RBC Commercial Banking serves many business owners worldwide with a diverse range of products including various credit products.
My team in RBC is designing a digital tool for internal employees who handle credit origination applications for their clients, aiming to enhance work efficiency and service quality.
As the Design Researcher Intern on the team, I led this project as a side initiative in addition to my daily DR responsibilities.
Jan - April 2024
As one of the biggest banks in Canada, RBC has a diverse group of employees whose work includes handling credit applications, such as business advisors in the advice center, account managers, and branch advisors.
However, the team's lack of detailed understanding of the various user groups' behaviors led to increased communication time during meetings and misinformed design decisions.
A behavioural archetype defines users through specific behavioural modules, eliminating unnecessary demographic information compared to personas. These modules can be continuously updated with new behavioural factors.
To build a series of behavioural archetypes that provide a comprehensive and dynamic understanding of business advisors in the advice center, facilitating better communication and design decisions across teams.
After conducting an environmental scan of the extensive data the team had already collected and performing a qualitative data analysis, it is found that business advisors are clearly categorized by several factors such as:
Therefore, based on these variables, I identified several behavioural factors and developed preliminary archetypes as assumptions to be tested.
1. The Apprentice
New to role BA | Year of experience < 3 months | Stick with policy and procedures
Behaviours
New to role BAs are still in the learning phase of their role.
They may be not familiar with either the job as an advisor or the financial knowledge.
They often experience nervousness while talking with clients or handling softwares.
2. The Sage
Experienced BA | Year of experience > 1 year | Developed working styles | Go beyond policy and procedures
Behaviours
They are seasoned professionals who have deep understanding of their job and the tools they use.
They are intimately familiar with their workflows and the various software they use.
They often have already developed their own working styles and might be resist to changes.
3. The Linguist
English as second language BA | Year of experience is varied | Adaptive communication skills
Behaviours
They demonstrate resilience in overcoming language barriers.
They tend to progress slower in learning new software.
They are more attentive to their speaking process and the coordination with software.
Despite having a wealth of data, there were still gaps in connecting the information cohesively. Therefore, we conducted interviews to uncover the missing information and to verify the assumptions made in the previous stage.
Research Questions
Interview Questions:
Participants: 8 SMEs recruited from research participant panel
Method: 30-minute online interviews
After conducting the interviews with SMEs, contextual inquiry and analyzing the gathered data, I was able to picture a Business Advisor's day in their life, including the best and the worst scenarios and their ideal professional development journey:
By visualizing a Business Advisor's professional life both vertically and horizontally, we gained a comprehensive understanding of users at different stages, including their behaviours and mindsets. This approach allowed us to uncover their constraints and limitations in their daily workflow and professional development journey, including their interactions with the software we are developing. We could see how they would use and perceive the product the product in a dynamic perspective.
Additionally, I used affinity diagrams to pinpoint further behavioural factors that influence Business Advisors' actions and their interactions with the system.
Behavioural Factors (Keeping updated):
1. The Initiate
New to role BA | Year of experience < 3 months | Undergoing initial training
Key focus
They are learning the basic skills and tools that are required for the role.
Behavioural traits
They often experience nervousness while talking with clients or handling softwares, leading to mistakes due to inexperience.
Eager to learn, relies heavily on help and feedback from other employees.
2. The Adapter
Growing BA | 3 months < Year of experience < 6 months | Getting confidence
Key focus
Applying and extending basic skills, understanding deeper policy and procedures, mastering job-specific skills.
Behavioural traits
Having the goal of meeting metrics as soon as possible.
Determined, gradually adapting to new environments.
3. The Achiever
Fully competent | Year of experience > 6 months | Proficient with client and software interactions
Key focus
Refining skills, improving efficiencies and achieving deeper understanding of client needs.
Behavioural traits
Meet the metrics.
Confident, reliable, increasing autonomous in handling complex situations.
Spend more time on bundling with clients and deliver better service.
4. The Expert
High level of proficiency | Year of experience > 1 year
Key focus
Mastery of the role, leadership within the team, mentoring others
Behavioural traits
Deeply knowledgeable, trusted for advice.
They have developed personal working style and patterns, which means they are efficient in their tasks but might be resist to changes.
Method
In the preliminary archetypes, I identified three types: new to role BA, experienced BA, and ESL BA, based on previous data.
To test these assumptions, specific interview questions were designed to examine how years of experience and language proficiency impact a BA's behaviour at work and data is collected accordingly.
Results
Upon analyzing the interview data, it was found that language proficiency did not emerge as a significant behavioural factor, whereas years of experience proved to be essential.
Consequently, the revised archetypes excluded ESL BA from the group.
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