Transactional to Transformational Experiences with Vaishali Dialani

One of the fascinating things about doing experience design is the innumerable ways in which we can apply our understanding and work. While we might talk about silos such as customer, user, employee, patient, and the like, it always comes down to people. Or, some might say, humans. And it is not just that we are dealing with humans in our design, but that we should be humanistic when approaching our designs and for whom we are designing. Rather than designing “at” people, we need to design “for” them, or even hopefully design with “them.” There are many ways that our designs can make a difference in people’s lives when we are open to those possibilities.

Today on Experience by Design, we are very fortunate to have Vaishali Dialani, now of Konabos but formerly of NOW Money. Vaishali also is a winner of the CXPA 2022 Emerging Leader in CX Award for the Middle East. We talk with Vishaly about how the company started with a strong dose empathy for their migrant worker customers, who can be in precarious employment and immigration situations regarding their stability and opportunities. She talks about how her own background of being of Indian descent but growing up in Dubai helped her build trust with customers. We explore how the use of the app was about much more than the app itself, but about cultural norms, mindsets, and social context. Ultimately, the financial tool had a major impact on setting culture through technology, impacting the person who is using it as well as the family back home where the money is being sent. In this way, it became a tool to help provide services and support to the globally underserved and unsupported.