From Concept to 320% Growth: The EQ Notice Savings Account Journey
How We Designed a Unique Financial Product That Attracted 50,000+ Customers in Just Six Months
EQ Bank, a Schedule I digital bank in Canada, launched in 2016 and has since amassed over $9 billion in deposits, serving more than 500,000 customers as of OCT 2024. Recognized as Canada's leading bank, EQ Bank secured the #1 position on Forbes' World's Best Banks list in 2024, a title it has held since 2021.
Quick Summary
Introducing the EQ Notice Savings Account: A high-interest savings solution with a flexible withdrawal period. Pioneering the Canadian market.
Combines the benefits of a GIC with the flexibility of a savings account, strategically designed to meet customer needs while addressing business liquidity challenges.
Market success: Rapidly adopted and highly praised by customers, setting new standards in Canadian banking.
Key Results
Rapid Development: Launched in just 3 months from concept to production, demonstrating agile and efficient product development.
Exceptional Growth: Achieved 10,000+ customer sign-ups in the first month, scaling to 50,000+ customers within 6 months, surpassing the deposit target by an impressive 320%.
Leveraging Existing Solutions: 32% of deposits were facilitated through the first-time funding widget, originally designed for the FHSA Savings Account, showcasing successful feature reusability and cross-product synergy.
My Contribution
Spearheaded end-to-end design, experience, and interaction development for the EQ Notice Savings Account
Collaborated with analytics and finance teams to:
Clearly outline risk and profitability metrics
Present compelling business case to executives
Articulate design decisions backed by data
Developed comprehensive product strategy and roadmap for:
Post-MVP enhancements
Long-term product evolution
Led rigorous design QA process:
Coordinated efforts between design team and developers
Ensured high-quality implementation before launch
Let's dive in
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Let's dive in •
So, what exactly is the Notice Savings Account?
The concept of the Notice Savings Account is straightforward. As the name implies, it's a high-interest savings account (up to 5%) that requires advance notice for withdrawals. When you need to withdraw money, you must wait either 10 or 30 days (depending on the option you choose, each with a different interest rate) to receive your funds. This waiting period is known as the "notice period." For instance, if you have a 10-day NSA and request a withdrawal today, you'll receive your money in 10 days—all while continuing to earn interest.
This account is ideal for those who want to earn high interest on money they don't plan to use in the immediate future. Its features closely resemble those of a Cashable GIC, but in the form of a savings account (this design choice was intentional, which we'll explore later).
Problems we're tackling for our business and customers
Over the past year, our business faced two significant challenges: customer attrition due to competitors offering higher interest rates, and liquidity issues for our treasury team. To address these, we initiated a comprehensive exploration of potential solutions that could not only solve our problems but also deliver added value to our customers.
As we delved deeper into the issue, we realized that while liquidity (partly caused by attrition) was a concern, it wasn't the core problem. The real challenge lay in the stagnation and lack of growth we had experienced throughout the year. Our primary objective shifted to finding ways to drive customer growth and increase new funds, while simultaneously retaining existing deposits.
This realization led us to develop a strategy that would address multiple facets of our business needs while prioritizing customer value. We'll explore the details of this strategy and its implementation later in this discussion.
How we came up with the Notice Savings Account
Our initial exploration led us to consider two primary options: GICs and raising the interest rate on our existing Savings Account. GICs offered a lock-in period, addressing the liquidity issue, while providing customers with competitive rates and flexible withdrawals. Alternatively, increasing our Savings Account rate could match competitors, though it wouldn't necessarily encourage customers to keep their money with the bank long-term.
However, upon deeper analysis, we realized that a savings account aligned better with our target customers' behavior. Many of our clients save regularly from monthly paychecks and aren't active investors, suggesting they'd be more comfortable with the familiar concept of an account rather than a GIC. This insight led us to a crucial question: "How can we design a new product for everyday users who prefer saving over investing but still desire high returns?"
This challenge sparked a debate within our team. While some advocated for GICs, I championed the savings account approach. My conviction was rooted in customer behavior analysis, which indicated higher potential adoption and ease of use compared to an investment product. This strategic bet would later prove successful.
Our research uncovered an exciting opportunity: a similar product called the Flex Savings Account existed in the UK but was absent in the Canadian market. We saw this as a chance to innovate, introducing a novel product that could attract new customers while offering the benefits of both a high-interest savings account and a GIC. This approach would not only appeal to customers but also help manage the bank's liquidity risk.
