2023
2023
2023
Feature — 9 min
Feature — 9 min
Feature — 9 min
— Butn is a financial tech startup that provides dynamic funding solutions through "embedded funding" technology, and play a platform & funder role in the Australian market.
Below is an overview of the process in forging the new Butn identity, the first of two deep dives into my time at Butn.
Head to — Joystick Design System for the second.
Client
What they do
— provide dynamic funding solutions through "embedded funding", and play both platform & funder roles for the Australian market.
Services
Research
Strategic Design
Brand Identity
Knowledge Working
Web dev.
Prod. Design
Copy Writing
Highlights
— Forging a new distinct Identity.
— Establishing a mission & forming language.
— Rollout, migration & build of primary & subsidiary websites
Rafaela Silva - Web Designer
Niklas Lindgren - UX Designer
Anouk Dupont - Illustrator
Luca Rossi - UI Designer
Freya Schmidt - Brand Designer
Sofia Andersen - Art Director
Rafaela Silva - Web Designer
Niklas Lindgren - UX Designer
Anouk Dupont - Illustrator
Luca Rossi - UI Designer
Freya Schmidt - Brand Designer
Sofia Andersen - Art Director
Bring back the Texture,
add the Pop,
but focus on Performance.
Bring back the Texture,
add the Pop,
but focus on Performance.
“We realised we had a problem when we were basically giving money out for free.
...And people still didn’t engage.”
After joining Butn, the business had several high value opportunities, most stemming from these three problems.
Dependence
Broken Down
— Word of mouth & in-person selling
Lengthy & varied ways of communicating our value, meant our event and online presence did not generate opportunities.
Pain Point
Broken Down
— Generic tone & language,
meant lost opportunities.
The message was incorrectly grouped in with others, varied internally between teams, and quickly became confusing or vague.
Missed Opportunity
Read
— Updating & creating
was slow and low impact.
Tech & Marketing stack is slow & unreliable, alongside under-developed comms.
Acknowledging Insights & Verbalising goals.
Engaging with members across the various teams always brings the problems front and centre, drawing a spotlight on what it means to be at a lean scale-up. Every team member is highly skilled and holds a plethora of responsibilities.
This naturally meant a scarcity of time and headspace, and efficient communication & productive discussion meant if a project gets stuck, it is de-prioritised (or killed off).
Holding these conversations early also has secondary purpose, in that it allows us to assess everyone's reaction to impending changes. Giving myself & collaborators the ability to make mental adjustments, and pinpoint aspects that benefit from expanded dialogue.
HOW MIGHT WE….
"better position & communicate amongst Butn's competitors both externally and internally"
IN ORDER TO…
"increase engagement & create clarity among various services & our goals with those products."
Coming out of these dialogues is creating a thesis question. This exercise interrogates the team on why each word was chosen, which by conclusion creates a collective agreement on what actually needs to be improved on.
This "verbal compass" grounds lofty goals and tailors productive suggestions, allowing for consistent progress in such a non-linear exercise.
Creating Actionable Directives.
After sufficient knowledge working, moving toward actionable goals is done by synthesising them into directives. Informed by pain points, H.M.W's and previous conversations, these directives are unique to the team, period & company and are uniquely designed to play two key roles;
01 Task Scope —
ensuring time spent on items is appropriate, in a productive sequence, and has the right contributors.
02 Evaluating Exercises —
to estimate cost & measure the return of valuable insights.
Goal
Broken Down
D1 — Craft a Mission and Our Native Language.
Craft a mission distinct from competitors, that unifies teams in discussions and helps prioritise & explore features.
Goal
Broken Down
D2 — Forge a Distinct & Empathetic Identity.
Synthesise a unique and clear identity that speaks to product to solution fit, and therefore partner's goals & end user's reality.
Goal
Broken Down
D3— Increase control, quality & lead time of content.
Research & Synthesise tools & a web platform, that is flexible and fast.
D1 - Crafting a Mission & Establishing language.
As with many businesses; the founders & team members almost always know what Butn is not, yet struggle communicate what it is.
This directives' end goal was to create the ability to do this consistently, across numerous channels & conversations.
