Bamba
End-to-End Product Design at a Startup
Bamba
End-to-End Product Design at a Startup
Bamba
End-to-End Product Design at a Startup
Who is Bamba
Bamba is a lean startup providing affordable credit and a low-cost digital wallet to Kenyan SME's.
My Role
To steer all design decisions based on research, data and testing. As the first designer at Bamba I also established our design process and collaborated across the team (dev, management, marketing & testing).
• Led Research
• Prototyping and usability testing
• Established Bamba's brand and Figma design system
• Implemented and monitored app analytics (Mixpanel, later Amplitude) to identify pain points and improvement opportunities
• Leveraged AI tools to improve the design -> development pipeline
• Managed QA testers
Initial Concept
When I joined Bamba, the team was trying to validate their initial concept, a point-of-sale system that leveraged a mobile money feature called 'SIM Toolkit Push'
They had developed an MVP POS and I was tasked with validating the concept with actual users in Kenya. Ultimately, adoption was near zero as the initial concept wasn't grounded in research.
The Pivot
Through user interviews and while validating the POS concept we unearthed our market's true pain points; lack of access to bespoke business finance tools, unreliable service from Mpesa and most critically, a lack of access to affordable credit
So we took the decision to pivot our product direction entirely to address real user needs.
The Challenge
How can we design a digital wallet and credit experience that SMEs trust, feels simple and fast? A product that rivals a well-established entity like Safaricom and is differentiated in its focus on serving business owners.
Design Thinking
Being the first designer at Bamba I was able to implement a true design thinking process:
Empathize: Get to know your customers through in-depth interviews, observational studies, reviewing existing research and conducting competitor research
Define: What are we trying to solve?
Ideate: Design and ideate on best solutions
Prototype: Detailed / basic depending on context
Test: How do users respond to the design? Is it easy to use and understand?
While I outline my process in phases, in practice it’s iterative, moving fluidly between research, design, and testing as insights emerge
Usability Testing
Initially we conducted in person usability tests in Nairobi, participants travelled to a central office where we could observe their interactions.
As the product scaled, we shifted to remote usability testing. This reduced the burden on the participant to travel, it also reduced test setup time, cost and allowed us to reach a broader segment of users, like participants in more rural areas. While we lost some of the nuance of in-person observation, the increased speed and diversity of feedback helped us iterate faster.
What I learned: In markets like Kenya, research design has to factor in user access. Remote testing wasn’t just more efficient, it surfaced new types of users we would never have reached in Nairobi alone. At the same time, it forced us to rethink how to adapt to variable testing conditions like levels of network connectivity, different device types and test conditions.
Conducting research in a foreign country
Conducting research in Kenya taught me two important lessons:
1. Deep cultural understanding requires local expertise. Partnering with a local researcher was essential for sourcing participants and understanding the local context.
2. Immersion in real customer environments is invaluable in understanding the user context you're designing for. Observing and participating in Nairobi’s fast-paced mobile money ecosystem highlighted the need for simplicity and reliability in our design solutions.
Solving Payment Confirmation
The problem: With Mpesa, business owners struggle to confirm customer payments when they aren't physically in the store. Mpesa till numbers only send confirmation SMS's to the owner’s phone, leaving employees without a way to verify payments in-store.
The workaround: Owners resorted to buying a second SIM and leaving a basic feature phone at the shop for staff, a clunky solution to get around Mpesa's limitations.
Our solution: Give users a feature that allows them to send payment confirmations to a 2nd phone number.
To support the feature we initiated a messaging campaign that highlights new features like this one to our existing wallet users.
Impact: Since implementation feature adoption has been rising steadily
Using Analytics to decrease drop-off
The problem: We noticed a 10% drop-off during our onboarding flow, after first time users viewed our onerous data privacy screen where we let them know they'll need to submit personal identity information to access our products. I spoke to some of the users in the cohort that had dropped off and realized that they wanted to know more about the product before submitting sensitive information to us.
