Digital

Division
Design
Practice
Est. 2017

1
2
 and coaching. But we started building
Yoma Bank launched
these things with the conviction that
the Digital Division with every idea is only as good as the first
a mandate to make prototype test. So our design team
led the way. We are super stoked now
financial services work for to see the business teams scale the
millions of Myanmar from first versions we have launched in the
market, with customer acceptance
all income segments.
that far exceeds our initial aspirations.
And we started that journey by building Along the way, our design practice has
our service design practice. In the early evolved into an organic element of our
days we shaped our initial strategy business lines. The Product Owners are
with a strong point of view about the now embedded in the business teams,
basic services that customers would which manage their business lines with
need, things like remote sign up and sales targets, release schedules, and
cash in/out, a mobile app, digital credit, feedback loops.

We are still less than two years into this

journey. This is the Design Team’s own
story of our early stage.

Mark Flaming
CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER

In under two years we have created a

team, practice and culture that enable
concept design and digital product
development rivaling best-in-class
digital product companies. Each team
member’s drive for self-improvement,
capacity for making and iterating, ability
to compromise for the best solution and
commitment to deeply connect with
customers is inspiring.

And we’re just getting started.

Lauren Serota
HEAD OF SERVICE DESIGN

1
 2017-2019
04
ARTICLE
Design as a Competitive
Advantage

12
CASE STUDY
Hire Purchase (HP)
Portal

20
CASE STUDY
SMART Credit

28
CASE STUDY
Other Products

34
ARTICLE
Our Practice

44
ARTICLE
Our Team

Our Team: Su Yee Yee Hnin, Gone Yaung

Lynn, Thiha Aung, Ngwe Sin Hmuu, Moh
Moh Khine, Win Ei Ei Phyo, Thiri Aung, Bart
Van Kranenburg, Ye Myat, Kaung Set, Aye
Myat, Win Phyo Ko, Thuya Ko Ko Lwin, Mike
Mra Tha, Thiri Yadana Kyaw, Thazin, San
Swe Zin Naing, Moe Myint Thein, Myo Kyaw
Htun, Hnin Pwint Lwin, Myat Thu, Phyu Mon
Theint, Kay, Shilpi Gupta, Nyan Min, Kaung
San Phyoe, Jason Loughnane, Kyle Becker
 Design is a
Competitive
Advantage
Design practices enable teams to work
in collaborative and flexible ways,
increasing our ability to bring the right
products to market more quickly. Our
team is able to discover, communicate,
and validate opportunities faster,
building alignment around customer
needs and business objectives.
4
THE CHALLENGE FOR
YOMA BANK
Yoma Bank’s new employee orientation a wealthy family member to serve as
begins with a video from our Chairman, their guarantor.
Serge Pun, declaring the mission
of the Yoma Group of companies; Yoma Bank’s owners didn’t want to
to “Build a better Myanmar for its be followers or serve only a wealthy
people.” This mission animates both niche. They wanted to build a practice
the tremendous challenge and the that would make Yoma Bank the most
enormous opportunity we face - to relevant bank in Myanmar. They wanted
design financial services in a market to hire people who, like them, saw the
where banking products are hard to
use, frighteningly opaque, and designed
principally for corporations and the
already wealthy.

Yoma Bank wasn’t forced by

competitive pressure or financial
motivation to build a design practice.
Rather than innovate, test, fail, and try
again, we could have chosen to adopt
a “fast follower” strategy, letting our
competitors test new products and
copy their ideas that work. In a more
established banking sector, we could
have targeted a small and under-served
niche with a boutique offering tailored
specifically to their struggles; turning
a tidy profit refinancing student loans
or lending to newly engaged couples
to finance an expensive wedding. enormous opportunity in providing
In a mature market, we could have financial services to Myanmar’s vast,
built a low-cost online-only bank and overlooked, and underbanked working
trusted that tech-savvy millennials class. They wanted to develop an
would discover and share our bespoke SME franchise that could work with
offering with their elite peers. We could genuinely small businesses, helping
have continued doing what Myanmar them grow into big businesses.
banks have done for decades, lending They encouraged a bold approach,
exclusively to corporations and the very hiring experts from the international
wealthy, serving those who have ample development sector, microfinance
collateral to guarantee their loan, or institutions, product design firms, and
working with borrowers who could bring telecommunications companies to

5
develop simple and delightful banking groups are ubiquitous, and short-term
products that anyone in Myanmar with borrowing from local moneylenders,
a smartphone could easily use. pawn shops, or wealthy relatives is
very common. Demand for high-
We’ve seen a positive trend in access quality financial services far outstrips
to financial services in Myanmar, with the supply on offer from the financial
the percentage of adults reporting institutions licensed to provide savings
access to at least one financial product accounts and unsecured credit.
increasing from 30% in 2013 to 48%
in 2018. However, the diversity of We design financial products for a vast
products, and uptake of usage that population, the financially savvy who do
should follow this increase in access, not think banks are meant for them. We
is still limited, with are not competing for
only 25% of the adult customers with rival
population considered
“banked”1.
“To create a commercial banks,
we are competing
better Myanmar with long-held
The perception of
Myanmar’s banking for its people.” bias, familiarity, and
established routine.
sector, historically not We are competing
undeserved, is that with unproductive
banks are only for big companies and and wealth-destroying habits; saving
rich people. Low-income farmers, day- cash under a mattress, pawning a
wage laborers, and non-salaried family gold bracelet for a one-month loan,
business owners believe that bank staff or borrowing from a rich shopkeeper
will look down on them if they open who charges 20 percent per month but
a savings account with just a small who doesn’t ask for collateral because
initial balance. Potential loan applicants he’s been doing business with the
worry about being asked for reams borrower’s family for decades.
of paperwork proving their collateral
ownership, putting their home or land The success of telecommunications
at risk, or they fear the embarrassment in Myanmar’s last half-decade has set
of completing a loan application only to high expectations for mobile money to
be told they’ve been rejected by a credit rapidly displace cash and checks. Since
committee in a distant head office. Telenor and Ooredoo’s licensure and
Almost all purchases take place in cash, entrance into Myanmar in 2014 caused
and neither merchants nor consumers SIM prices to plummet and precipitated
see much value in digitizing their the vast increase in nationwide
preferred payment method away from mobile and smartphone penetration,
paper money. sector experts have predicted a
similar leapfrogging in financial
This is not to suggest that access through smartphone-based
Myanmar’s population is financially banking applications. We concur that
unsophisticated. Informal savings leapfrogging in the banking sector will