Starting this process, is running Butn's founders Rael & Walter, through the Google Ventures Brand Sprint. This in combination with the investigation & mapping of Butn's competitors allowed us to form a strong foundational understanding of the mission initial and current.
Google Ventures Brand Sprint
— Where it started & what we think it is.
Landscape Analysis
— Where Butn lands today
A New Resource Joins the Team.
Despite initial apprehensions, many of our members quickly began to see the value of these two resources. As it armed every person with the ability to ask targeted & validating questions.
"Does this move us to toward the right quadrant?"
"Are our audience priorities consistent with the value being communicated?"
"I think this is a little too far from …"
These questions actively combat feelings of uncertainty, retaining the detail of contexts in question, and allows members to confidently close previously never-ending discussions. Getting us closer to expressing what Butn "is".
As a result the two resources began to be regularly present in discussions, alongside Figma art boards and atop confluence documents (later being built into the new design system as a component).
Quality insights following this was clear acknowledgement that Butn's value is high, but required a lot of understanding & context. This combined with the enhanced agency of team members meant that tackling the following directives became much more efficient.
Iterating on Identity
Directive 2
Broken Down
— Forge a Distinct & Empathetic Identity.
With a working understanding on where we wanted to take Butn, I began exploring how the new identity should be visualised. Taking care in how exactly to carry this out can be extremely valuable logistically and for team engagement of materials created.
By mirroring the structure established for the Design system this sped up deployments & allowed for high value smaller improvements to to be integrated into the product, like improved spacing & hierarchy. Being able to do this much earlier than anticipated meant the product could quickly follow and reap the benefits of the brand work.
Adopting the Atomic Design System principles:
Start with Atoms —
Develop & test colour pairings, motifs, Illustrations and Icons first. Followed by typeface header & body combinations.
Then Molecules —
Commonly known as components, these help test and unify typefaces to chosen colour pairings and form.
Lastly Organisms —
Having done previous atomic levels this drastically sped up the prototyping of full web pages & product design updates.
Separating ourselves from the pack
With many rivals gravitating towards the SaaS technology look, our approach deviated heavily. Fuelling this was both the fact that Butn addresses the challenge of funding quite differently, and that many of our end users, actually work and exist in a very tactile paper world.
To capitalise on what was more familiar, we visualised this shift and found that this made partners more personable. Aside from the brand being more friendly, a shift way from dense, invisible layer interfaces we landed on an identity of "The Physical" — Layers, Paper & Buttons.
This identity served three key functions:
01 POP — A distinct identity contrary to what many of our adjacent competitors had, that furthered the idea that butn and its' product was different, so it looks and feels different.
02 PAPER — A strong informational hierarchy using layers, texture, blocked shadows that supported the distinction between information. Allowing for playful presentation of content that to educate and contextualise Butn's value.
03 PERFORMANCE— High flexibility on how we could create contrast achieved with physical forms and complimentary colour palletes. While retaining the brand colour's ability to rise above not of one supporting product colour, but multiple.
01 — Side by Side comparisons of flat, stale, colder, sans serif
02 — showcase form differences, numerous product colours alongside primary brand
03 — Molecules and Organisms that showcase layers, texture shifts, Educational ecoystem item.
From the start of this journey to now looking back at the end of 2023, we onboarded several major partners that would service thousands of customers, several million yearly in originations. And not a single person reacted negatively to the new brand /emoji eyes
Find some imagery for this section. Direct comparison between old and new brand. illustrating the shift required to.
- Slider module?
Find some imagery for this section. Direct comparison between old and new brand. illustrating the shift required to.
- Slider module?
“We realised we had a problem when we were basically giving money out for free.
...And people still didn’t engage.”
After joining Butn, the business had several high value opportunities, most stemming from these three problems.
Dependence
Broken Down
— Word of mouth & in-person selling
Lengthy & varied ways of communicating our value, meant our event and online presence did not generate opportunities.
Pain Point
Broken Down
— Generic tone & language,
meant lost opportunities.
The message was incorrectly grouped in with others, varied internally between teams, and quickly became confusing or vague.
