NAB Kaboom

NAB Credit Card Terms & Conditions were steeped in legalese. So much so, they prompted over 70% of customer complaints. Customers and bankers weren’t confident in the concrete definition of T&Cs, while customers generally believed T&Cs largely existed to protect the bank. Bankers were not always able to provide clear answers to customers’ technical questions raised from what was seen to be inaccessible language. Project Kaboom was championed by NAB CEO Ross McEwan, with a view to reimagine T&Cs and fortify the bank’s commitment to a new era of customer experience. A collaboration between internal and external teams leveraged insights to transform Terms & Conditions from end to end.

Using all available data, analytics and research, we identified clear problems and opportunities to design a new kind of customer-centric ‘User Guide’ for credit card services. With the stretch goal of being easy to understand and useful beyond the customer’s onboarding – even at future stages where financial decisions and habits relating to credit and spending are being made, Every aspect of the experience, from the flow of information to the tone of voice considerations, was crafted specifically to feel as if customers were sat next to someone explaining the fine print ¬– improving financial literacy as much or as little as they needed.

User-testing revealed surges in understanding, usability and brand perception, e.g:‘It makes me feel like I’d want to bank with you, it shows that you care and not just trying to take my money…” The insights inspired the team to apply for an exception from ASIC for a new kind of end-to-end digital experience, too – which, in an Australian first, was granted. "This challenged core assumptions about contracts, ensuring true customer-centricity. The Principals-XXVi team demonstrates that the best design encompasses 'how' we got there, as well as 'what' we produced. They created the right climate for curiosity and innovation, encouraging us to bring our best selves to the design table.” Madeline Oldfield, Head of Governance & Legal Operations.

To create the insights needed for a project of this scale, we orchestrated a team consisting of leadership, legal and product stakeholders working side-by-side with designers, writers, CX leads and development teams, as well as external lawyers, customers, and front-line staff in a series of co-design sprints over 8 weeks. We managed a live, collaborative ‘Risk Register’ document to accelerate the evaluation and decision-making so integral to a modern contract. This enabled us to deconstruct and recreate the experience to be genuinely equitable for customers, providing progressive and contextually relevant education that did justice to NAB’s purpose “To serve customers well and help communities prosper’ and their values of ‘Passion for customers; win together; be bold; respect for people;’ and perhaps most significantly: ‘do the right thing.’ In plain English, each paragraph covered key concepts, the customer benefit, their responsibility (and the banks) and finally, any implications. We named the contract, “Our Agreement with each other”. We explored dozens of delivery mechanisms for the new content, from sketching paper packs, creating prototype digital pages and animations and even considering a video series. This rapid prototyping let us test new structures, content and design concepts, building a clear evidence-base for the design of both the physical and digital experiences.