ROLE: UX & SERVICE DESIGN LEAD / YEAR: 2021 / CLIENT: HSBC

HSBC Connect Plus: welcome to a world of money without borders

Connect Plus aimed to simplify international money management by offering a single platform to send, receive, and spend like a local—without hidden fees. As a UX & Service Design Lead, I led a team of two user researchers, driving the research, service blueprinting, and experience design for this new value proposition, ensuring it met user needs while aligning with HSBC’s business objectives.

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Challenge

HSBC wanted to test Connect Plus, a new value proposition designed to address the challenges of cross-border banking. The key selling points included:

•  Send, receive, and spend like a local—anywhere in the world, with zero fees.
•  A single view for all currencies, accounts, and transactions in one place.
•  Global Saving Pots—a feature to connect, share, and save money with family and friends.

Approach

To ensure these features resonated with users and were intuitive, adoptable, and valuable, we followed a structured validation process. Our delivery approach included:

1. Mapping the User Journey
2. Prototyping
3. Testing the Value Proposition
4. Reporting

1. Mapping the User Journey

We began by collaborating closely with HSBC’s product, engineering, and compliance teams to define a potential user journey for the product, ensuring it aligned with the existing requirements.

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2. Prototyping

With a clear journey map in place, we developed a high-fidelity prototype to serve as a stimulus for qualitative interviews and test the Value Proposition and its Key Selling Points.

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3. Testing the Value Proposition

Qualitative interviews were carried to test the key selling points of the value proposition.  Our research objectives included:

✔️  Understanding expatriates' financial management needs and challenges.
✔️  Exploring current behaviors around savings, transfers, and investments.
✔️  Assessing the appeal and usability of the proposed financial solution.
✔️  Identifying key functional and emotional jobs related to financial management.

See discussion guide and session notes  

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4. Reporting

A report was finally created with the insights from user research and clear directions to improve the value proposition.

Outcome

While Connect Plus was not launched as a standalone product, its key innovations shaped the future of HSBC’s digital banking offerings:

•  Global Money Account was developed for existing HSBC customers and is accessible via the HSBC Mobile Banking app.
• 
Zing serves non-HSBC customers and it was launched as a separate app.
•  Both products preserve much of Connect Plus’s functionality, excluding Savings Pots, Rewards, and Community.

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