Monobank: Shaping the future of mobile connectivity through banking eSIM marketplace.
ROLE
Product Designer (Collaborated with a team of 5 designers)
DURATION
4 weeks
SKILLS
User Research, Prototype, Data Analysis, Stakeholder interviews
Product overview
Monobank is a Ukrainian neobank serving over 7 million customers. It ranks #2 in Google Play and #2 in the App Store among the most popular financial apps in Ukraine. The daily active users count reaches 1.3 million. One of the bank's services is purchasing a non-physical eSIM card from Ukrainian mobile communications operators in minutes. This number can be managed in the bank app itself.
Challenge
Monobank stakeholders aimed to integrate and enhance eSIM services within their mobile app, creating a seamless eSIM marketplace for easy purchase and management of non-physical numbers from the comfort of users’ homes.
We aimed to develop an intuitive, efficient, and trusted eSIM experience within the Monobank app, addressing user needs and enhancing overall satisfaction.
Research
To kick off our project, we conducted stakeholder interviews to gain insights into the business needs and objectives. We categorized our inquiries into nine groups: introduction, business model, customer segments, product features, competitor landscape, constraints, resources, and technical considerations.§
Competitors analysis
Our competitive analysis focused on examining 7 key competitors. We assessed their strengths and weaknesses to establish benchmarks for our design. Additionally, we analyzed UI patterns and functional attributes, allowing us to identify points of parity and difference relative to Monobank.
User Interviews
We conducted 11 user interviews with current eSIM users and 5 potential eSIM users. These interviews provided invaluable insights into user experiences and expectations related to eSIM purchases.
To further validate our findings, we conducted usability testing with 11 participants to evaluate the existing eSIM purchase flow.
Additionally, we distributed a survey to triangulate our qualitative data, gathering insights on user habits and preferences regarding eSIM services. Key survey questions included: How did you discover the eSIM service? How many numbers do you top up each month? Have you faced challenges when topping up or managing your eSIM?
Customer Journey Map
To visualize user processes, we created four Customer Journey Maps that detail the flows for:
Buying an eSIM in the Monobank app
Transferring a physical number to an eSIM
Topping up the mobile number
Setting up auto payments
Solutions
We began the development stage by identifying and articulating key user challenges through a “How Might We” framework. This approach allowed us to transform insights gathered during research into actionable opportunity statements. We highlighted 10 core problems and identified solutions for 7 of them.
Reflection
Challanges
Unclear Problem Statement
The project brief did not clearly outline the main problem or challenge to be addressed. Instead, we were tasked with discovering and identifying potential issues within the existing features, especially as more mobile operators were anticipated. This lack of direction required us to extensively research and uncover user pain points, which was both challenging and enlightening.
Aligning Team Visions
Working with a team of five designers, each with their own vision, proved to be challenging. However, through continuous collaboration and communication, we managed to align our ideas and come up with cohesive solutions.
Limitations
Design Focus on iOS
Although the project was not exclusively focused on designing for the iOS platform, stakeholders emphasized that the primary target was iPhone users.
Restricted by Mobile Operators
Some solutions were constrained by the functionalities and access restrictions imposed by the mobile operators, limiting the range of features we could implement.
Future Work
More Rounds of Usability Testing
Given that we conducted only one round of usability testing, future work should focus on addressing the issues identified and performing additional rounds of testing to refine the user experience.
Expanded User Research
Conducting more extensive research on Monobank users will help us better understand their needs and preferences, enabling us to enhance the integration of mobile services within the banking app.