User frustration: Before users gain access to app features they need to submit KYC identity information and wait for their loan application outcome.
Our solution: To allow users to explore our product before submitting any personal information. I designed a 'loan calculator' allowing users to configure different loan terms and see costs. I also designed a screen that where users could see our wallet functionality as well as our transaction costs
Impact: Post implementation we saw the drop-off reduce by 7%.
Working with external contraints
Bamba decided to partner with a newly established microfinance bank which allowed us to launch quickly without waiting for a DCP license of our own. As their highest volume partner, we often encountered changing compliance and KYC requirements that were not always communicated ahead of time. This meant multiple re-designs of our onboarding flow and the need to manage customer trust during these unexpected changes.
What I learned:
• How to design modular flows that can adapt to changing compliance needs.
• The importance of proactive, transparent customer communication when external factors shift.
Reflections
How do I encapsulate 3 years of product design experience from product inception? Working at Bamba transformed me from a designer contributing to pieces of the experience to owning the entire design process from end to end. I gained invaluable, hands-on experience running research in a foreign market and translated user insights into measurable business outcomes. Most importantly, I was able to validate the impact of user-first design on growth and retention while always advocating for our users.
I'm proud of the fact that consistently, user feedback singled out the ease-of-use of our app as well as it's simplicity and we see a steady climb in our retention percentage over time.
Who is Bamba
Bamba is a lean startup providing affordable credit and a low-cost digital wallet to Kenyan SME's.
My Role
To steer all design decisions based on research, data and testing. As the first designer at Bamba I also established our design process and collaborated across the team (dev, management, marketing & testing).
• Led Research
• Prototyping and usability testing
• Established Bamba's brand and Figma design system
• Implemented and monitored app analytics (Mixpanel, later Amplitude) to identify pain points and improvement opportunities
• Leveraged AI tools to improve the design -> development pipeline
• Managed QA testers
Initial Concept
When I joined Bamba, the team was trying to validate their initial concept, a point-of-sale system that leveraged a mobile money feature called 'SIM Toolkit Push'
They had developed an MVP POS and I was tasked with validating the concept with actual users in Kenya. Ultimately, adoption was near zero as the initial concept wasn't grounded in research.
The Pivot
Through user interviews and while validating the POS concept we unearthed our market's true pain points; lack of access to bespoke business finance tools, unreliable service from Mpesa and most critically, a lack of access to affordable credit
So we took the decision to pivot our product direction entirely to address real user needs.
The Challenge
How can we design a digital wallet and credit experience that SMEs trust, feels simple and fast? A product that rivals a well-established entity like Safaricom and is differentiated in its focus on serving business owners.
Design Thinking
Being the first designer at Bamba I was able to implement a true design thinking process:
Empathize: Get to know your customers through in-depth interviews, observational studies, reviewing existing research and conducting competitor research
Define: What are we trying to solve?
Ideate: Design and ideate on best solutions
Prototype: Detailed / basic depending on context
Test: How do users respond to the design? Is it easy to use and understand?
While I outline my process in phases, in practice it’s iterative, moving fluidly between research, design, and testing as insights emerge
Usability Testing
Initially we conducted in person usability tests in Nairobi, participants travelled to a central office where we could observe their interactions.
As the product scaled, we shifted to remote usability testing. This reduced the burden on the participant to travel, it also reduced test setup time, cost and allowed us to reach a broader segment of users, like participants in more rural areas. While we lost some of the nuance of in-person observation, the increased speed and diversity of feedback helped us iterate faster.
What I learned: In markets like Kenya, research design has to factor in user access. Remote testing wasn’t just more efficient, it surfaced new types of users we would never have reached in Nairobi alone. At the same time, it forced us to rethink how to adapt to variable testing conditions like levels of network connectivity, different device types and test conditions.
