Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Hektor

An idea to a revolution, our journey from the ground up.

Design is a journey of discovery and we invite you to join us as we design and discover new possibilities though Hektor.

The design process

Hektor is a fin-tech startup which is breaking ground by taking traditional banking services and making it more useful for the young people of today by integrating it into their lifestyle.

As simple as this may sound, it sure is not an easy task to accomplish. That is why the Hektor journey of brand evolution is so important and relevant.

We are an open platform and believe a successful brand can only be built if it is integrated and connected with the users ie. by “co-creating”. That is why we believe in talking to users along the way at every step to understand what we got right and what we get wrong.

These learning will be documented and presented every week as a new post to keep up with the design process @ Hektor. So stay tuned to get all the inside scoop.

Meeting the Team

When I met this small team of 2 men (50% young and 50% grey) with big dreams, I was sold by their passion, their excitement and their knowledge in finance. It looked like it was 2 men taking on this monumental task of creating a new age, relevant banking solutions for youngsters who have a complicated relationship with their money.

Vidur Malik (our 50% younger part of the company) is the one who keeps it cool. An aerospace engineer and a computer scientist from Brown University. His job involves very “practical” skills such as web / app development. Over and above programming, he is very interested in “hard science” topics such as rocket propulsion and embedded systems.

Vidur Malik, founder, CTO — 50% young, 100% cool

Rakesh Bhatia (our 50% grey) is the man with all the wisdom, all the contacts and a whole lot of energy. He is an experienced banker with over 26 years of experience with HSBC — across Asia, UK and Middle East, followed by a stint as the CEO of a Bank in India.

Rakesh Bhatia, Founder CEO — 50% grey, 100% wise

Though on the facade it seemed like a small team they are backed and guided by a large team of experts called the Hektor Millennial Board of Advisors (MBA). A team of 6 young expert advisors who excel in their respective fields. The team has supported, critiqued and contributed to the growth of Mr. Hektor.

I joined Hektor as a User Experience designer and thus began my journey: opening myself up to incredible possibilities and opportunities. and opportunities. I am a creative person who believes that design should be part of everything in life. Prior to Hektor I have worked in product design for over 7 years and also had the opportunity to set up my own business.

Theresa Raj, UX Design — Boderline young, 100% dreamer

As a young and hungry startup, My task was pretty clear: understand the young Singaporean and define their problems.

Backed by our brilliant interns Perina Chan and Kenneth Chua (did I mention how brilliant they are, I know I am repeating myself here but I can’t emphasise more on how good this duo can be. Practically can do anything with a positive attitude and a local flare). We set out to identify our problem statement by drowning ourselves in research and collecting as much data available.

The Interns Perina Chan, Kenneth Chua — 100% youngsters, 200% Singaporean

Our aim was to identify and validate our target market and understand the young Singaporean customer.

Who they are? What they do? How they spend/ save? What are the brands they love/hate? Do they even have a problem with saving at all or is it something more?

After browsing through tons of research online, we designed and sent out surveys to more than 200 people. We got a brief overview of our target market:

What was lacking in our research was behaviour insights — What they think and feel? How we can reach them?

Here’s when our knight in shining armour came to the rescue. Our marketing advisor, Mr. Suman Srivastav stepped in with a unique solution. Suman enjoys doing things differently and always challenges mediocrity. A graduate of Delhi University, IIM Ahmedabad and IMD Lausanne, he is an advertising man, strategist, author, marathon runner, teacher, social worker, sports fan, creative bartender and now an entrepreneur.

Suman Srivastava, The advertising man, 100% young at heart

He was uncomfortable with the fact that there was such a huge disconnect between the brand/the team and the customers we were designing for. He was determined to take a more inclusive approach this time and thus came up with this brilliant Hektor proprietary research model called (wait for it… drumroll…)

“The WhatsApp research group”.

What a brilliant idea, right? Reaching out to people we don’t understand through a medium they connect to and trust the most. It is inclusive yet it keeps the participants at a safe distance to feel comfortable enough to open up. Thus began the preparation to set up this group, a representation of our user base.

This was an opportunity for us as a brand to interact with potential users for a whole month and get their thoughts and ideas on topics that really mattered to them.

So understanding our users, tracking our objectives, dissecting our interactions; All in all, its been great learning so much already with Hektor!

So stay tuned and I will get down to it in a whole new post next week.

A quick takeaway — Behaviour Insights 101:

Did you know?

Keeping up with Mr. Hektor was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Keeping up with Mr. Hektor

Cool stuff, every week

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