Validation with end users traditionally required quite some time from corporates and ourselves. We have done more than 300 corporate visits to learn about treasury related problems and needs. While we still believe these visits are very valuable, we also aim to obtain more feedback in a shorter timeframe.
To achieve this, we developed a new validation method which we can also apply online.
In October, we tested our new feature validation method for the very first time during a corporate client event at our office. Here is what we learned from this experiment:
1. We can gather large amounts of feedback in less than 1.5 hours
For each new feature, we first explained our idea and showcased the prototype we developed. Corporates then used their mobile phone to participate in a poll and voted on the usefulness of the new feature. Directly after the poll, the results were showed to the participants and an in-depth discussion followed.
The results were astonishing. Not only did we gather more than 130 votes on 11 new product prototypes, we also gathered extensive qualitative feedback. All of this was achieved in less than 1.5 hours.
2. We can validate on an even larger scale with our online validation lab
The corporates that visited us really appreciated the validation session. At the end of the session, they were asked (anonymously) if they were willing to validate new features more frequently in an online environment. All participants replied that they were happy to validate new features for us on a regular basis.
We realize that time is scarce for corporate treasurers and CFO’s and we cannot ask users to spend half a day coming to our office for new feature validation on a regular basis. That’s why we have built an online validation lab, where we can apply our new method remote using video presentations, questionnaires and feedback from corporates.
All data we gather is directly processed with a real-time analysis. This allows us to quickly improve prototypes or skip features which are not valuable for corporates. With the cooperation of corporates and our new validation lab we are confident that we can continue building the most valuable features that banks can offer to their corporate clients.