6
(RE)-DEFINE OFFERING BUILD / DEPLOY

VALUE DELIVERY:
STRATEGIC
ALIGNMENT CUSTOMER

SYNTHESIZE INSIGHTS GATHER INSIGHTS

take place, but not without a financial We do not look to other commercial
institution taking risks, testing new banks for inspiration. We spend time
ideas, and investing in new channels. learning from our customers, as well
Yoma Bank is committed to being that as our potential future customers by
institution, and our design team is calling them and / or meeting them.
dedicated to discovering and building We work to consolidate numerous and
the products that make it happen. contradictory qualitative responses
to create a clear, focused view of our
Our rivals will emerge not from customers.
Myanmar’s commercial banks, but more
likely from international companies
with a history of massive customer
acquisition and engagement. Think WHY SHOULD DESIGN DRIVE
online retailers, mobile chat providers, PRODUCT DECISIONS?
ride-hailing giants, and social media
platforms; Alibaba and Ant Financial, There are myriad philosophies and
Tencent and WeChat Pay, GrabPay, models for how to build a new business.
or Facebook’s Libra could use their Ours is simple: we put the customer
capacity for customer engagement in the center, and build from there. We
and acquisition to mainstream believe that focusing on the customer
digital financial services using fast, is the best way to build great products,
experimental offerings and a tolerance keep a talented team engaged, and
to test and fail in pursuit of products transform how people think and
that work in the Myanmar market. collaborate.

1. Making Access Possible (MAP), 2018

7
We are not unique in this approach.
Steve Jobs famously declared that A BETTER WAY OF WORKING
“design isn’t how it looks, design is how it
works.” In early 2018, Forrester, a market If our team weren’t called “Design,” many
research company that provides advice on our team wouldn’t know that design
on the existing and potential impacts of was, in fact, what they were doing. That
technology, released a series of reports was, well, by design.
on the “Total Economic Impact” of Design
We didn’t hold workshops on “Design
Thinking as a practice2. Forrester’s report
Thinking” for new joiners. We didn’t hold
found that design thinking had the
long synthesis or ideation sessions. We
following impacts:
started with hypotheses about what was
Dramatically reduced time needed for needed in the market to make Yoma Bank
initial design and alignment of new relevant to people who were historically
products. neglected by banks. We embedded
design in every step of execution.
Reduced development and testing We instilled an ethos that placed the
time by one-third to one-half. customer at the center of everything we
do. We gave team members permission
Improved product outcomes, reduced
to challenge operations and technology,
risk of costly failures, and increased
and our CEO insulated the design team
portfolio profitability.
from an expectation of short-term
Streamlined processes by creating financial results. Our approach to design
cross-functional teams, which is simply to create customer-informed
collaborated to share problems and behavioural hypotheses, then to test
jointly find solutions. and validate these ideas through a rapid
cycle of consideration, prototyping, and
Boosted employee morale and helped in-market pilots.
align teams around a common
mission. Yoma Bank’s design practice is
championing a new approach not just in
These improvements, the organization the Myanmar market, but transforming
reported, led to millions of dollars in the culture of the 25-year old institution
cost savings from shorter development itself. Design approaches help address
timelines, less in-market failure, and the resulting challenges:
reduced talent attrition.
Managing ambiguity
The research on the positive impact By bringing customer opinions into the
of design thinking is clear, but how process early and often, we create external
does design facilitate a more effective alignment between what customers value
business strategy? Why is it so important and what our offerings deliver. For an early-
to bring this competency in-house and career team new to Yoma Bank and in many
cases new to the financial services industry,
nurture it?
this is critical in forming the conviction
necessary to carry forward exceptional
product design.
8
 De-risking new products with a higher degree of continuity and
Bringing anything new to market comes success, when they become embedded
with tremendous risk. We have to prove that in the firm’s standard workflow.
our ideas will work. Starting small, testing,
and refining allows us to bring our team and
Yoma Bank could have opted to hire a
bank colleagues along one small step at a
product design consultant to propose
time. Before we ask for something big and
new and exciting ideas, then hope the
new, we first try something small andbrilliance of those ideas would convince
non-threatening.
the bank to drop their usual approach in
Design practices create a foundation favor of what the expert told us would
that bridges into Agile and Scrum, the work better. This may or may not have
practices we use been significantly
to take a well- cheaper, but would
refined idea and While our products feel simple have most certainly
develop it into been unsuccessful.
and easy to our customers,
software. Design
We instead built
grounds our ideas behind the screen they are
product design
by continuously
necessarily complex. expertise in-house,
reminding us that
embedding design
our customers
practices. This
are not like us. We emphasize cross-
enables the bank to respond quickly
functional teamwork and collaboration,
to market fluctuations, inflation rate
helping different parts of the organization
changes, regulatory re-alignment, and
align to work together toward common
other external shocks. It also allows that
goals.
team to develop an understanding of the
constraints, internal politics, and existing
processes that must be managed to
implement recommended changes.
A LONG-TERM, Myanmar is a fast-changing and
SUSTAINABLE ADVANTAGE unpredictable market. Continued
outperformance requires a capacity
When economist Ronald Coase studied for product and channel development
organizational decision-making, he noted that can match this velocity. While our
that firms hire capabilities in-house when products feel simple and easy to our
they need to reduce the transaction customers, behind the screen they are
costs of ramp-up, negotiation, and necessarily complex. Understanding
agreement between the parties that how our products play nice with the
do the company’s work3. Activities that bank’s financial reporting requirements,
the firm must execute regularly can be technology architecture, and operational
executed much more efficiently, and processes requires a deep level of
institutional knowledge, which no expert
designer can be expected to master
2. The Total Economic Impact™ Of IBM’s Design during a short-term consultancy.
Thinking Practice (2018) Forrester
9
3. Ronald Coase, “The Nature of the Firm” (1937)
Hire Purchase
Portal
Yoma Bank created its Hire Purchase manual labor for help harvesting their
product to enable Myanmar businesses crops, so they purchase mechanized
to purchase high-value productive agricultural equipment to increase
assets, and to provide customers their land productivity and earn
with an affordable financing tool for enough from their harvest to last
personal vehicles. Financing high- through the next planting season.
value agricultural equipment helps Hire-purchase loans make it possible
solve challenges brought to traditional for farmers to gradually amortize the
farming by increased urbanization. As value of the asset over three years,
low-skilled workers leave rural areas with installment payments due every
to seek better-paying employment in six months to coincide with cash
urban factories, farmers are unable availability of the buyer after the
to afford to pay higher wages to seasonal harvest.
12
The HP Portal enables dealers to help customers apply for a loan
without going to the bank branch.