Missed Opportunity
Read
— Updating & creating
was slow and low impact.
Tech & Marketing stack is slow & unreliable, alongside under-developed comms.
Acknowledging Insights & Verbalising goals.
Engaging with members across the various teams always brings the problems front and centre, drawing a spotlight on what it means to be at a lean scale-up. Every team member is highly skilled and holds a plethora of responsibilities.
This naturally meant a scarcity of time and headspace, and efficient communication & productive discussion meant if a project gets stuck, it is de-prioritised (or killed off).
Holding these conversations early also has secondary purpose, in that it allows us to assess everyone's reaction to impending changes. Giving myself & collaborators the ability to make mental adjustments, and pinpoint aspects that benefit from expanded dialogue.
HOW MIGHT WE….
"better position & communicate amongst Butn's competitors both externally and internally"
IN ORDER TO…
"increase engagement & create clarity among various services & our goals with those products."
Coming out of these dialogues is creating a thesis question. This exercise interrogates the team on why each word was chosen, which by conclusion creates a collective agreement on what actually needs to be improved on.
This "verbal compass" grounds lofty goals and tailors productive suggestions, allowing for consistent progress in such a non-linear exercise.
Creating Actionable Directives.
After sufficient knowledge working, moving toward actionable goals is done by synthesising them into directives. Informed by pain points, H.M.W's and previous conversations, these directives are unique to the team, period & company and are uniquely designed to play two key roles;
01 Task Scope —
ensuring time spent on items is appropriate, in a productive sequence, and has the right contributors.
02 Evaluating Exercises —
to estimate cost & measure the return of valuable insights.
Goal
Broken Down
D1 — Craft a Mission and Our Native Language.
Craft a mission distinct from competitors, that unifies teams in discussions and helps prioritise & explore features.
Goal
Broken Down
D2 — Forge a Distinct & Empathetic Identity.
Synthesise a unique and clear identity that speaks to product to solution fit, and therefore partner's goals & end user's reality.
Goal
Broken Down
D3— Increase control, quality & lead time of content.
Research & Synthesise tools & a web platform, that is flexible and fast.
D1 - Crafting a Mission & Establishing language.
As with many businesses; the founders & team members almost always know what Butn is not, yet struggle communicate what it is.
This directives' end goal was to create the ability to do this consistently, across numerous channels & conversations.
Starting this process, is running Butn's founders Rael & Walter, through the Google Ventures Brand Sprint. This in combination with the investigation & mapping of Butn's competitors allowed us to form a strong foundational understanding of the mission initial and current.
Google Ventures Brand Sprint
— Where it started & what we think it is.
Landscape Analysis
— Where Butn lands today
A New Resource Joins the Team.
Despite initial apprehensions, many of our members quickly began to see the value of these two resources. As it armed every person with the ability to ask targeted & validating questions.
"Does this move us to toward the right quadrant?"
"Are our audience priorities consistent with the value being communicated?"
"I think this is a little too far from …"
These questions actively combat feelings of uncertainty, retaining the detail of contexts in question, and allows members to confidently close previously never-ending discussions. Getting us closer to expressing what Butn "is".
As a result the two resources began to be regularly present in discussions, alongside Figma art boards and atop confluence documents (later being built into the new design system as a component).
Quality insights following this was clear acknowledgement that Butn's value is high, but required a lot of understanding & context. This combined with the enhanced agency of team members meant that tackling the following directives became much more efficient.
Iterating on Identity
Directive 2
Broken Down
— Forge a Distinct & Empathetic Identity.
With a working understanding on where we wanted to take Butn, I began exploring how the new identity should be visualised. Taking care in how exactly to carry this out can be extremely valuable logistically and for team engagement of materials created.
By mirroring the structure established for the Design system this sped up deployments & allowed for high value smaller improvements to to be integrated into the product, like improved spacing & hierarchy. Being able to do this much earlier than anticipated meant the product could quickly follow and reap the benefits of the brand work.
Adopting the Atomic Design System principles:
Start with Atoms —
Develop & test colour pairings, motifs, Illustrations and Icons first. Followed by typeface header & body combinations.
