HomeFinancial Health Impact Lab: Putting Innovations To the Test
The Financial Health Impact Lab partnered with Members to uncover how their products influenced financial outcomes.
By Financial Health Network
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Amplifying FinHealth Impact Through Measurement
Measurement is an essential step for building financial health innovations that actually improve people’s financial lives. But for many organizations, measuring financial health can feel like trying to complete a puzzle without all the pieces. Which outcomes do you evaluate? How do you develop a testing plan? How do you integrate findings into your product design?
Supported by Metlife Foundation, the Financial Health Impact Lab helped Financial Health Network Members understand whether their new products and solutions really had the power to help customers flourish financially. Members tested their solutions alongside our in-house behavioral economics and measurement experts, leading to more effective solutions and a robust body of evidence on what works to advance financial health.
Testing and Optimizing the Next Era of Solutions
The Impact Lab partnered exclusively with Members ready to take their financial health impact further. Participants explored innovations that touched all aspects of people’s finances – from automated savings to debt repayment and budgeting – to produce insights that would benefit the entire financial health industry.
During their 15-month engagement, Member participants worked alongside the Impact Lab to refine and launch their products, engage in rigorous testing, and measure financial health impact over time.
| Months 1-3 | Month 4 | Months 5-10 | Month 11 | Months 12-15 |
| Refine Design and Plan Testing | Launch and Measure | Analyze Early Results | Conduct Final Impact Analysis | Report on the Findings |
| The Impact Lab helped refine participants’ product designs while identifying impact metrics and testing methods. | The participant launched the innovation and created baseline measurements. | The participant collected data and collaborated with the Impact Lab to analyze early impact data. | The Impact Lab reviewed the final data and synthesized findings to share publicly. | The Impact Lab shared results with the participant before publishing the full findings. |
Impact Lab Partners
Fintechs, banks, credit unions, and nonprofits all partnered with the Impact Lab to uncover what truly works to advance financial health.
Shaping Innovations, Strengthening Financial Health
Through an evidence-based approach to innovation, the Financial Health Impact Lab helped organizations identify which features truly made a difference – and for whom.
Providing Clear Insight Into Financial Health Impact
Many companies lack the in-house expertise or bandwidth for rigorous financial health measurement. In-kind support from behavioral design and measurement experts enabled companies to confidently measure and understand the true impact of their products.
Even
+42%
Greater savings among individuals who saw active choice messaging
+31%
More users saved via automatic paycheck withdrawals for those who were presented with an active choice
Even (now One@Work), a financial wellness platform for employees, collaborated with the Impact Lab to test whether adding active choice messaging to the app’s onboarding process would spur more users to enroll in automatic savings. Active choice messaging requires users to make an explicit decision about enrolling during onboarding.
The company learned that individuals who saw active choice messaging had 42% greater savings balances after eight months than those who did not. Likewise, 31% more users saved via automatic paycheck withdrawals when presented with an active choice compared with those who received no message.
Helping Companies Identify the Best Approach
The Financial Health Impact Lab offered a concrete way to answer a pressing question for many companies: How do you know which innovations are worth investing in? Rather than committing to a single innovation, participants often used the Impact Lab to test multiple approaches and narrow in on the best path to financial health.
SaverLife
3
different types of motivational savings messages tested
+53%
More savings deposited by users who received empowering messaging
Nonprofit SaverLife came to the Impact Lab to test an innovation designed to help working families save and invest in their futures. SaverLife created a new prize-linked savings competition called the Race to $500, which rewarded members for making progress toward a $500 savings goal. What they didn’t know is what messaging would best motivate users to engage in the competition.
Working with the Impact Lab, SaverLife tested supportive, empowering, and commanding messages to see which resonated the most with participants. Those who received empowering text messages deposited 53% more than those who received no text messages. Users who received supportive messages saved less, while commanding messages had no impact on savings behaviors.
Determining Whether Innovations Reach the Right Customers
It’s not enough for companies to understand what works – they also need to know who it works best for. Several Impact Lab participants tested innovations with multiple customer segments to determine if the innovations reached the customers who needed the most support. Insights like these are particularly helpful in designing solutions specifically for groups that face greater financial challenges.
Self
60 Days
for the majority of users with limited credit history to achieve a credit score
61%
of users who entered the study with a delinquency no longer had it on their credit file at the end
Self is a credit building platform that wanted to understand who was using its credit building tools. Its solutions included technology for reporting rent and bill payments and credit builder loans.
While many people benefited from the solutions, the Impact Lab found particularly strong credit score changes among users who had 30- or 60-day overdue accounts and had a limited credit history. On average, these users’ credit scores, which were predominantly subprime, increased by 20 points over the study period.
Take Your Financial Health Solution Further
As the leader of the financial health movement, the Financial Health Network partners with companies to catalyze solutions that drive real change in people’s financial lives. We bring deep industry expertise, powerful measurement and testing capabilities, and an extensive network to help organizations develop financial health innovations that work. Request a consultation with our team to explore how we can work together.