A cornerstone of Yoma Bank’s digital experience; originating, managing, and

strategy is enabling our branch network repaying their loan at a convenient
to focus on customer sales and service, place and without having to visit a
and spend less time on processing Yoma Bank branch.
and paperwork. This means replacing
time-consuming manual processes
with digitized, centralized, or automated
solutions.
HOW WE DID IT
The Hire Purchase Portal was Yoma
Bank’s first effort in this vein, aimed at In April 2017, two consultants from
taking the application process out of Rabobank subsidiary DLL visited Yoma
the branch and to the actual point of Bank to conduct a feasibility study for
use - the equipment or vehicle dealer. In digitizing the HP applications process.
addition, as most of our HP customers Later in 2017, a second team from
do not live or work near a Yoma Bank Rabobank performed an operational
branch, many have to spend a full assessment to define challenges in
day traveling to and from the branch, the analog process for HP, and to get
moving the HP application process to know the dealers and determine
out of Yoma Bank’s branches and into product roadblocks. Rabobank sought
the equipment dealer showrooms and to answer two simple questions: “Will
offices brings our product closer to dealers want to use this? What will
where our customers do business. The incentivize the dealers to adopt it?” The
ultimate aim of HP digitization is to team of two - Yvette and Koen - then
allow a customer to have a fully remote produced the first process design and
initial prototype of the HP portal.
13
OF HP LOAN VALUE IS NOW ORIGINATED THROUGH THE HAS BEEN PROCESSED THROUGH THE PORTAL TO DATE
PORTAL, EQUALLING 10% OF THE VOLUME FROM 1180 LOANS

30 %
28 BILLION MMK

THE TIME IT TAKES FOR A CUSTOMER TO GET A LOAN ON HAVE BEEN ONBOARDED BY 3 SALES SQUADS
THE PORTAL (DOWN FROM A FULL DAY)

2 HOURS 60 DEALERS

14
Bart Van Kranenburg was seconded by bring the prototype to dealers for
Rabobank to Yoma Bank as Digital HP demonstrations, soliciting feedback
Product Owner, brought on to drive the and making continuous adjustments
product design and development of the to the design. The prototype complete,
HP portal. With Bart in Yangon full-time, in September 2018 the first loan was
we also invited back Koen and Yvette processed through the HP Dealer Portal.
to work alongside UX designer Thuya
Ko Ko Lwin in creating a more robust Since initially launching for agriculture
and realistic version of the product finance products, the team has
prototype. The physical prototype was introduced financing plans for
taken to dealers for them to test it and commercial and personal vehicles,
give feedback. The design was refined made several feature updates, is
based on the actual processes and working on end-to-end integration
on-site understanding of the dealers’ into Yoma Bank’s core banking system,
operational processes. The team worked and is enabling other product lines like
on refining the prototype for a pilot Heavy Equipment and Motorcycles on
launch. the portal.

After testing the MVP, the team With enough dealers using the portal,
started full-scale development in May we’ve been able to see the pain points
2018. Throughout the development in our original design, and implement
process the team continued to improvements to the user interface
and experience. We recently completed

15
an assessment on common ‘failure
points’ in the application, which
cause dealers to submit erroneous
applications resulting in delays in
application turnaround time. Together
with the operations team that handles
HP loan applications, the design team
has created features in the portal that
guide the dealer through the document
“Learning through
submission stage to increase the
user testing has
number of loans that are submitted
helped me make
“first-time-right.”
the right design
Along with digitization of the HP decisions. I also have
product, the design team works on a weekly discussion
fundamental changes in the HP product with the developers
that standardize the application process on the team to
between dealers and offer better loan constantly improve
terms to customers. User Experience.”

