Jacob
Spradley
Senior Product & Interaction Designer
jacob.a.spradley@gmail.com
07882803031
Not to be distributed
Creating the first free-to-use scope 3 emissions tool for companies.
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Value Chain Navigator
Project lead, UX/UI, user research, defined end to end scope including functionality mapping & process flows
The Economist Group | 2023
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Value Chain Navigator
The Economist Group | 2023
Brief & research
The problem
Economist Impact entered its second year of a partnership with Infosys in 2022, its partner for The Sustainability Project. Initial research identified scope 3 emissions as a key area in need of attention in the industry and this was chosen as the focus.
I was asked to concept, design & deliver a digital experience focusing on corporate emissions reduction.
What the project looked like
Design
Policy partnership
Validate
Build
Iterate
Carried out by me
Carried out by others with my assistance
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Value Chain Navigator
The Economist Group | 2023
The final experience
I led the design of the VCN. Starting with wireframes, I led Infosys’ visual designers for the final polish on the Tracker and Self assessment and acted as UI designer on the rest of the site.
I retained the responsibility for all designs and interactions.
The final VCN experience is live here.
Desktop experience of the Self Assessment results & Trend Tracker.
Fully responsive mobile experience of the research findings.
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Value Chain Navigator
The Economist Group | 2023
Research (user & technical)
Exploratory → Validation → Usability
I started with 8 sustainability professional interviews to understand the state of scope 3 engagement in the world.
I led Impact’s first user-centred creation of a digital product, using insight to inform concepts, designs and a phased development approach plan.
Functionality plan and process flow options
Phased development approach
Second interviews were done with 6 of the original participants to validate concepts.
Testing sessions with 6 new participants to refine final designs before front end development.
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Value Chain Navigator
The Economist Group | 2023
Design process key stages
Site map in progress
Insight synthesis
4 products in the VCN
Research
What is the market doing & how can I engage in scope 3 emissions reduction?
Self assessment
Where do I sit in amongst my peers and what should I do?
Tracker
What are the upcoming regulations and innovations I need to know about?
Case studies
What are other people doing and what can I copy?
Design development: sketches to prototypes
Designing the future of borrowing for Capital One.
2
FlexPay
Project lead, UX/UI, qual & quant research, brand strategy, business design
Capital One | 2021
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FlexPay
Capital One | 2021
Plan
The problem
During the pandemic Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) firms such as Klarna, PayPal & Clearpay captured huge shares of the credit market. Klarna itself saw a 363% increase in users between March 2020 and September 2021.
Capital One needed to understand the shifting dynamics, develop a strategy to regain its market share, & position itself to compete long term with instalments products.
I was tasked with understanding this market,and designing a unique product to compete in it.
What the project looked like
Define
Research
Concept
Validate
Deliver & support
Carried out by me
Carried out by others with my assistance
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FlexPay
Capital One | 2021
Some comments from user testing.
The outcome
“I like that it treats customers like adults, rather than children. It gets closer to a relationship of equals, rather than parent child.”
“If I had this in my pocket, 2 taps, I’d be using this. Regrettably I am saying that I’d pay the fee for the convenience of using this to organise payments”
“I’m willing to pay for anything that offers me utility, benefit, ease, or convenience”
The new way of borrowing & repaying, gave customers greater control, flexibility & certainty over their finances.
A business case was written, with a brand proposition, acquisition strategies, a product roadmap and final prototypes.
The product is now in internal development.
10
FlexPay
Capital One | 2021
We can compete before the checkout journey, not relying on point-of-sale, and for the underserved purchase categories we want to target, we can retain customers with features focused on these.
We need to focus on segments outside of our usual and provide solutions for when life happen unexpectedly and for discretionary spend.
Instalments/BNPL offers customers a sense of control, with payments tied to specific purchases. The “blob of debt” on a credit card is broken up and credit aligns to the mental model customers already have of their borrowing.
We need to offer instalments to compete on the experience of borrowing itself.
People have been trialling a handful of options and Capital One has an opportunity to create an ‘all in one place’ relationship with customers.
We can integrate new credit products together, with the card as the ‘use anywhere’ lynchpin.
Frustration with lending products means that people are willing to pay for features that remove stress from the borrowing experience and give them a feeling of security.
We can offer unlimited adjustability and bundling around life events to be the most user-centred product.
What we found
11
FlexPay
Capital One | 2021
Brand proposition
Defines how the company can expect to communicate the product.
Business case
Outlines the customer and business value and factors influencing potential success.
Product roadmap
A roadmap, describing the journey to delivery of the target product & learnings on the way.
Storyboards & prototypes
Used to gain buy-in from senior stakeholders and communicate to internal & external teams.
Final strategy report
Report that outlines the strategy including customer and business findings and strategic shifts.
Research reports
Reports detailing the findings of customer interviews & the survey.
