JP Morgan
JP Morgan-Chase two-day product design challenge
THE CHALLENGE
Design a digital product to improve the expense management process for landlords and their staff.
Challenge requirements
In this product design challenge, I had two days to explore the multi-family apartment building’s expense management process.
JP Morgan provided a few research insights and kept the instruction intentionally broad to give room for creativity.
Process scope & constraints
Focus on multi-family apartment buildings
Use Google Material Design as the design system
The primary platform is desktop
The secondary platform is phone (iOS or Android)
Research insights provided:
Small landlords in the process of scaling up are looking for tools to streamline and automate operations and accounting.
Landlords are looking for an automated expense management tool that reduces the need for manual data entry and manipulation.
They wish for easy uploading of receipts and intelligent categorization of expenses such as different types of monthly operational expenses and capital expenses.
PROJECT GOAL
Help landlords of multi-family apartment buildings, manage expenses with automated and streamlined experiences.
The user
User research
I interviewed two landlords to attain additional insights. I provided additional research to give myself more context of the user and expense management.
User research insights
The user…
Has 8-20 units
Uses a property management group
The user wants…
To have consistent cash flow
The property value to increase over time and scale investments
The investment to be optimized with a limited time commitment
The user’s pain points are…
Relying on manual data entry
Tracking capabilities are limited
No real-time information
Receiving payments has a lag time
User Goals
Add receipts
Edit and categorize expenses: Capital vs. Operational
Automated, limited manual data entry
Product requirements
Automated
Streamlined
Reduce manual data entry
Easy uploading of receipts
Intelligent categorization of expenses
Assumptions
Users will connect their bank account to the software
The tool would be part of a larger management system
Users have access to smartphones or desktops
User stories
I sketched user stories to understand the user’s feelings while interacting with the digital products.
Findings
The user needs to upload receipts in order to receive tax benefits and in case of an audit.
Having an automated system will decrease the time commitment of the user’s investments
User flows
This is where I think about how the user would use the products. I think about all the ways a user could achieve a goal, then cross off unnecessary steps to create user flows.
Hand-drawn wireframes
I sketched low-fidelity wireframes to lay out and order information.
Using the hand-drawn wireframes, I developed screen flows to understand how the user would interact with the designs.
Low-fidelity wireframes
I designed low-fidelity digital wireframes to lay out the user interface in a digital format.
I began to input data to make sure the designs would make sense when prototyping.
High-fidelity mockups
Desktop and mobile mockups included an updated design system, icons, correct data, and several stages of the interaction flow.
Prototypes
Desktop and mobile prototypes provided insights into how the user would interact with the product.
I created prototype demonstrations for when users may have problems as well as successful interactions.
Project summary
The final expense management product design streamlines uploading receipts and categorizing expenses.
The designs reduce manual data entry and allow landlords and their staff to quickly manage their expenses.
If I had more time I would explore…
An expense summary dashboard for users to view and analyze total expenses
Compare income vs. expenses
Expense and income comparison to competing apartment buildings