Background
Nosso, previously known for children's investment accounts, set out to become a holistic financial planning platform for families. Empowering users to effortlessly connect and oversee all of their personal and shared accounts and providers within a unified platform.
Problem
76% of couples now share financial decisions in dual-career partnerships
Not necessarily a problem in itself, except existing banking, investment, and pension apps primarily cater to individuals. This complicates access for couples with some degree of shared finances. Often managing multiple financial providers, it also becomes increasingly difficult for singles, couples and parents to maintain a cohesive overview.
Research
Building a snapshot of how joint assets are managed
I led customer calls, carrying out qualitative user interviews with people who said they shared some form of finances with at least one other person. Key insights included:
Couples often combine their finances before or after significant life events such as marriage or parenthood.
Financial management styles range from fully pooling resources to selectively sharing specific accounts, making flexibility and privacy key.
Safety and performance were additional concerns, as users were cautious about linking their accounts and the quality of the connection.
Ideation & testing
Transforming our service from junior investment accounts to financial planning for the entire family
I first consolidated customer research findings by profiling the shift in how users were going to be using our app: from parents sharing access to their child's Junior ISA, to 'couples' of all forms sharing access to their individual and joint assets. I then began mapping our updated user flow as well as lo-fi sketches for our new linking interface and household dashboard. This included re-structuring our existing sign up flow to emphasise household customisation and incorporate account linking. I then facilitated early crits with the product and engineering teams to workshop the flow and sketches together and ensure everything was ironed out before moving on to UI exploration.
Throughout the project, we embraced a non-linear approach, placing significant emphasis on continuous iterative improvements. The team prioritised development of the account linking interfaces as these were entirely new for us and needed to support our open banking integration with Moneyhub.
Rapid product development and launching beta for existing users only (£8.8m of assets tracked in 6 weeks)
For Beta launch, we introduced a first phase of account linking, which saw the new feature limited to a single 'Household' tab within the app. This launch was limited to existing users, enabling us to gather initial feedback. From this testing we learned it was important for users to be able to customise their household settings for privacy. They also wanted to be able to personalise their dashboard according to their own organisation preferences.
Restructuring an entire app
Following beta launch, the team all contributed to an audit of the app to scope and design any enhancements needed for a comprehensive migration towards full family finance functionality. This transition saw us replace our old Home screen with the new 'Household' tab, allowing all users to seamlessly manage multiple financial providers within a single, user-friendly interface. My role within this was translating our ideas into the new app structure and navigation as well as any UI and interaction enhancements needed.
Solution
Ownership and trust through customisation
For the full release I worked closely with the development team to introduce functionality for dragging and reordering account cards, as well as account-by-account settings like assigning linked accounts to other members in your household (partners, children and joint accounts).
Enhancing household creation because product led growth is our strength
Another essential part was enhancing the household creation flow for existing, new, and partner users. I worked on a 'Create your household' screen to make this process feel more ownable, where users could visualise which loved ones they were inviting into their financial 'home'. 60% of our users in 2023 came through product referral loops and so it was vital for us to incentivise referrals.
Adding monthly analysis and property integration
I crafted key data visualiation interfaces for an 'Analysis' section in user's Home screens to enable families to see the change in their net worth on a monthly basis, as well as the breakdown of their assets across multiple categories like cash vs investments. In addition to financial accounts, the development team was also able to successfully integrate Zoopla meaning users could link their property and mortgages to their household. My role in both of these was understanding what information we wanted to show, the information architecture and UI design.
Expanding our design system
Account linking was our first product for all couples as opposed to parents only, and so I needed to design a UI which reflect our expanded user base, whilst still feeling coherent with our overarching brand and app. I designed a new suite of components including account cards in Figma, and created reusable page templates in Locofy for the development team.
Encouraging user conversion through a comprehensive marketing strategy
I constructed our entire customer.io communication strategy across our service design blueprint, from initial awareness to account closure. With a focus on informing partners of activity in their household to encourage open and collaborative interaction.
Relaunching the website and social media strategy
I redesigned the Nosso website to champion our wider mission and guide prospective users through the new functionality focus (across desktop and mobile). I also carried out an audit of competitors' social media pages and designed a series of templates for our Instagram and Linkedin campaign launch, including a comic book concept and educational animations on joint finances.
Next Steps
Keeping one eye on the future
The focus moving forwards with full family finance is on developing multi-user features further. Together with the product team I've been working on a future-facing demo, with household personalisation features like profile pictures and wider family invitations, and granular account-by-account sharing permissions so users can choose whether linked accounts are personal or shared.