Welcome back to another episode of Continuous Improvement, the podcast where we explore strategies and insights to drive innovation and enhance user experiences. I’m your host, Victor Leung, and today, I want to dive into two powerful concepts that have profoundly shaped my recent projects: the creation of personas and the use of “how might we” questions.

In our quest to deliver user-centric solutions, understanding our audience is paramount. Two concepts that have resonated deeply with me are the creation of detailed personas and the structured use of “how might we” questions. These approaches have been instrumental in addressing our client’s challenges and needs, ensuring our solutions are both innovative and relevant.

Let’s start with personas. A persona is a fictional character that represents a specific user type within a targeted demographic. Recently, creating a detailed persona for Alexa Tan allowed us to deeply understand and empathize with our target audience’s needs, motivations, and pain points. This persona became a guiding light for our solutions, making them more user-centric and user-friendly. By focusing on Alexa’s specific characteristics and behaviors, we could tailor our strategies and designs to meet her needs effectively.

In my previous role as a Technical Lead at HSBC, personas were invaluable. One memorable project involved enhancing mobile payment solutions. We developed detailed personas for various stakeholders, such as Shopee users participating in midnight sales in Malaysia. This approach enabled us to tailor our core banking solutions to meet specific needs, significantly enhancing client satisfaction. By having a clear and focused understanding of different user groups, we could design solutions that truly resonated with them.

Now, let’s talk about “how might we” questions. This tool is essential for systematically generating and organizing ideas by focusing on specific enablers, such as technology. “How might we” questions foster structured brainstorming sessions, leading to innovative solutions tailored to our persona’s needs. These questions help us explore various possibilities and prioritize the most impactful ideas.

During my time at HSBC, the “how might we” statement proved particularly effective. One project aimed at reducing transaction failure rates utilized this approach. By framing our challenges as questions, we systematically explored innovative solutions within the user journey, including using different browsers and examining logs at various times. This structured approach ensured our solutions were aligned with regulatory requirements and technological capabilities, leading to successful project outcomes.

In my current role as a Solution Architect at Thought Machine, personas remain fundamental. They help us deeply understand our clients’ unique needs and challenges. By creating detailed personas, we tailor our solutions more precisely, ensuring our core banking systems address specific pain points and deliver maximum value. For instance, developing personas for different banking users, such as young Vietnamese consumers, guides us in customizing features that meet their strategic objectives, like enabling QR code payments for buying coffee.

The “how might we” statement continues to be instrumental in brainstorming and prioritizing innovative solutions. By framing challenges as questions, I lead my team in systematically exploring and organizing ideas. This comprehensive approach to problem-solving is particularly useful in developing new functionalities for our Vault core banking product or proposing enhancements to existing systems.

Integrating personas and “how might we” questions into our project workflows has proven to be transformative. These concepts ensure we remain focused on the user’s needs and challenges, driving innovation and delivering user-centric solutions. By applying these principles, we enhance our ability to create impactful, client-centric solutions that drive business success and client satisfaction.

That’s all for today’s episode of Continuous Improvement. I hope you found these insights into personas and “how might we” questions as valuable as I have. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. Join me next time as we continue exploring ways to innovate and improve. Until then, keep striving for continuous improvement!