Fostering an experimentation culture inside Credit Sesame
We partnered with Credit Sesame to introduce value to an underserved customer segment, unlock new skills on the product team, and create a culture of customer-centric experimentation.
"I think a lot of organizations get into this process of let's just do what we've always done.
And what we've always done did fine. It helped keep the doors open and run the company, but it didn't allow for the next waves of growth."
Joe RaymondFormer VP of Product, Credit Sesame
Business Challenge
Credit Sesame helps people build stronger credit and introduce more security to their finances. However, folks with low-to-no credit were not meaningfully supported by the organization's suite of products. Joe Raymond, Credit Sesame's former VP of Product, set out to change that.
Joe brought New Haircut on as a partner to help the team see past their current assumptions, empathize with an underserved segment, and create a new solve that would add unique value to the market and drive the next wave of revenue for the business.
How'd you do that?
Challenge: Low understanding of customer needs
Credit Sesame's team was used to designing for their core customer, who faces an entirely different set of challenges. The team struggled to understand their new audience and find opportunities for value.
Tactic: Customer research + Problem framing
We led Credit Sesame's team through lightning rounds of customer research to empathize with the right people, then conducted problem framing workshops to make sense of the insights we uncovered.
Challenge: Competing priorities
We uncovered a lot of opportunities in our customer research. Since experimentation was an underdeveloped habit on the team, they struggled with choosing a place to start.
Tactic: Collaborative discovery + Prioritization
We realigned the group around a clear why, then used collaborative discovery techniques to prioritize as a team. Together, they chose a compelling, focused direction based on a high-impact market opportunity.
Challenge: Entrenchment + inertia
Credit Sesame's team relied heavily on proven playbooks to solve problems. That worked well for predictable situations, but not for new ventures -- their existing processes weren't getting them anywhere.
Tactic: No-ego experimentation
We led Credit Sesame's team through lightning rounds of customer research to empathize with a previously unknown segment, then conducted problem framing workshops to make sense of the insights we uncovered.
Where they are today
While Joe has since moved on from Credit Sesame, he's most proud of the cultural shifts we were able to accomplish during our partnership. We worked with Joe to develop experimentation mindsets and customer-centric habits that can live beyond him as a leader, ensuring that innovation becomes core to the team's operations.
Joe said, "any company should be aware of what works and continue to do it. But as you go up the S curve, what works kind of emerges and reveals itself and you need to try something different. And the culture has to be welcoming to trying something different."
Want results like these?
Next sprint story: Rosetta Stone
See how we helped Rosetta Stone, a 40-year old company, act like a startup to discover, prototype, and ship a new and wildly successful product in a completely new market.