Deliverables
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FlexPay
Capital One | 2021
After the strategy was defined, I acted in a few roles:
Strategy development.
UI development.
Since delivery
Defining the strategy for Capital One’s first in-person presence.
3
Post Office
Project co-lead, facilitation, service design, user research
Capital One | 2020
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Post Office
Capital One | 2020
MVP concept
Approach & scope
MVP concept
Future state concept
Future state insight
In 2019 Capital One decided to develop it’s first in-person presence in a partnership with the Post Office.
I designed novel customer journeys for an MVP and scoped new products uniquely suited for this new customer base.
The problem
MVP launch
What the project looked like
Carried out by me
Carried out by others with my assistance
15
Post Office
Capital One | 2020
We visited 15 branches across the UK, conducted 18 customer interviews with in-branch tasks and defined 54 insights across 9 themes, leading to 8 archetypes; 3 for the Post Office actors and 5 for customers.
The 8 archetypes
What we found
Affinity mapping & insights
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Post Office
Capital One | 2020
An MVP proposition was delivered, including a service blueprint, research summaries, in-branch collateral and revised product terms. This also served as the springboard for further ideation workshops.
Service blueprint, used in workshop
MVP solution
I ran an executive MVP ideation & risks session in the Post Office HQ
I worked with graphic designers to produce in-store & gifted collateral for the launch and Postmasters
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Post Office
Capital One | 2020
CONCEPT
+
C
P
=
P
P
P
P
C
The card game design.
A card game was used in ideation workshops. 98 opportunities and needs, across 5 ‘suits’ were dealt to individuals who then ideated with 1 of the 5 customer archetypes at a time. This gave a total of 490 possible combinations and lead to 1000s of ideas.
The event was sold as a series of ‘games nights’ for the whole of Capital One and selected collaborators from the Post Office; with rounds and prizes for winners each night.
I devised the game mechanics, and facilitated the ‘games’.
Future state workshops
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Post Office
Capital One | 2020
The games nights led to 89 unique concepts split across:
3 were selected with senior stakeholders to be fully investigated with a revenue model, tech investment projections, market analysis and a customer journey.
Future state solutions
Building a multi-year roadmap for Economist Impact’s publishing platform.
4
Podium Strategy
Project co-lead, workshop design & facilitation
The Economist Group | 2023
20
Podium Strategy
The Economist Group | 2023
Define
In 2021 Economist Impact launched Podium, a custom CMS intended to remove developer input on 95% of projects.
After 18 months, only around 15% of projects were being published via the platform.
I was asked to understand why this happened and to redefine a roadmap to achieve the 95% goal.
The problem
What the project looked like
Evaluate
Communicate
Carried out by me
Carried out by others with my assistance
21
Podium Strategy
The Economist Group | 2023
A breakdown of communication and a return to siloes were a key discoveries
I ran a series of 8 workshops with internal & external teams, production and executives to rebuild collaboration and ensure buy-in across the business.
Rebuilding collaboration between teams
01
Define vision
02
Requirements for each user
03
Playback vision & tech challenges
04
Roadmap first draft
05
Current & future projects on Podium
06
Articulate all issues with current CMS
07
Sitemap & design template structure
08
Revised roadmap
Advising the government on fairer insolvency legislation for consumers.
5
IVAs For Good
Project co-lead, policy design, facilitation, qual & quant research
Capital One | 2021
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IVAs For Good
Capital One | 2021
Scope
An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), is a middle ground debt solution and a good option for thousands each year. Volumes were increasing rapidly and negative outcomes were too, rapidly doubling.
I was part of a team lobbying & working with regulators for change here.
I worked with politicians, charities, lawyers and analysts to keep customers front of mind and led workshop through research & solutions.
Define
Research
Impact
The problem
What the project looked like
Carried out by me
Carried out by others with my assistance
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IVAs For Good
Capital One | 2021
I delivered a 12 mixed methods insights to the government and a selection of academics, that spurred and informed new regulation from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
Findings & influence
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IVAs For Good
Capital One | 2021
I ran a series of 4 forums over the course of 2020-21, slowly incorporating external partners. Participants went on a journey towards action, gradually applying pressure on the regulator to change policy.
Initial scoping
An internal workshop, highlighting the ‘lay of the land’ and gaining buy-in for our engagement strategy.
Forum 1. IVA issues
Trusted charity & industry partners were brought together to evaluate the core problem spaces in the IVA industry, agree on goals and identify more partners.
Forum 2. A pledge
The expanded group created a ‘pledge of practice’ and was tasked with gaining agreement in their respective organisations.
Forum 3. Solutions
Regulators attended a forum with our industry partners, focused on proposing solutions and agreeing a path forward.
Forums & workshops
Designing a new marketing system for Capital One.
