Damon Macklin, Tally‘s Head of Product explained to Everly.eu what is his idea what Tally is about and how he personally thinks about UX in a very genuine interview.
Last year, a new digital bank called Tally has launched its app. However, it does not aspire to be „just another digital bank“ but has a very original concept of how to make deposits safe. Tally is also the name of the in-app currency.
First, we confronted Damon with the question of how is Tally going to tackle other digital banks on the market in terms of user experience.
His answer was: „In Europe, we live in a mature market, challengers have been here for a while now and people are just used to decent experiences.“
„App experiences might be completely different in Brazil and London or Paris. Before you even consider launching a digital bank app, you have to get yourself to parity with other products,“ he added.
For this issue, Tally uses a complex experience map: „I see an add on Facebook and I don‘t understand the proposition. Journey mapping and digging is the goal of Tally to avoid the frustration of customers. The best way of thinking about UX is thinking about every single user touchpoint. The goal for us is to make the Tally experience seamless.“
Damon Macklin stated that he has no respect for ads that don’t respect the content nature of the app they advertise. „Our ads can‘t be just – hey check out Tally, Tally is great, Tally is XYZ. Ads and apps have to work together.“
The Tally‘s Head of product is aware that to stop using Barclays and use Monzo is very different to stop using Barclays and pound and use Tally as an app and Tally as the in-app currency. It’s a massive leap of faith for the user.
The most important source of data for Damon is analytics. „You want to dig deep into every single interaction and see what went right or what went wrong. There is something here where 23% of users are dropping – let’s get on the phone and see… No wonder, let’s do something about it.“
With all that hard work and effort, Macklin believes that in time what will set Tally apart from competitors is that they are clearly not just another challenger bank. „We are also a challenger currency. At some point the market is not going to be about – Check out our app that is better than Barclays and Halifax! -“
„Challenger banks offer an alternative to banking experiences. And now they are setting themselves apart from the old ways. But we offer new money experiences. We have completely rethought how money works. That makes us more a challenger currency more than just a challenger bank.“
However, Damon admits that open banking is on the roadmap for Tally because it works better for customers who want to feel safer while keeping their existing accounts and taking advantage of the options of the Tally product.
„Yes, you can save money with discounts. But we offer customers the experience of saving money with a new currency. The beauty of Tally is that the scope of our product is far wider than any other challenger banks.“ claims Damon.
In our interview, we have also covered the topic of the post-COVID era. „During uncertain times, if you have a platform that provides you with the easiest option to buy and sell gold, then you are going to see an increase in customers inevitably. People are generally more financially savvy and websites help them understand their finances. COVID allows customers to see why common currencies are devaluating. Also, we were already in a good position to go remote long time before the COVID outbreak“ concludes Damon Macklin, Head of Product in Tally.
