Illustration by: Aidar
How might NAB safely explore the DeFi space?
Overview
NAB partnered with Zodia Custody to create proof of concept, “SAF3”, which (proving successful) led to NAB investing in the joint venture. Purpose of partnership was to enable NAB to safely explore the DeFi space.
The platform was setup to be an institutional-grade crypto-custodian for high net-worth customers (asset management firms and larger institutions such as superfunds).
My role here
UI/UX and rapid prototyping
Design methods coaching
Workshop facilitation
Customer research and self-recruitment through networking
Business development/venture setup
Data visualisation
Design for B2B/SAAS
Impact made whilst working for NAB
Exploring the problem
Context and scope
To bring SAF3 to life, we leveraged Zodia’s tech capability, building the product offering ourselves. Their tech capability was a 24/7 cold wallet access mechanism, which meant that customer funds would be kept in safer conditions compared to a hot wallet (an online wallet) and would have greater liquidity than a purely cold wallet.
We designed a platform that allowed customers to trade, store and manage their DeFi funds safely.
Who were our customers?
Our product was initially targeted at large institutions, such as Australian superfunds. However upon field research we realised this customer group didn’t have enough appetite for a crypto custodian. With this, we pivoted our approach to onboard “crypto native” asset fund managers such as Digital X and Jelly C.
“Main stream crypto investors are in it for a long term hold – the market’s too volatile to trade daily so I prefer to sit back and let it do its thing.” — Customer verbatim
(Part of a larger cluster of evidence to support having crypto platform that leads with safe custody)
Understanding our day 1 customers
I ran workshops with NAB team and Zodia’s teams to understand core hypotheses to test. I ensured these teams used these hypotheses in their conversations with customers in the field. Eg. When business development conversations were being had, these hypotheses could be tested organically with our potential clients.
Examples of some of our core hypotheses:
Custody as a feature is most important for our day 1 customers (vs having an, “all in solution”)
NAB’s name will play a key role in trust of the product
Clients will only care about 2 coins (ETH/BIT)
This was in addition to designing UX/UI and working with team to map out the entire platform and it’s features.
Through networking and self-recruitment I spoke to company founders and decision makers who might be interested in this platform, understanding their unique needs and applying them to the platform’s design.
The outcome
Through research we were able to prioritise the most important features for day-1 customers, in addition to determining customers best-matched for MVP.
We found that:
Whilst custody was a key feature, risk management was equally as important for our customers.
The NAB name played a significant role in customer trust for this platform
Customers (companies) were actually wanting a broad range of coins, as this was something their customers were expecting
The proof of concept proved successful and Zodia is now a NAB portfolio company.
Networking with potential customers for research/business (and maybe learning a thing or two)
Attending the Australian Financial Review in Sydney for the launch of SAF3 and partnership between NAB and Zodia Custody
Myself and some of the team setting up the launch event - we truly operated like a start-up, wearing many different hats.
The proof of concept - SAF3
Proof of concept designed by myself using Ant design system and was developed on Zodia’s existing codebase.
Main dashboard (Wallets)
Asset fund managers have an overview of all their clients wallets and can make transactions on their behalf
Wallet Analytics
Provides performance details of overall client wallet holdings including token performance
Risk Management
Fund manager can view clients wallet transactions and make risk assessments