Design and launch of a fully digital private pension service

My role: Built and managed a design team of 3. Branding management. User research and prototyping.
Results: Launch the complete product in 8 months. Validated the user experience.

Ciclic is a startup founded by two major companies in the insurance industry. In this project, our goal was to launch a private pension service using BBSeguridade products with an innovative experience through an app and website.

I acted as a design leader, hiring and mentoring the team, managing stakeholders, as well as participating in research, content strategy, workshops, and prototyping some interactions.

Process

The brand was an important point of this project, as private pension is a topic of little interest to the company’s target audience. Choosing the name, visual identity, and positioning were the first steps of the project.

The habit of saving to achieve dreams instead of retirement was the basis of the brand development.

The brand aimed to be modern, friendly and inspiring

We then explored customer acquisition, and two problems arose: how to simulate an investment and how to explain the evolution of private pensions.

To decide on an investment, it is common for people to want to know the possibility of returns from that investment. At the same time, from research, we found different mental models to work with:

I must save money every month
I must save money for a number of years
I must save money until I reach a certain amount

After initial usability testing, we arrived at a simulation model that meets all of these cases.

The hiring process could be done through the app or website. In both channels, it was necessary to choose a 'dream' to start saving

Unlike other funds, private pensions have complex characteristics:

Only after a certain time of saving can the customer withdraw funds
After an even longer time, taxes are reduced and profitability increases

The way we found to explain this difference, while reinforcing brand attributes, was by using a specific interaction element: a circular slider.

The cycle refers to the brand and allows the customer to experience and plan the return of their private pension

We need to wait the product to be ready for launch to be able to research and explore how the existing customer experience the service. For this reason, we decided to conduct usability and value tests in which, in addition to the reward, customers received a sum of money to invest in private pensions.

In the logged area, dreams could have various states such as 'active,' 'waiting for payment,' 'new dream,' or even 'canceled'

The statement, in addition to a timeline, was prepared for system failures and to receive incentive notifications

We created a content strategy so that the website could serve as support for questions that cannot be resolved by the interface and help simplify such a complex product

The content of the website and app aimed to attract new customers, answer questions from those interested in the product, and deepen knowledge of private pensions for recurring customers

We also explored product communication for specific contexts with A/B testing. While some people wanted to save money indefinitely, others sought a way to save for a specific goal.

Private pensions could be sold as a good investment, a step-by-step guide to achieving dreams, or even as a safe way to prepare for the future

Results

Ciclic was an interesting and easy-to-use product. We realized this soon after launch from the reports of the users themselves.

However, with value testing, we found evidence that the Ciclic service did not solve a problem for our target audience: having a good return compared to other investment models. Private pensions perform better than a regular savings account but are inferior to other common investment models at the time.

Even though it was better than the savings account, customers still preferred more straightforward and profitable investments

Therefore, some time later, the product was discontinued, and the company invested in other insurance modalities.