The brand team of a FinTech company utilizes City Innovations’ rapid two-week Market Landscape Analysis to devise a customer-centric strategy that aimed to enhance customer lifetime value (LTV).
Client: Financial Technology Private Equity Firm
Industry: Financial Services Education and Training
Funnel Process: Envision, Validate
The Challenge
Finance and technology are two ever-evolving sectors that require continued education for those who work in it.
Our client, a PE firm providing education and training to FinTech market professionals, faced a multifaceted challenge. They had acquired a total of 14 distinct companies with the intention of consolidating them into a single technology platform.
While this initiative started with a goal to enhance the efficiency of their offerings, a vision emerged to create a customer experience where customers could traverse brands to build personal curricula and become a career development hub for its customers.
However, the client’s challenge was the speed of acquisition and complexity of selecting a technology platform all while understanding the customer experience of each individual brand — which is where the City Innovations team stepped in.
Market research quickly emerged as a crucial step in addressing the challenge.
The Approach
But before we could begin market research, we needed to help the entire team have a common understanding of the customer’s Jobs to be Done (JTBD), and how we could help.
In order to select a suitable platform to support the integration, there would need to be an in-depth analysis of the individual brands to gauge their effectiveness and competitive standing in the market.
Alongside the client’s technology team, we helped select a primary platform vendor — specifically a headless e-commerce platform — capable of accommodating the efficiency needs of the firm and the varied customer experience needs of the individual brands. We also recognized the need for a research strategy that helped evaluate and compare all 14 brands within a unified framework, resulting in a comprehensive comparison matrix. Along with that, we workshopped with the client to identify commonalities among the brands.
Envision
The development process was marked by speed and efficiency. We lead an “Envision” workshop alongside the technology team. By establishing a common understanding of the client’s existing setup, identifying innovation opportunities, and aligning the brand unification with the platform strategy technology and brand teams could progress in parallel.
During this envisioning work, it became obvious to the team that this was not just rebuilding the technology platform but reimagining the customer journey and facilitating their movement between brands.
The goal became to unify these diverse brands into a cohesive technology and empower users to chart meaningful career paths across brand companies.
Validate
By conducting thorough competitive research into the landscape surrounding the acquired brands, the client sought to make informed decisions about where to begin the consolidation process.
We were able to provide the client with valuable insights as well as ways to continue to measure success as they move forward with the project. This included looking at cross-selling, direct referrals, and tracking the customer’s lifetime value. Tracking the journey of a client from one brand to another was a key indicator.
Additionally, setting up comprehensive analytics provided insights into customer behavior, enabling the client to make informed decisions based on user interactions.
The Results
The City Innovations team implemented several market research frameworks and applied commerce platform knowledge to determine a platform solution within just a few weeks.
However, it was made clear that by bringing these diverse entities under a common umbrella we risked losing unique brand features, potentially leading to customer dissatisfaction. To mitigate this, a validation process was employed to determine essential features, assess usage patterns, and ensure the preservation of critical functionalities.
By implementing master planning work streams, devising a strategy for evaluating existing products and features, organizing verticals and taxonomy, and employing sprint strategies, we uniquely tailored our approach to the client’s specific needs. This focus on customization ensured that the solution not only unified brands but also offered a seamless and relevant experience to users, which would enhance customer satisfaction and engagement.
We also emphasized a partnership approach that prioritized understanding business needs and the overarching goals of the client, which ensured they walked away with the right data to help inform decisions on the next steps.
Our approach minimized false starts and boosted the brand team’s confidence that they were on the right track in creating something that made users feel empowered when planning their educational journey.
The proposed platform was set to play a pivotal role in this transformation by serving as a comprehensive educational and career development resource, enabling users to determine the educational pathways required for various professional shifts.
About City Innovations:
City Innovations is a venture studio focused on building digital businesses that will matter to the world. Our strategists, technologists, and capitalists all work to make sure clients build the right thing and get it to the market faster — supporting entrepreneurs every step of the way, from idea to launch.
