Solution and Product Design
I was afforded free rein to design the solution as I saw fit. As a coalition rewards program, a “cash points” program with a simple to transact, earn, spend, and lend currency from both a consumer and merchant perspective was going to be fundamental.
The project came at a time when blockchain had emerged as a new technology and cryptocurrencies were making headlines, specifically bitcoin. So, I took the decision to design a solution that would be built on blockchain, using crypto-tokens as the rewards currency.
It was imperative that consumers would see value in the program. As such the UI was designed in such a way that the value of the earned currency - the member wallet - would be front and centre, when users logged in, and not offer after offer.
From a merchant perspective, the program was designed to minimise discounting by offering more value and choice, through genuinely fungible cash back tokens, available to spend at wide network of merchants.
A marketing technology solution was also designed, which would allow coalition merchants to send personalised offers to members, at the right time, using transactional data.
We called the program, UKa$ii (You-Kashee).
The Results
Unfortunately, at the time, the greater Impact Africa project stalled. This meant the Rewards Program business unit, which was a much smaller part of the overall project would also not be receiving funding.
