A digital banking platform underwent significant value proposition evolution from 2021 to 2024. The bank transformed from an overseas travel-focused institution to a wealth democratization platform, specifically targeting customers who traditionally lack access to private banking services but require scalable financial resources and sophisticated investment guidance.

Multiple interconnected challenges created barriers to effective customer understanding:

Legacy Segmentation Limitations:

• Bank relied solely on income data for segmentation

• Wealth-based categorization (mass, mass affluent, affluent, HNWI) proved insufficient for product strategy

• No behavioral or cultural factors integrated into customer understanding framework

Unexplored Cultural Dynamics:

• Regional collective society wealth structures and family money dynamics remained uncharted territory

• Proximity to wealth influences (family networks, social circles) not factored into customer profiles

• Intergenerational differences in risk tolerance and investment attitudes created strategic blind spots

Rapid Value Proposition Evolution:

• Customer needs evolved faster than internal understanding capabilities

• Gap between traditional banking assumptions and emerging market realities widened

• Lack of systematic framework for cultural context

How might we develop a comprehensive behavioral segmentation framework that captures both individual financial propensities and regional cultural wealth dynamics, enabling rapid product strategy adaptation while providing scalable foundation for cross-functional team utilization?

Design a multi-phase mixed-methods research program that creates foundational broad personas specifically architected for organizational scalability. These personas serve as strategic scaffolding that individual squads and teams can systematically enrich based on their specific product needs and the evolving regional landscape.

Core Framework Elements:

• Behavioral clustering methodology moving beyond demographic segmentation

• Cultural integration system incorporating collective wealth dynamics and family decision-making patterns

• Scalable persona architecture designed for iterative team-based enrichment

• Cross-generational analysis addressing evolving risk and investment attitudes

Implementation Strategy:

• Establish foundational personas through comprehensive cultural and behavioral research

• Create systematic enrichment protocols for product teams

• Build continuous validation mechanisms for persona evolution

• Develop cross-squad knowledge sharing systems for collective insight building