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Refer a Friend
Project lead, UX/UI, qual & quant research, brand strategy, business design
Capital One | 2022
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Refer a Friend
Capital One | 2022
Noticing high acquisition costs and an over-reliance on aggregators, I scoped options for a new marketing tool. After identifying referral programs as an easy win, I set up a project to:
I designed a refer-a-friend campaign to diversify lead generation, increase business value & boost loyalty.
The problem
What the project looked like
Plan
Define
Concept
Validate
Deliver & support
Carried out by me
Carried out by others with my assistance
28
Refer a Friend
Capital One | 2022
A 3 stage path to target state was outlined, with an MVP launching in early 2022, leveraging existing products to reach scale faster and generate learnings sooner, informing design and product decisions.
The app-based product was likely to be so value positive that referral ‘gamers’ could be value negative for years margins would remain high.
Responses to financial referrals shown in the concept.
The outcome
“If they (people I referred) are spending like crazy, then would it come back to me? Like why did you refer us this person?”
“My friends thought it was funny that banks wanted referrals from me to get more customers. They looked at me as if to say ‘what are you selling credit cards for? You’re a travel agent, are you changing business?”
“It is money for nothing really. As long as there’s not too much involvement from my side.”
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Refer a Friend
Capital One | 2022
±
Research showed 10 typologies of schemes which fed into our process.
Analysis on the US business data and their referral email tests on 1m users, showed:
The research
I ran a 2000 person survey to understand & quantify expected behaviours & desires.
The survey uncovered insights used to inform and direct the concepting phase of the project and to influence conversations with senior leadership.
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Refer a Friend
Capital One | 2022
The motivator for the new customer is not so much financial, as it is the recommendation from someone they trust that the brand is fair and has good customer service.
We can lean into this framing with our nudges to both parties.
Referrals are more successful & likely more profitable customers, as referrers feel a sense of responsibility to us and their friends, doing their own ‘credit checks’ to recommend only “the right” people.
We can offer better deals to active referrers, to show appreciation and increase our competitiveness while limiting risk.
There are clear points of a journey where we should nudge customers and these focus around when ‘good’ things happen to them.
We can easily target specific moments to increase the effectiveness of a campaign.
2 in 3 people feel they will try to take advantage of a scheme, looking for these opportunities openly and bragging that they could do this.
We can design in this behaviour to our advantage.
What we found
Recommending finances is desirable but comes with large emotional labour and risk. 0% APR offers overcome this with high perceived cultural value and the feeling of potential, rather than being a fixed amount like a cash reward.
We should focus on 0% APR offers as a reward as these open up “limitless possibilities” for customers.
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Refer a Friend
Capital One | 2022
Brand proposition
3 language plans made: for referrer MVP & mid state + as well as the target referred segment.
Business case
We showed that a scheme could deliver XX% more value per customer.
Working roadmap
Working with PO & tech teams, learnings from each state feeds into decisions that follow.
Storyboards, wireframes & prototypes
The various state experiences were described with prototypes & storyboards of varying refinement.
Final strategy & research reports
The overall strategy was delivered to teams via a concise report and presentation.
Personas
Personas were developed for the delivery teams to use going forward.
Deliverables
Other work worth mentioning
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What else have I done?
What else have I done?
Master’s Thesis | 2019
33
Creating a new sensation for experiencing radio waves
The project sought to develop a new sensation with AC current, to create an intuitive awareness of the directionality & distance of specific types of doppler radar. It did this to undermine developments ‘biometric radar’ which monitors individuals’ heartbeats, activities & identities,
Vadio
Some of the ‘haptic’ experiments using AC current.
The final works and looks like prototypes, hiding the technology under the clothing of activists.
The dystopian view of an urban biometric radar future.
What else have I done?
The Economist Group | 2022
34
I joined in year 2 of a 5 year partnership with Dupont. With the first year under performing, I created a 4 year plan to save the deal. As part of this I designed a self-assessment for the following year and led a redesign of the site (UX/UI) to be responsive and drove an SEO optimisation. The new site can be found here.
City Water Index
The output of a series of client workshops to build a strategy that helped their goals.
Phased site architecture.
The new site design
What else have I done?
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I mentor junior teammates, interns and secondments
I take on responsibility to guide projects of team members and to teach the skills necessary to run innovation and design projects.
I teach design thinking
Remotely and in-person, I have designed and led design-thinking training courses, largely for traditionally ‘non-creative’ professions.
I volunteered at a crowdfunding platform for independent shops
I volunteered at Our Pledge, a startup that helps small companies gather investment to ‘green’ their shops and move to the circular economy.
I led the design of an award winning 60 unit development in London
Less than 2 years out of university, I was responsible for the design and delivery of a £60m development at Toynbee Hall, which won and was shortlisted for multiple awards.
I ran the London Marathon & raised over £2000
Having started running in early 2022, in April 2023 I ran my first marathon, raising money for the charity Shelter.
Miscellaneous