How we design Pinwheel to solve real customer problems
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How we design Pinwheel to solve real customer problems

September 14, 2022

Solving real problems involves so much more than just satisfying a list of stated requirements - it requires relentless discovery to understand underlying goals and root causes, a commitment to account for edge cases, consideration for accessibility, a focus on weighing tradeoffs, and finding ways to drive interest and delight.

At Pinwheel, when customers come to us with a request or requirement, we take it as an invitation to understand their needs and decipher the hidden signals behind their pain points. Rather than jumping into solving mode we turn into investigators and activate our curiosity which helps us to come up with smart, innovative solutions that meet customer needs.

A recent example of this obsessive attention to detail was our work on a single, 15-word sentence of UI copy to explain the idea of a remainder allocation — the remainder of a paycheck after existing deposit allocations are filled. Our team spent weeks testing and iterating dozens of versions before deciding on the right verbiage ensuring to optimize for clarity to the end user and ultimately conversion.

Another example is our approach to designing Pinwheel Link, our platform interface which enables end users to search for their employers and payroll providers and to seamlessly authenticate with their login credentials to authorize access to their payroll account.

To ensure Pinwheel Link fits our customers’ unique needs across a myriad of experience mediums and use cases, we’ve designed it to be flexible and modular - going far beyond interface customizations such as color and font. Pinwheel Link adapts to customer context with three distinct implementation options:

  • Link No-Code
  • Link Modal
  • Link API

Link No-Code: the off-the-shelf, end-to-end solution

Some customers, particularly larger banks and enterprise financial institutions, have mountains to move in order to adopt newer technologies and solutions — and we get it. That’s why we’ve created a solution which can be deployed in just days, and without any engineering resources.

Link No-Code is a fully hosted, end-to-end solution that delivers our best-in-class user experience to optimize conversions and bring automated direct deposit switching to consumers with a simple, shared link. In fact, one of our customers, a top 50 financial institution, recently ran a highly successful proof of concept with this solution.

Link Modal: a flexible drop-in UX

Link Modal is our flagship solution, offering a platform-native user interface and flexible integration options for a cohesive experience. Customers who use Link Modal can see up to 75% increases in direct deposit activity in just weeks.

Speaking of weeks, that’s all it takes to get Link Modal fully integrated into existing apps or websites. Our integration support team and award-winning documentation make the process quick and easy. Once integrated, customers using Link Modal get the ongoing benefits of A/B tests, learnings, and optimization in UX automatically — like a free subscription to improvements. For instance, recently we tested more robust employer mappings and our customers benefited from a 25% improvement in conversion!

Link API: all the tools to build a world-class experience

With Link API customers can take advantage of our platform technology and retain full control over the user experience; especially useful for use cases which require specialized flows or have unique constraints.

Customers get the benefits of Pinwheel’s platform — the same performance and reliability as Link Modal — while owning the UX to create a fully integrated experience with their product.

Design is how it works

You can see how offering this degree of implementation flexibility delivers a level of customization that goes well beyond surface level visual interface changes. We understand that when asking for customization customers are really looking to optimize outcomes.

Pinwheel Link wasn’t designed, it’s being designed. Knowing “perfect” may be an impossible goal doesn’t stop us from trying. We’re making improvements almost every day — and probably won’t ever be “done.”

Get in touch with us to learn more about how Pinwheel helps to solve our customers problems to help them achieve their business goals.

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