Thuya Ko Ko Lwin

16
 July 2019
Expansion to remaining product lines
and end-to-end integration with
Core Banking System.

January 2019
Business analysis to establish an
initial process flow for a non-dealer
guarantee version of the HP portal (and
also Yoma’s first NDG HP product). HP
Sales team transitions from operations
to digital retail division. December 2018
Digital HP product expansion to
personal and commercial vehicles.

September 2018
MVP Launch with seventeen HP
dealers, focussed on agribusiness
loan products.

May 2018
The HP Portal MVP development
begins.

April 2018
Bart joins as Hire-Purchase Digital
Product Lead, begins detailed design
of the HP portal MVP.

March 2018
Rabobank team returns to revise the
HP prototype, with the help of our
first Yoma Bank UX team member
Thuya. Field testing conducted with
stakeholders at select dealers.
December 2017
Rabobank team visits in the Division’s
early days, creates the first HP portal
prototype.

April 2017
Rabobank team visits the
Agribusiness Finance Program Team
to conduct a feasibility study for
digitizing HP at Yoma Bank.
19
SMART Credit
The vast majority of the Myanmar UNCDF’s Making Access Possible
population struggles to manage report claims that the percent of
liquidity and access credit on people reporting having access to
reasonable terms. Demand for credit at least one formal financial service
outstrips the supply provided by provider (Banks, MFIs, or Government
formal institutions. Informal credit Lenders) increased from 30% to 48%
providers offer unsecured loans, often between 2013 and 2018. However, the
at exorbitant rates of 10-20% per number of people who have access
month, while formal banks traditionally to a comprehensive suite of formal
require collateral, guarantors, and financial services, credit in particular,
legal contracts that disqualify most is much lower than those figures.
Myanmar citizens. Microfinance
institutions offer unsecured credit The 2018 Oxford Business Group
to low-income borrowers, but with survey of Myanmar reported that
unscalable models of group lending credit is “difficult” or “very difficult”
that are cumbersome and unattractive to access for 78% of businesses.
to people or businesses that value More institutions are reaching more
their privacy and autonomy. people, but credit products are still too
expensive, slow to disburse, or require
extensive paperwork and co-signature
20 by third-party guarantors.
We built our Smart Credit product of unanticipated expenses, or minor
to make personal or business credit health emergencies.
available to every economically active
member of the population. We believe Smart Credit Business was developed in
that a simple, affordable, private, and parallel to Smart Credit, but designed as
uncollateralized line of credit is a critical an unsecured working capital loan for
financial instrument for customers who owners of micro and small businesses.
commit to managing their financial lives Smart Credit Business uses data
with Yoma Bank. Smart Credit is built to provided by corporate partners of Yoma
help solve a pressing need for millions Bank to offer loans to the businesses in
of people across Myanmar. their distribution or supply chains. Yoma
Bank is also developing a version of
Smart Credit is an unsecured personal Smart Credit Business for any business
loan product available to any individual owner in Myanmar to access an
with a SMART account. The loan offered unsecured working capital loan, with no
is based on an algorithm combining guarantor required, simply by answering
the applicant’s savings and transaction a series of questions through an app
history with Yoma Bank, their answers and uploading photos of their business
to self-reported demographic and license and rental contract.
financial questions, and their repayment
history of previous loans. Smart Credit
is designed to help SMART account
holders manage their financial lives
through income smoothing, payment

21
CUSTOMERS WHO HAVE TAKEN SMART CREDIT LOANS AMOUNT DISBURSED THROUGH SMART CREDIT LOANS
AS OF JULY 2019: AS OF JULY 2019:

15k 32b MMK

HOW WE DID IT

We started the Smart Credit initiative Maw meticulously crafted sound back
by hiring Experian to build us the credit office processes and procedures that
decisioning platform. At the same carried the operations of Smart Credit
time, we started the design process and Smart Credit Business for its first
with a prototype hack to test customer year. We extended offers to customers
appetite, fine-tune the product design, by SMS and made it possible for them
familiarize the bank with the process to respond through the “mailbox”
of piloting and beta-testing a new functionality in our current digital
product, and demonstrate the viability banking app.
of the product with very little risk. We
ran a pilot of 2,600 customers, using We learned what messaging worked,
channels and tools currently available to how customers were using the
the team and through back-end manual product and eventually, how many of
operational processes. Ko Htoo Aung our customers found the proposition
attractive. The pilot convinced us and

22
our colleagues in the bank that this was
a product worth carrying forward. We
worked closely with Experian to build
an expert scorecard - an algorithm to
automate loan decision making - and
we worked on building what became
the Smart Credit web app. We launched
the first version of the Smart Credit
web app in December 2018. Customer
interaction is now fully automated and
accessible through the app, while we
work towards full back-end integration
in the next app release.
“This is one of the
first working credit
scoring engines
using real data
in Myanmar. It is
fulfilling to work on
a project that opens
credit to everyone in
the country.”
Khin Moet Moet Nyein

23
THE PUDDING
As of July 2019, over 15,000 unique
customers have taken Smart Credit
loans, and we have disbursed 32 billion
MMK across 28,000 loans. Smart Credit
Business has become the cornerstone
of our product portfolio and our
acquisition strategy, creating a network
of merchants loyal to Yoma Bank
through which we will eventually extend
our “human ATM” cash-in / cash-out
service for all SMART account holders.

We are still in our “lend to learn” phase,

running off our initial scorecard and
business rules. Customer repayment
has far exceeded our expectations,
with loss rates of less than 1%. We
will eventually accumulate enough
negative results for the first generation
calibration of the scorecard, and this
will be useful as we scale the product.
However, we are already convinced
that the high repayment rates validate
our initial assumption that customers
will honor their contract because they
do not want to lose access to this very
useful service.

