resource effort.
  • Ensure successful buy-in from all the relevant areas of the business, encouraging collaboration amongst multi-functional teams to avoid execution roadblocks.
  • Develop a robust business case and delivery roadmap, to inform an Executive decision on whether to invest in building the proposition. 

The approach

Research and preparation 

After identifying Currencycloud as the right partner for the bank, we conducted stakeholder interviews, customer interviews, and market research to identify the key trends in the cross-border payments landscape. Armed with these insights, we developed three personas to use in the design process to ensure that the proposition addressed the core customer needs.

Design 

We held a 3-day design thinking workshop where we guided our client and Currencycloud through customer-centric design and rapid prototyping cycles to develop the target proposition. Overnight, our team mocked up 3 low-fidelity prototypes which the stakeholder group could test with customers to gain early feedback.

Test, test and test again

Over 2 weeks, we continuously tested and validated the low-fidelity prototypes, iterating them daily in line with customer feedback. This accelerated design process enabled our client to design, test and validate market demand in just 3 weeks – a process that would have usually taken at least 6 months. We then worked with the client’s UX design team to design a high-fidelity prototype of the proposition, enabling stakeholders to see what the proposition would look like as part of their product suite.

Business model design & feasibility assessment

Working with our client and Currencycloud, we built out a business case, delivery roadmap and capability assessment to inform an executive decision on whether the bank should invest in building the proposition.

The value

In just five weeks, we designed an entirely new value proposition – transforming an idea into a high-fidelity clickable prototype with a supporting business model design, business case and execution plan.

Our rapid approach gave our client reassurance that they were solving the right customer problems without significant upfront capital and time investment. The bank has also asked us to help embed this customer-led design and entrepreneurial culture across their product development functions.

Together, our client and Currencycloud are now significantly closer to achieving their ambitious growth plans. We’re currently working with their teams to take the cross-border proposition to market. Watch this space…