The Human Account

Summary

The Human Account is a public information resource and tool aimed at enabling better design of products and policies to help people live a healthier financial life. Around the world, whether rich or poor, we all share similar goals for our financial lives: security and the opportunity to create a better future for ourselves and our loved ones. Yet, nearly 3 billion people lack access to affordable, high-quality financial services, whether credit to start a business or insurance to cover an emergency. Service providers, policymakers, researchers and practitioners can use The Human Account in many ways, whether applying the insights from the 34 unique segments to deepen understanding of people's financial lives and inspire product and policy innovation, using our predictive survey tools to understand existing customers' needs, or leveraging the data to test the impact of policies and programs. Each of The Human Account segments are built on statistically representative quantitative data and robust qualitative data developed through HCD and documentary filmmaking. The segments describe people holistically, exploring how their context, psychology and behavioural interact to shape their financial needs, preferences and strategies. This mixed media approach aims to ensure that service providers, policymakers, researchers and practitioners understand the people behind the data. We have found this approach supports people across organizations to use The Human Account as a true resource for human-centred and data-driven research and innovation.

Background/Objectives

TTo better understand customers in emerging markets, we developed a three-dimensional research framework that reveals the contextual, behavioral and psychological dimensions of people financial lives. We built our segmentation approach around the concept of financial health. This enabled us to generate a more realistic and actionable understanding of people's financial lives. The THA platform represents the data in such a way that statistics, stories and visuals are complementary. The hope is that such a holistic representation of data, will keep the human lives behind the data, salient and at the centre of development solutions that stem from the data.

Results/Lessons Learned

This work has the potential to open up the opportunity for broader secondary analysis, some of which is under investigation to tackle specific country segment solutions around womens financial inclusion in Kenya. This work also revealed the importance of designing data and tools for functionality. While the platform is targeted to service providers, policymakers, researchers and practitioners- all these audiences have specific needs and interests around analysis and so the data delivery must be specific enough to actively engage each audience. While the visualization of the segments outlined in The Human account captures a nuanced and holistic depiction of the behavior, psychology and demographic information, each target audience may need more clarity and specificity around the weighting of each of these factors.

Discussion/Implications For The Field

The ultimate goal of this work is to ensure that the insights garnered from segmentation inform the real-world work of financial service providers, policy makers, regulators, and development actors. These stories, statistics, and insights act as starting points. They complement tailored research and inform design and investment decisions. This data and approach can be used to test the impact of development programs on the contexts, behavior, attitudes, and financial health of other individuals and to better understand other areas of interest such as gender, agriculture, and entrepreneurship.

Abstract submitted by: 

Michael Mori - Dalberg

AnnSharon Njavika Wanyama - Dalberg