Then Molecules —
Commonly known as components, these help test and unify typefaces to chosen colour pairings and form.
Lastly Organisms —
Having done previous atomic levels this drastically sped up the prototyping of full web pages & product design updates.
Separating ourselves from the pack
With many rivals gravitating towards the SaaS technology look, our approach deviated heavily. Fuelling this was both the fact that Butn addresses the challenge of funding quite differently, and that many of our end users, actually work and exist in a very tactile paper world.
To capitalise on what was more familiar, we visualised this shift and found that this made partners more personable. Aside from the brand being more friendly, a shift way from dense, invisible layer interfaces we landed on an identity of "The Physical" — Layers, Paper & Buttons.
This identity served three key functions:
01 POP — A distinct identity contrary to what many of our adjacent competitors had, that furthered the idea that butn and its' product was different, so it looks and feels different.
02 PAPER — A strong informational hierarchy using layers, texture, blocked shadows that supported the distinction between information. Allowing for playful presentation of content that to educate and contextualise Butn's value.
03 PERFORMANCE— High flexibility on how we could create contrast achieved with physical forms and complimentary colour palletes. While retaining the brand colour's ability to rise above not of one supporting product colour, but multiple.
01 — Side by Side comparisons of flat, stale, colder, sans serif
02 — showcase form differences, numerous product colours alongside primary brand
03 — Molecules and Organisms that showcase layers, texture shifts, Educational ecoystem item.
From the start of this journey to now looking back at the end of 2023, we onboarded several major partners that would service thousands of customers, several million yearly in originations. And not a single person reacted negatively to the new brand /emoji eyes
Find some imagery for this section. Direct comparison between old and new brand. illustrating the shift required to.
- Slider module?
Find some imagery for this section. Direct comparison between old and new brand. illustrating the shift required to.
- Slider module?
“We realised we had a problem when we were basically giving money out for free.
...And people still didn’t engage.”
After joining Butn, the business had several high value opportunities, most stemming from these three problems.
Dependence
Broken Down
— Word of mouth & in-person selling
Lengthy & varied ways of communicating our value, meant our event and online presence did not generate opportunities.
Pain Point
Broken Down
— Generic tone & language,
meant lost opportunities.
The message was incorrectly grouped in with others, varied internally between teams, and quickly became confusing or vague.
Missed Opportunity
Read
— Updating & creating
was slow and low impact.
Tech & Marketing stack is slow & unreliable, alongside under-developed comms.
Acknowledging Insights & Verbalising goals.
Engaging with members across the various teams always brings the problems front and centre, drawing a spotlight on what it means to be at a lean scale-up. Every team member is highly skilled and holds a plethora of responsibilities.
This naturally meant a scarcity of time and headspace, and efficient communication & productive discussion meant if a project gets stuck, it is de-prioritised (or killed off).
Holding these conversations early also has secondary purpose, in that it allows us to assess everyone's reaction to impending changes. Giving myself & collaborators the ability to make mental adjustments, and pinpoint aspects that benefit from expanded dialogue.
HOW MIGHT WE….
"better position & communicate amongst Butn's competitors both externally and internally"
IN ORDER TO…
"increase engagement & create clarity among various services & our goals with those products."
Coming out of these dialogues is creating a thesis question. This exercise interrogates the team on why each word was chosen, which by conclusion creates a collective agreement on what actually needs to be improved on.
This "verbal compass" grounds lofty goals and tailors productive suggestions, allowing for consistent progress in such a non-linear exercise.
Creating Actionable Directives.
After sufficient knowledge working, moving toward actionable goals is done by synthesising them into directives. Informed by pain points, H.M.W's and previous conversations, these directives are unique to the team, period & company and are uniquely designed to play two key roles;
01 Task Scope —
ensuring time spent on items is appropriate, in a productive sequence, and has the right contributors.
02 Evaluating Exercises —
to estimate cost & measure the return of valuable insights.
Goal
Broken Down
D1 — Craft a Mission and Our Native Language.
Craft a mission distinct from competitors, that unifies teams in discussions and helps prioritise & explore features.
Goal
Broken Down
D2 — Forge a Distinct & Empathetic Identity.
