How do you encourage new customers to open bank accounts? In 2004, Bank of America used the Design Thinking methodology to look at the problem from a human centered perspective when they assigned design agency IDEO to boost their enrollment numbers: a problem that at the time, lacked any user perspective on why it was so hard for customers to save.
Bank of America hoped to bring a human-centered (Design Thinking) angle to an industry which is hardly known for innovation. Bank of America were especially interested in the customer segment of boomer-age women with children. To conduct the user centered ethnographic research, a team of five Band of America employees partnered up with four IDEO designers. In their user research, the group conducted interviews and observed families in Atlanta, Baltimore, and San Francisco.
Also see the HRB Case Study: Bank of America: Keep the Change
And read the Bloomberg Bank of America case study