Joe de Lange - Product Leader | UX Expert | Product Design

Timiza Virtual Banking App

2 million new customers in 4 months

I spearheaded the transformation of a basic USSD service into a hugely successful digital banking app, championing user experience for Absa Bank in Kenya.

The Opportunity

Timiza started out as service that supercharged existing mobile money wallets with instant loans and larger daily limits. The problem was that it existed only as a fairly clunky USSD product when it had the potential to be a fully fledged digital banking option.

Early concept from Barclays Kenya

Barclays Kenya had started on the development of a Timiza app but when Absa Bank took over the operations, there wasn’t much enthusiasm for the product.I was head of digital product design for Absa’s newly formed regional operations and responsible for rolling out Absa’s new mobile and internet banking products in Africa. I worked closely with teams in Kenya and what they really wanted for us to do was to help them build Timiza.

I could see that it had the potential bring something unique to the market and give the bank access to a vast untapped customer base. My first challenge was to convince Absa leadership that this was worth pursuing.

Research. Test. Repeat.

Facing stiff competition, we sought to establish a unique value proposition with Timiza. To ensure economic viability and solve the right customer problems, I followed the human-centered design method using quantitative and qualitative research to shape every product decision.

I seized on every opportunity to interview our target market about their digital financial habits

I analysed the competition's digital offerings

I actively used competing services and asked the customers around me lots of questions

This was instrumental in defining the shape of the proposed MVP that we wanted to build.

Given the go-ahead to proceed with an MVP, we jumped straight into building and testing interactive prototypes. The goal was to gather as much user feedback as possible to ensure that the MVP was a success.

MVP Success

We completed the visual design in rapid time because we wanted to get something in people's hands as quickly as possible. The initial launch proved wildly successful, attracting 2 million customers in just 4 months.

Timiza created more customers for Barclays in 4 months than the bank had acquired in 102 years

Absa Success

Barclays rebranded to Absa shortly after the launch of Timiza and the app has been a ongoing success story for Absa Kenya.