24
 FUTURE
Full automation of origination and
disbursement, and loan recall so
customers can view and manage
their loans through the app.
April 2019
Migration of SC Business from
mailbox to web app based loan
applications, enabling significantly
more information to be captured on
each applicant.
February 2019
Based on the success of Smart
Credit and Smart Credit Business
products, Yoma Bank Board Risk
Committee approves increase of
Digital Credit portfolio limit from 5
January 2019
billion MMK to 25 billion MMK.
CBM approval for Smart Credit,
formal end of the “pilot period,”
leading to aggressive marketing
of the Smart Credit product to all
SMART account holders.
December 2018
Launch of Smart Credit web app,
with scoring powered by Experian.
Closure of Mailbox channel for Smart
Credit applications.
November 2018
Smart Credit Business is launched,
with offers to 4,000 Wave Money
Agents in Yangon. The product is an
immediate success, with customer
take-up rates of nearly 20%, and is
October 2018
quickly expanded to be offered to
Jason joins as Head of Digital over 20,000 Wave Money agents
Credit, tasked with design of the across Myanmar.
SC business product, growth of the
Smart Credit portfolio, recruitment of
a permanent digital credit team, and
July 2018
portfolio risk management.
Pilot program design using DC app
mailbox, targeting 25,000 SMART
customers with offers for 1-Month
Smart Credit loans, ranging from
50,000 to 300,000 MMK.
January 2018
BOSS team is formed, the lifeblood of
the digital division’s piloting and early
stage product testing capabilities. October 2017
Experian’s initial scoping session and
meeting with Mark to discuss the
team’s vision

25
27
 Other
Case
Studies
For a team just getting started, we
have been productive! Here’s a look at
two other things we’ve made, and two
we’re still working on.

28
 APPLY.SMART
With a large technology transformation
underway, it was important to get
to market with something to test
customer appetite for a fully-remote
account creation process. We launched
applysmart.yomabank.com in early
2018, with support from a partner
organization. This simple webform
allowed us to originate new SMART
accounts almost entirely online, and
provided the impetus to form our BOSS
team - a Digital Ops team lead by
Dr. Htoo Aung Maw. We are currently
rebuilding this site to allow for a fully
branch-less onboarding experience,
which will significantly improve our
ability to open accounts for people
living in remote and rural areas.

RUBY DLS
Yoma Bank’s first digital design
language system, Ruby, was created
in partnership with NexLabs. It came
at a brief but prolific time of digital
MVPs across multiple groups at the
bank, and was created to ensure
a consistent user experience and
visual identity across these products.
It contains both high-level Design
Principles that guide how we create
each product and tactical UI elements
and patterns. Ruby enabled product
teams with little digital expertise to
quickly develop digital concepts that
looked, felt, and acted like other Yoma
Bank products.

29
Operation Dashboard
While it may sound technical and
boring, this web-based product is
the central nervous system of our
new SMART digital banking platform.
The experience we intend to offer
our customers centers around their
relationship with us, and how they use
Yoma Bank products. The Operation
Dashboard is the interface through
which the bank will manage special
entitlements and parameters, and
also practical chores like resetting
customers’ passwords.

SMART App
The crown jewel of our next-generation
digital banking platform, SMART by
Yoma Bank has been in development for
some time. It will make its debut in late
2019 as an MVP, offering our customers
the first of many convenience-focused
extensions for cash-management,
the ability to Cash-In and Cash-Out of
a SMART Account at any Wave Shop.
The SMART App’s roadmap is studded
with features and services that we
have worked on for the past year, and
we’re excited to see how our customers
respond to what we’ve built.

“During the ‘Friendly User Testing’ period the whole bank was involved
and I worked with many stakeholders to make it successful. We got a
lot of feedback to help us improve the product before the launch.”
Moh Moh Khine

30
 OUR

Design Principles

Relevant Build value over time

Our products and communication Our product offerings continue to
about them map to real-life educate and inspire, evolving with
customer needs and desires. the customer’s journey.

Focussed, direct, easy to use Inclusive & Empowering

Our products and designs will We work hard to reach across
reduce user choices in favour of the country so that everyone
providing clear and concise paths feels comfortable building their
to next steps and end goals. financial lives with us.

Committed & Trustworthy Aspirational

We stick to our customers Our products inspire customers
throughout the process to to see themselves in the future.
help them reach financial Making the next step is both
management mastery. aspirational and attainable.

“Design principles help us after a brainstorm to make ideas

concrete and useful and guide decision making”
Mike Mra Tha

31
 September 2017
Mark Flaming joins Yoma
Bank as Chief Digital Officer,
forming the Digital Division.

February April
Our first digital credit product, Salary Apply.SMART launches,
Advance (available for our Payroll making Yoma Bank the first
customers) launches. bank in Myanmar to have
online account sign-up.

2018

January May
Lauren is hired as Head of Kyle is recruited from a
Service Design, becoming comfortable life in Shanghai
the fourth employee of the to join Yoma Bank to lead the
Digital Division. user experience (UX) design
of the SMART App.

The division hosts its first

March training on Agile & Writing
The entire digital product User Stories, led by Bart
team fit in a single table.
Design team begins the
Ma Zin’s interview, during process and product design
which she earns her job by for branchless new customer
accurately describing the on-boarding.
shortcomings of the existing
Yoma Bank mobile app. Upon
being hired, she is tasked
with fixing it.

32
July
Shilpi joins the team, quickly whipping
into shape our business analysis practice
and owning the creation of our Operation
Dashboard.

