Empowering Sub-Saharan Micro and Small Businesses Through Design Sprints

Addressing High Transaction Costs for Small Businesses

The team at Asilimia realized micro and small businesses were using expensive C2C infrastructure to conduct B2B payments. Launched in January 2020, their app was built to provide an alternative platform that allows sending money at scale while saving on transaction fees.

To further enable their users, Asilmilia wants to build simple yet powerful bookkeeping features that give financial insights and enable smart business decisions in a population of late digital adopters with a low level of financial literacy. Although the team understood on a high level what functionality they wanted to provide their users, they had not yet tested the concept to understand if it would resonate with their target audience. They also needed some guidance to detail user flows and select interface elements making the new features intuitive for their users.

Design Sprints as a Path to Product Validation

‍To tackle this, I facilitated two consecutive remote Product Design Sprints from Google Ventures, allowing Asilimia to ideate, prototype, and test their new features quickly. Through these sprints, I provided practical outcomes and equipped Asilimia's team with effective product design techniques for future use. Prior to the sprints, I engaged with Asilimia's key stakeholders to align on the business's objectives and digital product goals.

I facilitated two remote back-to-back Product Design Sprints to ideate, prototype, and validate new feature ideas.

Designing a User-Centric Sprint Strategy

‍I initiated the process with a classic Product Design Sprint, drawing on insights from Jake Knapp, AJ&Smart, and my own extensive experience in sprint facilitation. A cross-functional team was assembled to align on the main challenge and develop a solution to be prototyped and tested with Asilimia’s real users. The 6-member team included Asilimia’s CEO, COO, an Android developer, a frontend developer, a sales consultant, and our Director of Product Design. The CEO and COO acted as the "deciders," while I facilitated the process as Mainmatter’s Director of Product Design. To enhance focus and efficiency, the team was split into two sub-teams: a prototyping group (product designer, Android developer, frontend developer) and a user testing group (CEO and sales consultant).

Week One: From Concept to User Testing

The sprint followed a structured approach with each day dedicated to a specific goal: alignment, solution exploration, decision-making, prototyping, and user testing. The primary focus was on enhancing user growth, engagement, and retention, transitioning the app from a tool used once a day to one that fully replaces traditional pen-and-paper bookkeeping throughout a trader’s purchase and sales process. The challenge was to identify the key features that would deliver value while maintaining a simple, easy-to-use app experience.

We focused on user growth, engagement, and retention, aiming to create an app used throughout the entire purchase and selling process⁠.⁠​

Mapping the User Journey and Key Moments‍

We created a high-level user experience map to pinpoint critical areas to address. Two key moments were identified as pivotal:

1. Discovery Phase – Users are introduced to the app via a referral text message and gain their first impression through the Google Play Store.
2. Adding a Transaction – A crucial feature that had to be as intuitive as jotting down information on paper, while also providing the enhanced functionality of a digital platform.

Ideation, Prototyping, and Testing the Solution

‍In the following days, we brainstormed potential solutions, made key decisions on which concepts to prototype, and crafted a step-by-step user testing outline. Within a single day, we built a realistic click-through prototype encompassing all key screens to validate our assumptions. This journey included receiving a referral text message, downloading the app, adding a transaction, and viewing a transaction history highlighted by a weekly financial overview. Assuming that users would aim to add transactions swiftly, we developed an input form enabling most transaction data to be entered in one step.

Validating the Prototype in the Real World

On the final day, the testing sub-team conducted in-person tests with five fish traders at Nairobi’s Gikomba Market. Our primary goal was to uncover user pain points, understand their expectations, and confirm whether the prototype met their needs effectively.

A click-through prototype was created and tested with fish traders in Nairobi's Gikomba Market⁠.⁠​

Identifying Key Areas for Improvement Based on Feedback From User Testing

‍While the overall concept was well-received, the user testing revealed several areas requiring improvement:

• Messaging: The initial discovery phase lacked a connection with users, indicating a need for more engaging communication.
• User Engagement: The data visualization and time span displayed on the home page were not relevant to the users, leading to lower engagement.
• Cognitive Load: Testers found the process of adding a transaction overwhelming, expressing a preference for a guided, step-by-step "wizard" approach.
• Design Pattern Choice: The standard floating action button, commonly used in material design, was not easily understood by the testers, highlighting a need for a more intuitive design.

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Week Two: Iteration Product Design Sprint

Building on User Feedback for Iterative Improvement

An iteration sprint is a simplified version of the product design sprint that focuses on applying user feedback to the original prototype and retesting it. Incorporating an iteration sprint can lead to exponential value growth by honing the design to align more closely with user needs. By the end of this sprint, we gain enough information to prioritize and estimate features effectively.

The iteration sprint began with a team discussion on how to revise the existing prototype based on the insights from the previous week's user test. We defined new areas of focus for this iteration:

1. Language Validation: Testing if using some phrases in Swahili would enhance user understanding and convey the app's value more effectively.
2. Wizard Interface: Experimenting with a step-by-step wizard interface for adding transactions to reduce cognitive load.
3. Notification Relevance: Assessing whether users found notifications for unpaid transactions useful for their business processes.

Implementing Changes and Retesting

‍We reviewed the previous prototype in detail to identify and adjust features that confused users. The following day, we conducted five user tests of the iterated prototype to validate whether the adjustments addressed the sprint challenges. The responses were markedly positive, indicating a significant improvement.

Outcome of the Iteration Sprint

Validating the New UX Pattern

The two product design sprints enabled the Asilimia team to validate the new direction for their application with real users. In the iteration prototype, users could intuitively perform the app's core actions, confirming the effectiveness of the new wizard interface. Additionally, we discovered the importance of tracking both paid and unpaid transactions, as this information helps traders avoid being double-charged and ensures profitability.

Our team validated the new direction for their application, including the effectiveness of a wizard interface for adding transactions⁠.

Achieving Team Alignment

By working as a cross-functional team, we aligned on the company’s vision and user needs, as well as how to collaboratively create features that effectively meet these requirements. The user tests also provided valuable insights for prioritizing future feature development. Although some aspects, such as copywriting, still require refinement, the Asilimia team now has a repeatable method for validating their concepts.

Minimizing Opportunity Cost

Through rapid ideation, prototyping, and testing within a compact timeframe, we gained crucial insights before building the final product. By validating our assumptions before market entry, we drastically increased the chances of success and mitigated the risk of costly redesigns.

Visual Comparison

The main view of both prototypes revealed a key insight: the visualization of weekly sales and expenses (left), initially assumed to be highly useful, held little value for traders who preferred to focus on their daily transactions without a graph (right).