KROO BANK 2022
Tree Planting
How might we involve customers in Kroo's tree planting initiative to drive engagement and avoid perceptions of greenwashing?
Kroo is a UK digital bank on a mission to change banking for good. A bank that gives back to you, your friends, and the planet.
Background
Kroo's tree planting feature was the first app design project I worked on at Kroo.
My personal highlights were:
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Design ownership: I pushed for and led the design of this feature, which was initially going to be launched via an in-app survey. Owing to my research background and understanding of consumer perceptions around the environment and banking, I believed the survey route would have negative consequences for Kroo, as people would perceive this as greenwashing. I also saw this as an opportunity for Kroo to differentiate themselves from other banks and demonstrate their intent of being a ‘green’ bank. With design resource stretched, I stepped forward and took the lead to design this.
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Optimising opportunities: At this point, I was still technically a researcher, yet striving to transition to product design. The project presented itself as a prime opportunity for me to demonstrate my value in design while relieving pressure on the lead designers.
Summary
One of Kroo's OKRs was to plant 1,000,000 trees by the end of 2024. As part of this objective, Kroo committed to planting two trees for every new customer that opened a current account, in partnership with One Tree Planted. From our research, however, ethical scepticism and perceptions of greenwashing had consistently shown to be a potential barrier to conversion and engagement. This feature would allow customers to evaluate the impact of a selection of tree planting projects and choose where they wanted theirs to be planted.
Challenges and constraints
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Short on time: The main constraint was time. The launch of Kroo's current account was only a few weeks away so we had to significantly reduce the design scope.
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First app design project: This was my first time designing in a squad with a product manager and developers. We were already under pressure given the tight deadline so I had to learn quickly and adapt. I approached the Design team's new product designer for an extra hand and opportunity to learn from an experienced designer with good technical understanding.
Key contributors:
Product Designer and Researcher (Me)
Product Designer (joined mid-way)
Product Manager
Developer
Context
Time frame: October — November 2022; ready for December launch
Research and discovery
Key insights derived from previous survey and interview research:
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High scepticism around sustainability claims and a lack of visibility of project impact is likely to cause perceptions of greenwashing and a lack of trust amongst prospective and existing customers.
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Having a choice over giving to social causes is likely to boost engagement and the ‘feel good factor’ for existing customers, as it feels more personal and meaningful.
Problem
Tree planting in banking has the potential to be perceived as greenwashing by customers due to a lack of understanding about its relevance in banking, scepticism around the genuine nature of the bank’s intentions, and scepticism around its positive and tangible impact. There is also poor engagement in social initiatives more generally, owing to a lack of control over initiatives and the impact feeling far-removed. There’s an opportunity to educate, offer choice, and provide evidence of impact, to encourage customer engagement with tree planting in banking and help Kroo hit its goal of planting 1,000,000 trees by 2024. I devised the following problem statement:
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How might we involve customers in Kroo's tree planting initiative to drive engagement and avoid perceptions of greenwashing?
Design
The feature
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Given the insights and recommendations I proposed, the CPDO came up with the idea for giving customers the choice of where they wanted their trees planted. We agreed this feature would be a quick win in time for the current account launch and one that addressed the main issues highlighted from the research.
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Customer journey
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The key points to consider from the research were education, choice, and evidence of impact.
When considering the entire tree planting journey end-to-end, I wanted customers to:
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Learn about the relevance of the environment in banking. In order to get customers to care about planting trees, we needed to educate customers on why we were planting trees in the first place.
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Feel motivated to choose a tree planting project based on its goals and proposed impact. I wanted customers to feel a genuine desire to choose a project that resonated with them, rather than simply selecting the first project on display.
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Maintain engagement with Kroo’s tree planting initiative by having visibility over the projects’ progress and impact.
Ideally, the journey would have started out-of-app via the website, covering the what, the why, and Kroo's impact so far. This way, prospective customers could get a sense of what the initiative, as well as Kroo’s wider mission, was all about.
Wireframe of content ideas for Kroo's tree planting initiative
However, time was limited, so we could only focus on the in-app journey. The PM and I deliberated on where the journey should start: Should it be combined with the onboarding journey, while customers are signing up for an account? Or should it be a separate journey, once customers have opened an account? While the first option would have helped alleviate doubts customers may have had around the tree sell, we chose the latter for three main reasons:
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Adding it to the onboarding journey would have meant making a long current account application even longer. Best to get the important 'bank stuff' out of the way, and then give room for the customer to focus on the 'fun stuff'.
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Altering the onboarding journey would be risker if the feature build ended up being delayed.
Having two separate journeys would mean the current account could still be launched without the tree planting feature, and new customers would still able to plant their trees, albeit at a later date.
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Customers only get their trees planted once their account is successfully opened. It would therefore be dishonest to have customers plant their trees before their application was approved.
Tree planting in-app flow
Ideation
I originally started playing around with a carousel approach, having the projects displayed on a horizontal scroll with the primary action appearing upon selecting a project. This emphasised a quick select approach, with the option to learn more about the project as a secondary action.
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Collaboration with new product designer
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The Design team had recently been joined by a new product designer who was gradually settling in but keen to get involved with design work. I saw this as a prime opportunity to introduce myself and work with a more experienced designer who I could learn from. This ended up being hugely beneficial as we were able to combine my knowledge of the problem space with their design skills to produce an optimal solution under the time constraints.
Final outcome
Have a play with the final prototype below
Impact
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"Where are they being planted?": A shift in priorities meant the tree planting feature was delayed and the current account went live in December without it. As predicted by the research, customers were sceptical about Kroo's tree planting claims, and we received many queries and public comments about it. We even became a bit of a meme (see screenshot below). I was more excited than ever for the feature launch, knowing this would massively help alleviate green-washing concerns and develop customers' trust. Post-launch, the TrustPilot reviews spoke for themselves. The feature helped boost brand sentiment and was even a primary pull-factor for some customers.
Pre feature launch
Post feature launch
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Valued by stakeholders: The feature starred prominently in Kroo's crowdfunding campaign in November 2023 that subsequently raised more than 178% of its £1m target.
Reflection
What went well
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First app design project: This was my first app design project yet I was able to learn and respond quickly. Off the back of brief conversations with the Product Manager and Developer, I was able to take the unfamiliar technical and product constraints on board and re-design the flow to adapt to the time pressure.
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Collaboration: I leveraged other people's skills to help make the project a success which also served as a personal learning opportunity.
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Proactiveness paid off: This feature now serves as the main touchpoint for one of Kroo's unique selling points. Had I not advocated for the research insights and stepped forward to design this feature, customers would have received a pop-up survey immediately after opening an account, and likely dismissed it. This way, customers are much more likely to engage with the initiative and trust Kroo, and Kroo can feel more confident in its tree planting claims.
Next steps
- ​Include a third project: Given the time constraints, the design had to be kept very simple. In the next iteration, I would include a third project (the power of three), to make the project selection feel like more of a choice, rather than an either/or.
- Visibility over progress: One of the main things that had to be sacrificed in this MVP was the visibility that customers have over the progress of the tree planting projects. As well as including a progress bar and target on the project cards, I would expand the journey to include a social dashboard of some sort, showing Kroo's overall tree planting progress and project updates from One Tree Planted. This would allow customers to see the impact of the projects post-account opening and help maintain engagement.