Qualitative Business Banking Research
Full report not disclosed due to confidentiality.
Context
The Business Banking division sought to improve how SME and Corporate customers interact with their banking platforms, particularly when users operate across multiple business roles. The concept of “hat switching” — toggling between personal and business contexts — was a growing area of customer friction. As our digital channels evolved, understanding real user expectations became essential to designing solutions that met the needs of modern business customers with blended responsibilities and complex organisational structures.
Problem
Assumptions around hat-switching behaviour had not been validated with customer insights. Interface decisions risked being made in isolation from the lived experiences of real users. There was a strategic gap in how different segments (SME vs Corporate) expected to manage roles, access, and platforms. Key questions emerged:
Do customers want to switch hats — or avoid it altogether?
How can we reduce cognitive load while maintaining compliance and security?
Approach
I led and conducted a cross-segment qualitative research programme involving in-depth interviews with 6 SME and 7 Corporate customers. Explored how customers perceive role separation, permissions, access, and task urgency. Mapped common pain points and needs across different business types and organisational roles. Tested existing hypotheses around hat-switching and revalidated expectations for experience design.
Key Themes Identified
Personalisation over Hat Switching: Customers prefer the platform to understand who they are and surface relevant information without forcing manual context switching. SMEs especially disliked toggling; corporates required strict separation for compliance.
Time is a Valuable Asset: Corporate users demanded speed and bulk processing due to scale. SMEs wanted tools to reduce their mental load and automate repetitive tasks.
Desktop for Depth, Mobile for Agility: Desktop remained the preferred device for control-heavy tasks. Mobile was valued for quick approvals and micro-actions — not for managing complex flows.
Artefacts Delivered
Research Plan and Interview Guide tailored for SME and Corporate segments.
Insight Report synthesising qualitative findings into actionable insights.
Hypothesis Reframe: Validated, refined, and disproved assumptions used to inform future experience design decisions.
Stakeholder Playback: Facilitated a cross-functional insights session with product, design, and strategy teams to guide prioritisation for platform improvements.
Key Impact
Shifted internal narrative from “hat switching” as a feature to “personalised access” as a customer expectation.
Informed digital roadmap decisions for SME and Corporate platforms by clearly segmenting needs and device use cases.
Enabled product teams to design role-aware interfaces with less manual toggling and greater contextual awareness.
Created a human-centred foundation for improving business banking journeys — from daily transactions to role-based permissions and beyond.