August March September

Thiha takes on the challenge Digital, Marketing & IT host Planned launch for
of learning UX design to a Financial Literacy (FinLit) branch-less onboarding.
support the Operations Hackathon at Phandeeyar.
Dashboard team. He now
works across UX and BA
roles as a Junior PO for the
product.

2019

December June
Mike Mra Tha starts creating The UX team starts a weekly
our iconography system. critique, called Show & Tell.

January
Q4 First in-depth customer
First full Digital Division study on SMART Customers,
Product Roadmap planning led by Win Phyo Ko, Hnin
session. Pwint Lwin and Su Yee Yee
Hnin.

33
 Our
Practice
Our team’s goal is to create value
for our customers, coworkers, and
shareholders. That value only becomes
real the moment a customer or user
interacts with a product. This means
that it is only created when we deliver
products that customers are excited
about, want to use, and that have a
positive impact on our business.

34
Financial products are ephemeral,
and in Myanmar, the full ecosystem of WHAT WE DO
formal banking is still inaccessible to
all but the wealthiest citizens. While Our design practice lays the
everyone has a level of sophistication groundwork for this iterative process.
managing their finances, most are not We gather information about the lives
familiar with the financial constructs and behaviors of our customers (often
of the banking sector. Most, also, have by actually getting to know them as
never used a bank, or seen their worth people), prototype new offerings, test
communicated as a long series of the success of those offerings, and then
electronic numbers rather than a pile of refine each product before introducing
cash or pieces of gold. it to a wider audience.

While many of us worked in the financial These tests begin modestly. We learn
sector for some time, appropriately from open-ended qualitative interviews,
creating products that make sense or by showing customers rough
to our customers is still an informed prototypes. As we gain confidence, we
guessing game. As a result, each part introduce functional products to pilot
of our practice reinforces a cyclical and eventually launch to market.
relationship between the team and our
We believe that iron sharpens iron - that
customers. Each activity in product
our work improves with critique from
design and development includes a
a diversity of perspectives. We have
cycle of gathering and synthesizing
built a practice whereby in addition
insights from customers, refining and
to continuously gathering customer
re-defining our offering, and deploying
feedback, each team member seeks
incrementally higher fidelity products
constructive input early and often from
to customers.
experts across the bank.
35
TEST HYPOTHESES
Starting with a focus or a specific (RE)-DEFINE
product idea, the team sets forth on a
proportionately appropriate exploration.
OFFERING
What can we learn about this from our
current customers’ behavior? What can PROCESS
we ask people? What can we watch FLOWS
people do to build our understanding? PRODUCT
Do we believe this will work - why COMMITTEE
PROPOSALS
or why not? Will this be good for the
business? We use a combination of BUSINESS
qualitative and quantitative methods MODELING
to answer these questions and
determine whether to move forward STRATEGIC
with a concept and if so, how. These
methods rely on best practices in
ALIGNMENT
design research, business intelligence,
traditional marketing, and modern PRICING
growth-hacking techniques. MODELS

BUSINESS
Existing customer data is displayed
CASES
and discussed every week in the Digital ECOSYSTEM
Division’s all-hands meetings. We call MAPPING
upon our lead analyst, Ma Khin Moet
Moet Nyein, to slice this data so we can
better understand how customers are SYNTHESIZE
using our products. We keep qualitative
findings in the team’s mind through
INSIGHTS
user archetypes, personas, and journey
maps. Synthesizing data sets into a
cogent point of view is a collaborative
process, and requires the diverse
DEFINE AN OFFERING
perspectives of cross-functional teams
and of our customers. Once the team and the leadership are
convinced they know what to make and
how to make it, as well as the potential
PROTOTYPE challenges and financial implications for
From a whiteboard sketch to a the bank, these concepts mature into a
javascript prototype, we define, break, variety of tools used to make financial
and rearticulate every decision with and digital products “real.”
colleagues from across the bank to
make the most optimal outcome for
our customers.
36
 BUILD &
INTERFACE
INTERFACE DEPLOY
PROTOTYPING DISTRIBUTE
DESIGN MATERIALS
USER DEV-OPS
OFFERING
STORIES
DEFINITION IMPLEMENTATION
STANDARDS TRAIN STAFF
DESIGN
LIBRARIES FRIENDLY USER DEPLOYMENT
TESTING (FUT)
NON-FUNCTIONAL APP
REQUIREMENTS PRODUCTION
USER ACCEPTANCE
TESTING (UAT)
AB TESTING
INTERFACE USER
TESTING VALUE DELIVERY:
CUSTOMER
COHORT-LEVEL
SEGMENTATION

CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION SURVEYS
FINANCIAL
PERSONAS CONTEXTUAL
ANALYSIS CALL CENTER
INQUIRY INTERVIEWS
JOURNEY TRANSACTION
MAPPING ANALYSIS
DESIGN
RESEARCH
USER BEHAVIORAL
ARCHETYPES ANALYSIS
GATHER
INSIGHTS

BUILD & DEPLOY WATCH, LISTEN & REFINE

Once we have defined an offering Once a product is live, we are able to
to bring to market, it is time to build refine what we monitor and report on.
something to test our assumptions. In What new questions should we ask
the beginning, this may be something of our customers who use it? What
simple, like a prototype test. As our patterns should we look out for? What
understanding becomes more mature, are the indicators? Each new product,
we pilot-test functional software, and feature, and refinement teaches us a
eventually scale it to larger and larger new way to learn from our customers.
customer bases.

