Klana Card is Klarnas physical and digital payment method that works wherever VISA is accepted. It works as an extension of Klarnas already well-established instalment plans and with feature that supports consumers with their everyday purchases.
As the Lead Design Researcher, I worked together with product managers, design leads, marketeers and our product director with planning, conducting and delivering actionable insights with a mixed-methods research approach.
Traditional credit providers have long dominated the market in the US, offering payment plans and possibility to build and grow one's credit. So, where would Klarna fit in with such a mature market regarding credit, and how would consumers look at a non-credit payment card?
To ensure a smooth and successful launch of our Card Payment offering to a new vast group of consumers, I took responsibility of ensuring product designers, product managers and marketers had the right insights in order to take action and build a relevant offering to our customers and consumers.
As the launch gradually rolled out throughout 2022-2023, we managed to ensure that we were on the right path to provide US consumers and customers a new card payment experience that was not a traditional credit card, nor a debit card.
The research was done through mixed-methods approach and involved parts of both qualitative and quantitative research. It was necessary for the group to better understand the context, user behaviour, and preferences within the US consumer group to provide an attractive offering.
The start of our research began with an ethnographic diary study where we set out to understand people's use of their money in their everyday lives. Using a dairy study approach we gave participants daily task that covered daily activities, what they spent their money on and for what reason. From the analysis we brought back clear insights for the Klarna Card group what potential strategies could be implemented before a launch in that market.
We used a digital ethnographic research tool called Indeemo, in which me and my fellow colleagues could check in on our participants daily and also chat with them regarding their tasks. The study ran for a total of 4 weeks, and we had 64 participants from US, UK, Germany and Sweden.
After the conclusion of the ethnographic study, we moved our focus towards paving the way for a launch in the US. Working closely with the Product Design Leads, we ran two iterations of testing different design concepts for the upcoming launch, fuelled by the previous ethnographic study.
With tools such as Maze and UserTesting to conduct user tests, we were able to identify optimal paths in the prototypes as well as pain points in the user journey.
The final part of our research involved launching a quantitative study to identify what features and benefits the general consumers valued the most. The leadership also saw an interest in introducing a fee, with which we tried to define by launching a Van Westendorp analysis, complemented with a competitor analysis on pricing for credit cards.
The study was programmed in Decipher by Forsta Vision and later sent out to a sample size were calculated at 2000 respondents with a 95% confidence level. The questionnaires also covered a MaxDiff ranking question that aimed at understanding which potential features and benefits would be more sought of from consumers.
If I don't know how to do something, I'll find a way to learn and apply it. Especially creating such large studies and the time it takes to plan and execute it well.
