TLDR: WATCH THE VIDEO (click above)
Imagine a friend whose advice constantly aligns with their vested interests. Would you trust their recommendations? 🤔
Unsurprisingly, products that do this, fail. We can smell commercial self-interest from a mile away, and it always stinks. Why? Trust.
Real trust isn’t just about user reviews or five-star ratings; it hinges on a fundamental social contract rooted in genuine interpersonal relationships. Historically, our survival as a species depended on it. Every individual in a group had just as much to gain or lose.
But when it comes to the trust between an individual and a company, it’s an uneven playground from the get-go. Suddenly, the individual has everything to lose and the company has everything to gain. The moral philosopher David Pizarro and behavioral economist and author Dan Ariely have suggested that for this reason, real trust between people and products is hard to achieve.
Brands know trust is crucial—that it impacts loyalty and retention. But they also tend to do brand-y things to address it, like ads that tell you they’re trustworthy. 🙄
So, how do they actually build trust? How can companies—and particularly, PMs—build a trust bridge?
The answer, as we find out in today’s teardown, is found in the actual product design choices and UX. And while Credit Karma has a lot going for it, this is one domain where they trip up. 😬
When I scrolled through the app, I faced a sea of credit card ads. If you’re paying attention, you’ll realize the business model: lure me in to improve my credit score and then push credit cards. 💳 It’s true, there are times to change credit cards and refinance. But somewhere along the way, it seems the finance folks managing affiliate fees won over the product people.
In the teardown, I go over the ironic (and surprising) thing Credit Karma could do to increase trust and conversions. 🗣️ Shoutout to Robert Cialdini for the anecdote! Watch the teardown for the full tactical advice and to see these points in action (including my credit score reveal 😅).
👉 3 things I cover in this teardown:
💳 When personalization backfires & how to do it in way that adds (not subtracts) value
💳 When to ditch brand guidelines if you want any hope of converting people
💳 Why you should keep features for power users out of the way of new users
Trust me, there are lots of nuggets here 😉 See you next week for another teardown 👋
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Questions about your product? Email kristen@irrationallabs.com.
Credit Karma: Personalization Pitfalls, Trust Killers, and When to Ditch Brand Guidelines 💳