37
 Continuity in Practice
As we build and scale products, it is important to maintain a consistent
branded look, feel, and voice for our customers as well as a standardized
process for our teams. We build this continuity into our practice through
internal artifacts such as:

WORK PLANS TOOLS

With a rapidly growing team and A world-class team needs world-
many members new to digital class tools. Here are a few of the
product development, flexible tools our team uses day to day
project work plan templates and to support our design and
Gantt charts provide structure agile practices.
and milestones for early-stage
and in-production projects.

“Tools like Jira

help us to
see progress
of the team
and are used
for version
tracking
and release
management
of our
products.”

Thiri Aung

38
 RULES & STANDARDS UI LIBRARIES
Business rule and language Libraries help us maintain visual
standards are reviewed by consistency while launching
relevant colleagues from multiple digital products. They
Communications, Legal, and also help us design faster and
Compliance and then referenced better align and communicate
to maintain consistency across with software developers.
products.

“Component 4G
13:37
libraries help
Account Overview
us maintain
Account Type
consistency in 1,000,000 MMK
our designs as Account No. 123456789012345

we share them History Card Details Features Log In

among many Hey K thi,

designers and
Enter 6 digit PIN to login to your account
Wrong PIN 4 attempt left 2% Feature Title
Description. Description. Description.
Description. Description.
development Learn More Link

teams.” Title Message

Message content. Message
Loan Type - Nickname
San Swe Zin Naing content. Message content.
13,500,000 MMK Message content.

Remaining Balance
50,000 MMK AUTO-PAYMENT:
btn-primary
100,000MMK AUTO-PAYMENT: TOMORROW
AUG. 1

btn-secondary

Dashboard Accounts Loans Profile

39
 Roles
Our team functions as an in-house
start-up. The projects we take FINANCIAL ANALYST
on vary, from developing a new Financial Analysts build
pricing model, to creating clear predictive models based on past
iconography for a new product, to customer behavior to helps us
designing a back-end flow to enable determine cost/benefit trade-
fewer steps in a digital product’s offs of product decisions and
front-end. Team members are find the sweet spot for pricing.
offered a variety of work and
opportunities to build different
skills. We believe that teams work
best when there is fluidity between
roles. Designers are better at
GO-TO-MARKET COORDINATOR
their job when they sometimes
work in Excel and build financial GTM Coordinators build
models, or when they write the first and execute strategies to
draft of a User Story. Financial thoughtfully communicate new
Analysts can make their models products and how they work to
more closely resemble reality after the Yoma Bank network and our
meeting with customers. We build customers.
teams to simultaneously allow for
role fluidity and to ensure that
specific competencies are present
when needed. SCRUM MASTER
SM’s coordinate activities across
team members, and coach our
development teams on how
to improve their process and
become more self-organized
and efficient.

40
DATA ANALYST SERVICE DESIGNER
Python, macros, you name it - Service Designers help the team
this role requires team members learn about and map the end-
to slice and dice customer data to-end experience of a customer
to extract meaning that drives across multiple touchpoints to
product decisions and tests ensure each contributor designs
hypotheses for with an entire journey in mind.
further exploration. They spend as much time in field
as they do in office.

QUALITY ASSOCIATE PRODUCT OWNER

QAs focus on user acceptance POs balance inputs from users,
testing, customer usage of our stakeholders, and the team to
products, actual performance prioritize product features that
and downtime to raise software will provide customers with the
bugs and contribute feature most value. They are responsible
requests. for the products we build
delivering value to users and the
business.

UI DESIGNER BA / PROCESS DESIGNER

User Interface Designers ensure Process Designers dive deep
that our software applications into the complexity of our
have a friendly, understandable financial and technical systems
look and feel that is consistent to either adjust ways of working
with our brand. or generate new approaches.

41
 Agile + Design
Our division’s job is to gather to develop roadmaps, write
rapid feedback from customers to user stories, organize backlogs,
fine-tune our products’ features and work side by side with IT
and go-to-market strategy. To colleagues on “scrum teams”
continually improve the products through the development process.
as we pilot new software, we’ve The mixture of design and agile
worked with colleagues in the IT create a balance in our process.
department to jointly establish an The design toolbox brings a rich,
Agile development practice. human-centered perspective into
the robust and efficient
Agile software development, agile process.
and the “Scrum” framework
that we use, Building an agile
is the industry practice is a long-
standard “Design is term strategic
practiced
worldwide today.
embedded in our investment for our
bank. Cultivating
The practice
enables our team
agile practice.” and maintaining
the skills and
to think about culture that
product development in new can quickly respond to market
ways. Agile’s flexibility means we forces is tough, but critical to stay
can learn quickly, and make larger competitive in today’s market.
improvements as our knowledge Perhaps most importantly - our
grows. Rather than basing long- combination of Design and Agile
term plans on risky predictions, allows every team member -
we can approach our market with junior, senior, technical, sales-
hypotheses that can be quickly focused - to have a perspective
tested and continuously improved. and a venue for their voice to be
heard. Our products improve, our
Unique to Yoma Bank is the way customers are happier, and our
design is embedded within our business performs better when we
agile practice; team members with incorporate the perspectives and
experience in process, service, talents of each member of
and UI/UX design work together our team.

GO-TO-MARKET

SPRINT

BUSINESS CASE PRODUCT DESIGN PRODUCT DESIGN

43
 Our
Team
This team is so much greater than
the sum of its constituent parts. Each
member brings experience, personality,
and perspective to our workplace. The
work is challenging, and we care deeply
about it. We also care about one another;
team travel, long hours, and intense
brainstorming sessions help us bond
quickly and intimately. Compiling this
report made us so grateful for each of
our colleagues, and wildly excited for our
journey ahead.

