PrimaryBid
Who’s in?
Who’s in?
Who’s in?
Creating a brand experience that supports the two founders’ vision to democratise the primary market for everyday investors
Role, client etc...
I worked with a multidisciplinary team at Albion to position and redesign the service of PrimaryBid. I lead the product design.
Agency
Albion
Role
Senior Product Designer
Client
PrimaryBid
Year
2017-2018
Overview
PrimaryBid is a startup that offers private investors exclusive access to new share issues from listed companies at the same discount as institutions.
What we did
Research & Analysis
Communication Strategy
Identity & Branding
Product Strategy
Information Architecture
Prototyping
User Experience
Interface & Interaction Design
Background
PrimaryBid is a company that created a service for private investors to partake in initial share offerings. They are the only company that offers this and have raised £53millions in over 33 deals.
Our task was to create a strategic rebrand and redesign to target their future audience.
Goal
Our goal was to redesign the PrimaryBid marketing page and apps. We would also help them get the right tone and voice to communicate their business to a broader audience.
PrimaryBid was simplifying its business and focusing on the offer of new shares. This meant the purchasing journey was the spine of their service.
We aimed to redesign and simplify this journey. It also had to be engaging and consistent across all platforms.
Process
We audited the existing journeys, architecture and screens. We also did an extensive competitor and comparator review of similar fintech products.
We uncovered the pain points in PrimaryBid’s journey from their data and customer feedback. We learnt that there were pains in the payment process and settlement of shares.
We further gathered insights via stakeholder interviews and customer interviews. We learned we had to focus on the messaging throughout the journey and clear signposting.
Customers
The relationship with PrimaryBid chasing shares in the customer journey ended after the purchase. This didn’t align with the minds of their customers. PrimaryBid doesn’t hold shares for customers because they are not stock brokers.
The settlement of stocks and how long it took depend on the customer’s investment account providers. This wasn’t communicated and was harming the experience of PrimaryBid.
Customers would blame PrimaryBid if their shares didn’t arrive when expected.
“We had a trust problem to solve.”
The relationship with PrimaryBid chasing shares in the customer journey ended after the purchase. This didn’t align with the minds of their customers. PrimaryBid doesn’t hold shares for customers because they are not stock brokers.
The settlement of stocks and how long it took depend on the customer’s investment account providers. This wasn’t communicated and was harming the experience of PrimaryBid.
Customers would blame PrimaryBid if their shares didn’t arrive when expected.
Messaging
We also learned we should focus on proactive messaging to reassure customers from sign-up to purchasing shares and settlement of the shares.
For redesigning the purchasing journey, we came up with the idea that the shares you ordered from the offer to the settlement were an evolving object. Upon completing a deal, we wanted to create a collectable and memorable object. We were building a reason beyond the agreement to return to PrimaryBid platforms. We wanted to move from a one-off transactional experience to service.
As the customer went through the steps, we created an experience where the object evolved. This was the hero moment in the purchasing journey, and it had to feel like a seamless and memorable experience.
Design
As with a lot of our projects at Albion, I assist or take over parts of the visual design. Creating a product across breakpoints and a native app needs all hands over two months.
We wanted everything to be clear and very type lead; the brand was inspired by Dieter Ram’s Braun and The Swiss school. Steadfast adherence to a grid and functional, crafted type.
The brand team called this sophisticated direction of simplicity.
We created a beautiful and functional app that stands out from many financial products. The final rounds of user testing validated what we’re doing.
It was a pleasure to work with very engaged clients. They were open throughout the whole journey and participated enthusiastically.
Outcome
The product is built, and the website is changing daily.
In terms of the business, the process we went through has transformed PrimaryBid. They got accepted to Accenture Fintech Innovation Lab immediately after working with us. They have expanded into other markets and continue to innovate and disrupt the market.