Emtech
Led the end to end design of emtech’s MVP fintech solution aimed at onboarding central banks to digital currencies to promote better finance practices and equip central banks to serve their citizens better.
Emtech.com
MY ROLE
Research, conceptualisation, design, user testing and dev-handoff of designs
TEAM
Head of product , Lead designer (Me), Founder , Lead engineer.
TIMELINE
6 Months
INTRODUCTION
Emtech is building a digital finance infrastructure for central banks, equpping them with the resources needed to transition from paper to digital cash and ensure the seamless disbursement and regulation of digital cash amongst FSPs and government institutions. I led the end to end design of the MVP version of emtech’s solution which helped raise their $4m seed round.
WHO IS EMTECH?
Emtech is building a CBDC solution aimed at fostering financial inclusion and innovation by providing central banks with the tools and resources needed to adopt modern central banking practices through the creation, disbursement and regulation of digital cash amongst FSPs, government institutions and citizens.
RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
Building for central banks is an aspect of fintech that is still very young and so our approach to this project was very unique.
There wasn’t a lot of product samples to explore so i adopted the desk research concept and turned to research papers , reports , existing documentation on the operations of central banks and the possibilties of digitization to give me a better understanding on who i was building for and how to approach the product and design strategies and execution.
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USER INTERVIEWS & SURVEYS
After a few weeks of desk research , I had gotten great insights and gathered tangible data for us to begin working on our MVP, but I knew that regardless of whatever system we were looking to build, we had to consider who the users would be as they are the most important element in what we were looking to achieve.
GATHERING INSIGHTS
Prior to conducting any kind of research, I had assumed all central banks operate the same and they were specific authorities , titles and processes that makes up a disbursement process. After carrying out our desk research , speaking to internal employees and other supporting findings, I realized i was wrong and the order of operations differed from country to country even though the end goals were the same. Below are some insights gathered:
- The chain of approval across a cash request and disbursement timeline may change.
- Every country has different and specific authorities and process when it comes to approving or rejecting disbursement requests.
- There is a limit to how much digitization can be allowed.
- You can’t build for a particular “user” in mind, as this user can change multiple times and is also different across countries.
- Employees would rather have a detailed , transparent , time wasting and orderly system than an overly automated or digitzed system.
BUILDING A SOLUTION
I made a decision to focus on the end goal of the product rather than building for a specific user in mind. This gave us a lot of room to explore various scenarios and opportunities and so regardless of who was using the product, how they choose to assign access or any other specific internal decisions, the end goal was the same; disburse or reject a digital cash request.
IDEATION
After defining flows, IA and structures, I went straight to paper wire-framing/sketching to flesh out visual ideas and quickly iterate on them before moving to high fidelity designs on Figma.
BRANDING
Emtech had an existing set of brand materials that was established around the same time we started working on a solution.
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HIGH FIDELITY DESIGNS
Below are some of the high fidelity designs of my design solutions. Please send an email to see more!
RESULTS
After we finalized on the MVP, it was widely used in speaking to potential partners , central bank and investors which helped them see the vision and the solution emtech was looking to provide. In March 2022 , emtech raised a four million dollars seed funding to further actualize their vision..
$4M
Seed Round Raised
RETROSPECTIVE
This was a highly successful project! and i am super grateful to have led this redesign and deliver an optimal solution. My key learning include the following
Deeply understand your users
I made sure to closely emphatize & understand with my users sas this was a totally new endeavour for me. This was very key in me arriving at my final solution.
Collaborate
I worked very closely with our head of product and founder. This really helped understand the user needs quicker, validate my decisions and identify the things that were feasible early on in the process.