44
45
Team
Trip
A costly mistake lazy managers make is
to blame busy schedules as an excuse
for never leaving the office. Team
offsites break the status quo, building
team camaraderie through exposure
to new places, personalities, and
opportunities to relax and have
fun together.

In March 2019, fifteen members of our

team took an overnight bus to Shan
State for a fun-filled and educational
adventure. The trip required thorough
planning and a flexibly-minded team
willing to sacrifice their weekend, but it
was well worth it. We gained exposure
to new people and places, new ways of
working, and a new perspective on
our customers.

Our trip website has

SEE THE WEBSITE

the photo challenge

submissions and
activities from our trip!
 TRIP SCHEDULE
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Debrief &
Secret Team
Activity 3

Free Time
Skills Challenges:
Practicing Sales Hike + Photo Hike + Photo
Learning Customers’ challenge challenge
Businesses
Trying New Products

Bus back to Yangon

Secret Team
Activity 2
Bus to Shan State Secret Team
Activity 1
& Dinner
Team Dinner Team Dinner

Non-management team members designed and facilitated

activities based on an assigned goal and timeslot

We pushed team members to try new things -

including sales. We’ll stick to designing products, but
accomplished a feat for less than the cost of a fancy
corporate training course.

$
2k
TOTAL TRIP COST
USD 15
TEAM MEMBERS
(including all transit, JOINED
lodging, food)

3 WKS
TIME TO PLAN
3
SMART ACCOUNTS
OPENED

Sales,
WE LEARNED

Facilitation / workshop
Skills

planning,
Photography,
Storytelling,
Discering the quality of
sticky noodles,
Tofu cracker production
and logistics,
How to carry M&Ms on
chopsticks
Photo Challenge
Winners:
Moh Moh Khine, Hnin
Pwint Lwin, Ngwe
Sin Hmuu, Win Phyo
Ko, Thazin, Win Phyo
Ko, Su Yee Yee Hnin,
Thazin, Ngwe Sin
Hmuu, Thiha, Win Phyo
Ko, Moh Moh Khine,
[Not Shown: Mika Mra
Tha, Ngwe Sin Hmuu]

48
49
50
Left: At the end of our trip, each team
member set one intention for the
coming year. We then commissioned Ko
Mike Mra Tha to hand-letter each and
make stickers for each of us to use as
reminders of our commitments.

This page, clockwise: Ma Thiri Yadana

Kyaw being herself, our division’s first
anniversary, the SMART Credit team, our
SMART App launch party (featuring an
ATM piñata).
Women’s
Day
On March 8th, we celebrated the
women of the Digital and IT divisions for
International Women’s day.

52
Finlit
Hackathon
Yoma’s Digital and IT teams facilitated
workshops and coached teams through a 48-
hour hackathon focused on generating concepts
to improve financial literacy in Myanmar.
54
Jesu tin ba deh!
Much of the early work of the design team would not have been possible without generous
support from LIFT. This funding allowed Yoma Bank to develop products designed to be
accessible by every person in Myanmar, and enabled Yoma Bank to think beyond serving
only those wealthier customers and corporations traditionally targeted by Myanmar’s private
banks.

Thank you also to all of our colleagues and collaborators over the past two years, including
Ashish Singal, Aung Ko Ko, Aung Myo Thu, Aung Ye Kyaw, Aye Mon Mon Htay, Aye Nagga Paing,
Aye Thida Tun, Benedict Ee, Chan Zaw, Dean Caire, Dipa Tapsale, Eaint Thet Htar, Gaurav
Kumar, Hal Bosher, Hnin Pwint Phyu, Hnin Yadanar Htun, Hsu Yadanar@ Ju, Htet Wint Hlaing,
Htoo Aung Maw, Htut Aung, Ingyin Phyo, Jake Kim, Jamie Stevenson, Kalya Myint, Kapil
Dahiya, Kevin Russell, Khin La Pyae Win, Khin Myat Mon Kyaw, Koen van Gestel, Kyaw Soe Lin,
Kyaw Thu Yain Htut, Kyaw Ye Thu, Laura Von Schlabrendorff, Linde De Nie, Ludovica Fabro,
Madison Bone, May Myat Thu, May Oo, May Thandar Oo, May Thu Khin, May Thu Win Shwe,
Mikko, Min Min Theint, Mukund Sridhar, Mya Maw, Myat Thandar Oo, Naing Zaw Win, Nwe Nwe
Win, Phil Gribbon, Phyu Phyu Thwe, Prashant Ghabak, Pwint Phoo Wai, Sandar Ko,Saw Nan Wai,
Soe Hla Win, Steven Aung Soe Min, Tay Zar Win, Teun van Vlerken, Thae Nu Wai, Thet Thet Htun,
Thiri Tin Lay Naing, Thit Wai Phoo Hlaing, Tin May Win, Thu Yain Aung, Villy Chittangsomboon,
Vineet Gupta, Vito Giudici, Wai Yan Ko Ko, Yamin Aung, Ye Myat Min, Yee Mon Htet, Yu Lwin Mg
Mg, Yvette van Dijk, Zar Ni Lin, and our friends at Capco.

Special thanks to our Yoma Bank development team.

Created: Yangon, Myanmar 2019 Edited by: Jason Loughnane

Written by: Lauren Serota, Jason Publication Design: Kyle Becker,
Loughnane, Bart van Kranenberg, Kyle Lauren Serota, Mike Mra Tha
Becker and Shilpi Gupta. Photography: Kyle Becker, Win Phyo
Ko, Su Yee Yee Hnin, Mike Mra Tha,
Lauren Serota
55
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