Daily IQ
A business analytics toolkit nobody was using.
Commonwealth Bank's Daily IQ is a complimentary analytics toolkit for small to medium businesses. The bank had a massive amount of valuable financial data, but SMB customers weren't engaging with it because the interface was too complex. I was brought in to lead the UX redesign and fix that problem.
Why aren't customers using Daily IQ?
Despite being available for three years, Daily IQ suffered from low customer engagement. This represented a significant missed opportunity for CBA to deepen customer relationships, enhance financial literacy among business clients, and drive customer retention.
To understand what was going on, I started with a discovery phase to properly immerse myself in the Daily IQ and CBA business landscape. This involved meeting with key project stakeholders to understand their view on the challenges and requirements, and a comprehensive review of research documentation compiled throughout the project's lifecycle.
Throughout this process we identified two key personas — the business owners who had been the focus previously, and a new persona: the CBA relationship managers who worked with customers to make the most of CBA's business services.
Technical constraints
The legacy technology platform Daily IQ was built on presented a major challenge — it couldn't easily support the standard design patterns required for a modern web experience.
Rather than designing ideal-state concepts that couldn't be built, I worked around the current backend constraints to deliver the best possible interim solutions. At the same time, I championed the business case for a modernised front-end framework. Eventually my recommendations were adopted, a new framework was chosen, and work began on a full interface rebuild.
Iterative research and design.
Following the discovery phase, I defined and implemented an ongoing cycle of usability testing and design iteration, directly aligned with the development team's agile sprints. Each sprint focused on one to three tools within the toolkit, allowing us to rapidly identify usability roadblocks and test solutions.
Each sprint followed the same high-level approach using the Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework. An additional focus within each sprint was the validation and update of existing research to ensure we maintained a current picture of the product's users. In the first couple of sprints I also ran interviews with CBA relationship managers to define an initial proto-persona, which was then added to the ongoing validation and update cycle.
Validated designs.
Every single tool within the Daily IQ toolkit was reviewed, updated, tested and relaunched during my engagement with Commonwealth Bank. Here are a few examples.
Daily IQ Dashboard
Originally a static set of navigation cards that customers had no control over, the dashboard was seen by all customers after logging in. Research suggested customers wanted information about their business at-a-glance, and weren't always sure what each tool should be used for.
The dashboard was redesigned with a suite of new features: customisable cards with dynamic, up-to-date information that customers can add and remove as desired; toggle between month-to-month and year-to-year comparison; and categorised quick links to every tool with clear information about their purpose.
Cash flow trends
Feedback on this tool suggested it wasn't flexible enough — it originally only provided a monthly view across all accounts. Some customers also weren't sure what to do with the information, even though they found it interesting.
The redesign made the information more granular, allowing customers to view it by day and week in addition to the default monthly view, and by different account types. I also collaborated with CBA relationship managers to design a "What's next?" section — providing users with clear, actionable steps based on their data. This feature was so successful it was rolled out across the entire toolkit.
Foreign exchange economists' forecasts
This calculator was a new tool I designed during my time with the team — the most complex tool in the toolkit, requiring extensive research and sessions with CBA experts to understand FX markets, forecasting and hedging.
"It's the simplest way to view all of the key information on FX hedging and exposure I've ever seen." — CBA FX expert, post-launch
From sceptics to champions.
By the time I left, the relationship managers who had been the most sceptical were using it as their primary tool in client sessions.
Across the full Daily IQ toolkit, customer engagement increased steadily over a period of just 18 months — measured both through unique-visit frequency and per-tool depth-of-use.
Because I embedded the CBA relationship managers into the design process, they quickly became champions for the product. The redesigned toolkit became a primary tool used in live sessions with existing customers, directly driving adoption from the inside out.
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