Getting to know our customers and their pain points
Understanding customer needs and behaviors is crucial when designing a product or service. From the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) perspective, customers are "hiring" our Notice Savings Account to:
Provide a superior savings option that offers better value, eliminates the need for rate-chasing, and instills confidence in their financial decisions.
To address customer anxieties, we must ensure our product:
Is transparent about fees and terms
Has straightforward eligibility requirements
Offers clear information on withdrawal timelines and processes
Allows flexibility in managing withdrawal requests
From a design and user experience standpoint, we need to:
Provide clear, concise explanations of the account features and withdrawal process
Create a frictionless account opening experience
Facilitate easy funding from both internal and external sources
Implement an intuitive withdrawal tracking and cancellation system
Design a streamlined interface that clearly communicates the account's capabilities and limitations
In summary, our Notice Savings Account aims to meet customer needs by offering a superior savings option that balances high returns with flexibility. By addressing customer anxieties through transparency and clear communication, we create a product that instills confidence. Our design approach focuses on creating a user-friendly experience that simplifies complex financial concepts, making it easy for customers to manage their savings effectively. This customer-centric strategy not only meets the immediate needs of our users but also aligns with our business goals of attracting and retaining deposits while managing liquidity risks.
Our game plan: Design, prioritize, launch, and learn
For the design, we adopted a lean and simple approach by leveraging existing functionalities from our Personal Account. We made strategic UI updates throughout the user journey to address potential concerns associated with this new product. This approach allowed us to quickly launch and gather valuable user insights.
Our design principles focused on creating a minimal yet clear experience, emphasizing:
Transparent rates & terms: Clearly communicating what customers are signing up for
Streamlined actions: Keeping dashboard interactions focused and minimal
Intuitive withdrawal tracking: Providing clear information on fund availability and cancellation options
Easy and fast open process (2 steps) with simplified account dashboard
Easy withdrawal process (with expected arrival date) and ability to cancel
Key features include:
Dynamic transfer dates: Displaying "You'll receive your money on [specific date]" to provide contextual information for withdrawals
Dashboard "Pending" tab: Enabling easy tracking of funds and allowing cancellations before the withdrawal date if needed
How did it do? Let's check the results
Our launch of the Notice Savings Account (NSA) exceeded all expectations, despite the absence of a formal marketing campaign. The product's success was driven entirely by organic discovery and word-of-mouth, primarily through Reddit discussions.
Key milestones:
Day 1: $1 million in deposits
Day 4: Over $20 million in deposits
First month: Exceeded deposit target by 300% with 10,000+ new customers
Six month: 50,000+ customers with 320% over deposit target
This remarkable performance underscores the product's strong market fit and perceived value. Customers appreciate that NSA offers a comprehensive savings solution with high interest rates, rather than just a promotional offer.
Customer behavior analysis reveals an impressive 97% of users funding their accounts immediately (within 0 days), indicating excellent comprehension of the product's features and benefits. This level of understanding and quick adoption is particularly noteworthy for a novel financial product in the market.
As you can see, there’s a lot of excitement on what value this product is bring to their lives. This is just a snippet of what’s actually out there.
What's on the horizon?
As we witness the tremendous growth of the Notice Savings Account, we're committed to its continuous improvement and adaptation to evolving customer needs. The product's rapid adoption has provided us with a wealth of insights into how customers integrate it with their existing financial portfolio. Despite its current success, we recognize that the NSA is still in its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage, presenting exciting opportunities for enhancement.
Our next steps involve a thorough analysis of user behavior and feedback to identify areas for refinement. We're particularly interested in understanding:
How customers are balancing their funds between the NSA and other accounts
The frequency and patterns of withdrawal notices
Any friction points in the user experience that we can smooth out
Armed with these insights, we plan to roll out targeted improvements in the coming months. These may include more flexible notice periods, enhanced integration with other EQ Bank products, and advanced features for financial planning. Our goal is to evolve the NSA from a successful MVP into a cornerstone product that sets new standards in the savings account market.
We're thrilled by the product's resonance with the market and are eager to build upon this strong foundation. Stay tuned for exciting updates as we continue to refine and expand the capabilities of the Notice Savings Account!
