Latitude Financial Services
Latitude Financial Services
Evaluating personal finance tools for the Gem app
As part of Latitude’s customer experience team, I led a strategic evaluation of personal financial management (PFM) tools for the Gem app. The goal was to understand emerging customer needs around money management and determine whether Latitude should build new capabilities in-house or integrate a white-label solution.
Through research, benchmarking, and partner collaboration, the work clarified target segments, validated user behaviours, and shaped a clear MVP path, enabling confident decision-making around product direction and partnership strategy.
Role
Product Design Lead
Organisation
Latitude Financial Services
Focus
Experience strategy, customer research, vendor strategy
How might we communicate financial jargon in simple terms so that customers new to finance feel empowered?
–Project how might we
The challenge
Customer expectations around visibility, control, and support in managing expenses and repayments were evolving rapidly. While Gem played a key role in customers’ financial lives, there was limited clarity on:
- Which money-management needs were most underserved
- Which customer segments would benefit most from PFM tools
- Whether building internally or partnering externally would deliver value fastest
The challenge was to reduce uncertainty and guide investment decisions without over-committing to a single solution too early.
“I want a better way to understand and track my finances.
Visuals make my finances feel simpler
Personalised insights and graphs help me get on track
Give me insights and content based on how financially literate I am
Let me customise my interactions with you
–Research insights
My role & responsibilities
As Customer Experience Design Lead, I:
- Led the discovery and evaluation of PFM opportunities within the Gem app
- Shaped the research strategy across qualitative and quantitative methods
- Facilitated stakeholder workshops to map current journeys and opportunity areas
- Partnered with a potential white-label provider to explore integration scenarios
- Synthesised insights into clear recommendations and an MVP path
Approach & thinking
The work was structured around rapid, evidence-led decision-making, using short design sprints to balance speed with rigour.
Key elements included:
- Analysis of Latitude’s business strategy and growth priorities
- Mapping existing customer journeys to identify natural PFM integration points
- Customer interviews to understand mindsets, behaviours, and unmet needs
- Competitor benchmarking to assess in-market PFM solutions
- Outsourced quantitative research to validate findings at scale
- Alignment workshops with a white-label partner to test value propositions and journeys
The focus was on strategic fit, ensuring any solution aligned to customer needs, business goals, and delivery constraints.
–A sneaky colleague photo
–Team workshop
–Defining archetypes
Outcomes & impact
The engagement delivered clarity and confidence at a critical decision point:
- Validated key customer segments and money-management mindsets
- Identified high-value opportunities to better support customers managing repayments and expenses
- Clarified trade-offs between building internally and integrating a partner solution
- Defined a clear MVP path for introducing PFM capabilities into the Gem app
- Informed strategic partnership discussions with evidence-based recommendations
- Improved cross-functional alignment by grounding decisions in shared insights
“Lucy kept everything moving and made the whole thing make sense. She helped us cut through the noise and stay focused on the customer, and get to a solution we all aligned on.
–Team reflection
