BNP Paribas Fortis · Service Designer · 2018–2019

The bank had the data.
The retailers had the questions.

The first concept asked retailers to combine the data themselves. Discussions with six retail brands revealed the right audience: multi-store businesses with limited analytics. I organised the information into reports that answer their questions and designed access for those running the stores.

Explore the decision lab

Figures and scenarios in the 2026 demo are fictional. The target audience, reports and access journey come from the assignment.

Prospective exploration · fictional data
4goals organising the reports
15 → 2steps in the proposed access journey
6/6participating retailers validated the concept
Goapproved for development

My design decisions

Choose four reports

I organised the data combinations around business questions. Each report brings together a purpose and the indicators needed to read it.

Name the benchmark and its limits

Sector, period and data coverage remain explicit. Help appears where the retailer reads the figure.

Give the store manager access

The invitation connects the person who subscribes to the person who reads the store’s reports.

01Finding the retailers to serve

The best-equipped retailers decline. Their reason defines the audience.

  • Retailers already analysing sales from till receipts had more detailed data, down to the product purchased. Bank payment data added little to what they knew.
  • I refocused the concept on retailers running several stores with few analytics tools. Their questions gave the reports an order: compare stores, understand their customers, see how they stood within their sector.

The benchmark distinguished footfall, payment and profile data. They answer different questions: a payment locates a transaction, but does not tell us which product was bought or why a visitor left empty-handed.

02Making comparisons meaningful

Choosing useful comparisons is part of the service.

  • Six tabs and numerous filters gave retailers the means to explore the data. The first concept also left them to decide which figures belonged together and how to read the relationship. The intended users had little experience with statistics.
  • I organised the entry points around goals: follow activity, understand a change, put the customer base in context. Retailers choose their store and period; the report brings together the indicators to read together and states what can be inferred from them.

We keep the reports; campaign tools come later.

  • I brought Marketing, Business and IT together around printouts of the concept on the wall. We retained the reports the available data could support: compare stores, track basket value and understand retention. Everyone had the same scope to estimate.
  • Campaign planning and location research wait. Personalised marketing advice also stays outside this first product: the bank’s teams do not have the expertise needed to answer those requests.

Original project mock-up

A page from the Concept Report. Retained features are grouped in green and deferred requests in grey, over the printouts used in the workshop.
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VALUE PROPOSITION CANVAS · STRATEGYZER

The Ad-Lib: the value proposition in one sentence.

Product or service
Our goal-oriented reporting service, integrated into Easy Banking Business
Customer segment
helps multi-store retail managers with limited tools to analyse their data
Job to be done
who want to compare their stores, understand their customers and see where they stand in their sector,
Customer pain
by making the connections and calculations for them
Customer gain
and pairing each chart with an interpretation of activity and an explicit comparison reference,
Competing value proposition
unlike free exploration of a catalogue of metrics that leaves the retailer to draw the conclusions.

Concept value proposition · editorial synthesis.

Basket value falls while visits rise. The report connects the two.

Average basket value and transaction count each give one piece of information. Read together, they help explain how business is changing.

  • I placed the explanation beside the chart. In this mock-up, it connects falling basket value with more customers or more frequent visits, with less spent each time.
  • The calculation and its interpretation arrive in the same report. Retailers can consider what that means for their store.

2026 reconstruction · fictional data
The chart places the month within the year. The explanation alongside it shows what drives changes in revenue.
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Distinguishing visitors from returning customers

A growing customer base can also mean a constant turnover of buyers. Retailers need to distinguish new visits from loyalty.

  • The report brings together gained, retained and lost customers, then relates customer numbers to visit frequency.
  • The analysis concerns anonymous groups. Retailers can understand a retention trend; the tool does not provide a list of people to contact.

2026 reconstruction · fictional data

Design decision · 2018–2019 assignment

The report observes anonymous groups. It does not provide a list of people to contact.

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Comparing the store against an explainable reference

Retailers wanted to choose their competitors. The available data described aggregated groups. The choice of reference needed to respect that level of detail.

  • I kept comparison with the sector and nearby businesses. The report names the categories used so the reader knows what the store is being compared with.

2026 reconstruction · fictional data

Sector reference · 2018–2019 assignment

Aggregated categories make the comparison understandable without claiming to identify every competitor.

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Explaining the data behind the comparison

The bank has a sample of card payments. Cash and some payments are missing. That limitation affects how a figure should be read.

  • The prototype’s help explains that indicators are extrapolated from the available sample. It appears beside the figures it explains.

2026 reconstruction · fictional data

Help stays connected to the report and explains what the data covers.
View the original project mockup

Original project mock-up

Original project mock-up. The guide explains the comparison period and the extrapolated indicators where they are read.
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03Store access

The store manager needs to be able to open the report.

  • Of 1,500 business customers with payment terminals, 234 used the banking portal, 667 held access without using it and 599 had none. Putting the reports in that portal meant designing how retailers would get into it too.
  • Access belonged to the contract holder. The person running the store could be someone else. I therefore included inviting a colleague in the service concept.

The account holder gives a colleague access.

I tied the invitation to the existing business contract. The holder authorises access; their colleague joins the service through the shared link.

Two actions for the invitee in the proposed journey, compared with fifteen steps in the original journey.

Explore the decision lab

2026 reconstruction · fictional data
The contract, its holder and the authorised colleague remain visible through access activation.
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The solution, module by module

Original project flows and scope

The original concept covers store access, activity reports, customers and comparisons. The 2026 demo adds a decision workspace: hypothesis, protocol, observations and next steps.

Turn a signal into a question to examine

Neighborhood activity is compared with store opening hours, with an interpretation and a link to the evidence.

Try this workflow
2026 reconstruction · fictional data
04From concept to pilot

Léonidas agrees to become a pilot customer, subject to price.

The six retail brands consulted endorse the direction of the concept. They explored the reports and discussed what those reports would give them.

My manager reported this pilot pre-commitment while the product was still a prototype. It remained subject to pricing.

The steering committee approves development. The validated concept is handed over to the Agile team.

Explore the decision lab

Three validation signals

  1. Concept direction

    Endorsed by the six retail brands consulted.

  2. Pilot pre-commitment

    Léonidas, subject to price.

  3. Committee decision

    Development approved.

Editorial synthesis of three distinct signals. My manager reported the Léonidas pre-commitment, which remained subject to price.

Handing over to the Agile team

  • I handed over the research report and clickable prototype together with the questions each report needed to answer. The team could trace the reasoning behind the screens.
  • Access journeys were documented as user stories, including roles and invitations.
  • The agreed scope distinguished the reports to build from the features deferred. The Agile team had that basis for estimates and the roadmap.

Research report

The questions the reports need to answer.

Clickable prototype

Reports and their connections.

Access user stories

Roles and the invitation journey.

Agreed scope

The basis for estimates and the roadmap.

Editorial synthesis of material handed over to the Agile team: research, prototype, access journeys and development scope.

Contact

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