Synthesise a unique and clear identity that speaks to product to solution fit, and therefore partner's goals & end user's reality.
Goal
Broken Down
D3— Increase control, quality & lead time of content.
Research & Synthesise tools & a web platform, that is flexible and fast.
D1 - Crafting a Mission & Establishing language.
As with many businesses; the founders & team members almost always know what Butn is not, yet struggle communicate what it is.
This directives' end goal was to create the ability to do this consistently, across numerous channels & conversations.
Starting this process, is running Butn's founders Rael & Walter, through the Google Ventures Brand Sprint. This in combination with the investigation & mapping of Butn's competitors allowed us to form a strong foundational understanding of the mission initial and current.
Google Ventures Brand Sprint
— Where it started & what we think it is.
Landscape Analysis
— Where Butn lands today
A New Resource Joins the Team.
Despite initial apprehensions, many of our members quickly began to see the value of these two resources. As it armed every person with the ability to ask targeted & validating questions.
"Does this move us to toward the right quadrant?"
"Are our audience priorities consistent with the value being communicated?"
"I think this is a little too far from …"
These questions actively combat feelings of uncertainty, retaining the detail of contexts in question, and allows members to confidently close previously never-ending discussions. Getting us closer to expressing what Butn "is".
As a result the two resources began to be regularly present in discussions, alongside Figma art boards and atop confluence documents (later being built into the new design system as a component).
Quality insights following this was clear acknowledgement that Butn's value is high, but required a lot of understanding & context. This combined with the enhanced agency of team members meant that tackling the following directives became much more efficient.
Iterating on Identity
Directive 2
Broken Down
— Forge a Distinct & Empathetic Identity.
With a working understanding on where we wanted to take Butn, I began exploring how the new identity should be visualised. Taking care in how exactly to carry this out can be extremely valuable logistically and for team engagement of materials created.
By mirroring the structure established for the Design system this sped up deployments & allowed for high value smaller improvements to to be integrated into the product, like improved spacing & hierarchy. Being able to do this much earlier than anticipated meant the product could quickly follow and reap the benefits of the brand work.
Adopting the Atomic Design System principles:
Start with Atoms —
Develop & test colour pairings, motifs, Illustrations and Icons first. Followed by typeface header & body combinations.
Then Molecules —
Commonly known as components, these help test and unify typefaces to chosen colour pairings and form.
Lastly Organisms —
Having done previous atomic levels this drastically sped up the prototyping of full web pages & product design updates.
Separating ourselves from the pack
With many rivals gravitating towards the SaaS technology look, our approach deviated heavily. Fuelling this was both the fact that Butn addresses the challenge of funding quite differently, and that many of our end users, actually work and exist in a very tactile paper world.
To capitalise on what was more familiar, we visualised this shift and found that this made partners more personable. Aside from the brand being more friendly, a shift way from dense, invisible layer interfaces we landed on an identity of "The Physical" — Layers, Paper & Buttons.
This identity served three key functions:
01 POP — A distinct identity contrary to what many of our adjacent competitors had, that furthered the idea that butn and its' product was different, so it looks and feels different.
02 PAPER — A strong informational hierarchy using layers, texture, blocked shadows that supported the distinction between information. Allowing for playful presentation of content that to educate and contextualise Butn's value.
03 PERFORMANCE— High flexibility on how we could create contrast achieved with physical forms and complimentary colour palletes. While retaining the brand colour's ability to rise above not of one supporting product colour, but multiple.
01 — Side by Side comparisons of flat, stale, colder, sans serif
02 — showcase form differences, numerous product colours alongside primary brand
03 — Molecules and Organisms that showcase layers, texture shifts, Educational ecoystem item.
From the start of this journey to now looking back at the end of 2023, we onboarded several major partners that would service thousands of customers, several million yearly in originations. And not a single person reacted negatively to the new brand /emoji eyes
Find some imagery for this section. Direct comparison between old and new brand. illustrating the shift required to.
- Slider module?
Find some imagery for this section. Direct comparison between old and new brand. illustrating the shift required to.
- Slider module?
More Deepdives