Conducting research in a foreign country
Conducting research in Kenya taught me two important lessons:
1. Deep cultural understanding requires local expertise. Partnering with a local researcher was essential for sourcing participants and understanding the local context.
2. Immersion in real customer environments is invaluable in understanding the user context you're designing for. Observing and participating in Nairobi’s fast-paced mobile money ecosystem highlighted the need for simplicity and reliability in our design solutions.
Solving Payment Confirmation
The problem: With Mpesa, business owners struggle to confirm customer payments when they aren't physically in the store. Mpesa till numbers only send confirmation SMS's to the owner’s phone, leaving employees without a way to verify payments in-store.
The workaround: Owners resorted to buying a second SIM and leaving a basic feature phone at the shop for staff, a clunky solution to get around Mpesa's limitations.
Our solution: Give users a feature that allows them to send payment confirmations to a 2nd phone number.
To support the feature we initiated a messaging campaign that highlights new features like this one to our existing wallet users.
Impact: Since implementation feature adoption has been rising steadily
Using Analytics to decrease drop-off
The problem: We noticed a 10% drop-off during our onboarding flow, after first time users viewed our onerous data privacy screen where we let them know they'll need to submit personal identity information to access our products. I spoke to some of the users in the cohort that had dropped off and realized that they wanted to know more about the product before submitting sensitive information to us.
User frustration: Before users gain access to app features they need to submit KYC identity information and wait for their loan application outcome.
Our solution: To allow users to explore our product before submitting any personal information. I designed a 'loan calculator' allowing users to configure different loan terms and see costs. I also designed a screen that where users could see our wallet functionality as well as our transaction costs
Impact: Post implementation we saw the drop-off reduce by 7%.
Working with external contraints
Bamba decided to partner with a newly established microfinance bank which allowed us to launch quickly without waiting for a DCP license of our own. As their highest volume partner, we often encountered changing compliance and KYC requirements that were not always communicated ahead of time. This meant multiple re-designs of our onboarding flow and the need to manage customer trust during these unexpected changes.
What I learned:
• How to design modular flows that can adapt to changing compliance needs.
• The importance of proactive, transparent customer communication when external factors shift.
Reflections
How do I encapsulate 3 years of product design experience from product inception? Working at Bamba transformed me from a designer contributing to pieces of the experience to owning the entire design process from end to end. I gained invaluable, hands-on experience running research in a foreign market and translated user insights into measurable business outcomes. Most importantly, I was able to validate the impact of user-first design on growth and retention while always advocating for our users.
I'm proud of the fact that consistently, user feedback singled out the ease-of-use of our app as well as it's simplicity and we see a steady climb in our retention percentage over time.
Who is Bamba
Bamba is a lean startup providing affordable credit and a low-cost digital wallet to Kenyan SME's.
My Role
To steer all design decisions based on research, data and testing. As the first designer at Bamba I also established our design process and collaborated across the team (dev, management, marketing & testing).
• Led Research
• Prototyping and usability testing
• Established Bamba's brand and Figma design system
• Implemented and monitored app analytics (Mixpanel, later Amplitude) to identify pain points and improvement opportunities
• Leveraged AI tools to improve the design -> development pipeline
• Managed QA testers
Initial Concept
When I joined Bamba, the team was trying to validate their initial concept, a point-of-sale system that leveraged a mobile money feature called 'SIM Toolkit Push'
They had developed an MVP POS and I was tasked with validating the concept with actual users in Kenya. Ultimately, adoption was near zero as the initial concept wasn't grounded in research.
The Pivot
Through user interviews and while validating the POS concept we unearthed our market's true pain points; lack of access to bespoke business finance tools, unreliable service from Mpesa and most critically, a lack of access to affordable credit
So we took the decision to pivot our product direction entirely to address real user needs.
The Challenge
How can we design a digital wallet and credit experience that SMEs trust, feels simple and fast? A product that rivals a well-established entity like Safaricom and is differentiated in its focus on serving business owners.
Design Thinking
Being the first designer at Bamba I was able to implement a true design thinking process:
Empathize: Get to know your customers through in-depth interviews, observational studies, reviewing existing research and conducting competitor research
Define: What are we trying to solve?
Ideate: Design and ideate on best solutions
Prototype: Detailed / basic depending on context
Test: How do users respond to the design? Is it easy to use and understand?
While I outline my process in phases, in practice it’s iterative, moving fluidly between research, design, and testing as insights emerge
Usability Testing
Initially we conducted in person usability tests in Nairobi, participants travelled to a central office where we could observe their interactions.
As the product scaled, we shifted to remote usability testing. This reduced the burden on the participant to travel, it also reduced test setup time, cost and allowed us to reach a broader segment of users, like participants in more rural areas. While we lost some of the nuance of in-person observation, the increased speed and diversity of feedback helped us iterate faster.
What I learned: In markets like Kenya, research design has to factor in user access. Remote testing wasn’t just more efficient, it surfaced new types of users we would never have reached in Nairobi alone. At the same time, it forced us to rethink how to adapt to variable testing conditions like levels of network connectivity, different device types and test conditions.
Conducting research in a foreign country
Conducting research in Kenya taught me two important lessons:
1. Deep cultural understanding requires local expertise. Partnering with a local researcher was essential for sourcing participants and understanding the local context.
2. Immersion in real customer environments is invaluable in understanding the user context you're designing for. Observing and participating in Nairobi’s fast-paced mobile money ecosystem highlighted the need for simplicity and reliability in our design solutions.
Solving Payment Confirmation
The problem: With Mpesa, business owners struggle to confirm customer payments when they aren't physically in the store. Mpesa till numbers only send confirmation SMS's to the owner’s phone, leaving employees without a way to verify payments in-store.
The workaround: Owners resorted to buying a second SIM and leaving a basic feature phone at the shop for staff, a clunky solution to get around Mpesa's limitations.
Our solution: Give users a feature that allows them to send payment confirmations to a 2nd phone number.
To support the feature we initiated a messaging campaign that highlights new features like this one to our existing wallet users.
Impact: Since implementation feature adoption has been rising steadily
Using Analytics to decrease drop-off
The problem: We noticed a 10% drop-off during our onboarding flow, after first time users viewed our onerous data privacy screen where we let them know they'll need to submit personal identity information to access our products. I spoke to some of the users in the cohort that had dropped off and realized that they wanted to know more about the product before submitting sensitive information to us.
User frustration: Before users gain access to app features they need to submit KYC identity information and wait for their loan application outcome.
Our solution: To allow users to explore our product before submitting any personal information. I designed a 'loan calculator' allowing users to configure different loan terms and see costs. I also designed a screen that where users could see our wallet functionality as well as our transaction costs
Impact: Post implementation we saw the drop-off reduce by 7%.
Working with external contraints
Bamba decided to partner with a newly established microfinance bank which allowed us to launch quickly without waiting for a DCP license of our own. As their highest volume partner, we often encountered changing compliance and KYC requirements that were not always communicated ahead of time. This meant multiple re-designs of our onboarding flow and the need to manage customer trust during these unexpected changes.
What I learned:
• How to design modular flows that can adapt to changing compliance needs.
• The importance of proactive, transparent customer communication when external factors shift.
Reflections
How do I encapsulate 3 years of product design experience from product inception? Working at Bamba transformed me from a designer contributing to pieces of the experience to owning the entire design process from end to end. I gained invaluable, hands-on experience running research in a foreign market and translated user insights into measurable business outcomes. Most importantly, I was able to validate the impact of user-first design on growth and retention while always advocating for our users.
I'm proud of the fact that consistently, user feedback singled out the ease-of-use of our app as well as it's simplicity and we see a steady climb in our retention percentage over time.