The sender
Usually in work, often in Nairobi or another city, moving money to someone who will cash out. They care about fees, names, and what “pending” does to a person waiting at an agent.
Payments, credit, savings
Fintech user research in Kenya: study the money stack, not “mobile money adoption”
Almost everyone you can recruit already uses M-Pesa. A screener that stops there will fill with people who have nothing in common except a SIM. The research is what sits beside it: a bank app, Fuliza, a SACCO, a chama, an agent, a till, and the cash they still do not trust a screen with.
Global fintech write-ups still talk about “introducing digital payments”. That is the wrong brief for Kenya. People already move money all day. They are choosing whether your product replaces a habit that works, sits next to it, or fails in a way that costs them airtime and dignity. Recruit the habit. Then watch the failure.
A useful screen is a behaviour in the last 30 or 60 days: sent to family outside their county, cashed out at an agent, took Fuliza or a bank overdraft, paid a supplier on Paybill, contributed to a chama. “Interested in fintech” is how you interview other founders. Live interviews for a typical consumer are KES 3,500 for 45 minutes. Credit and business audiences are more specific, so the quote moves — you see it before you pay.
Assume M-Pesa. Ask what they do not put on it.
Rent, a supplier who wants cash, a relative who does not trust a reversal, savings they will not leave on a phone that can be borrowed. That remainder is your product.
What to map
One person, several rails. Your app is a guest.
Ask them to walk the last real transfer, including the parts that never touched a startup. You are drawing the stack they already operate.
M-Pesa, and which jobSend, till, Paybill, withdraw. “Uses M-Pesa” hides whether they are a payer, a receiver, or a merchant.
The bank app, if it is realSome people have an account they never open. Ask when they last moved money in it, not whether they “are banked”.
Short-term coverFuliza, a digital loan, a salary advance, a friend. The fee they remember matters more than the brand story.
The groupChama or SACCO rules: who collects, what happens if you miss, whether an app is even allowed in the meeting.
The agentFloat, trust, the time of day they will not transact. An app that insults the agent will not replace the float.
Cash on purposeChange in the drawer, a payment too large to reverse, a person who wants to see notes. Cash is often a control, not a lack of access.
Do not mash the sample
Five people teams keep booking as one persona.
The receiver
Different county, different handset, sometimes not the account holder. If your growth is the last mile, interviewing only the sender is how you ship a confirmation screen nobody at the other end can read.
The till
A shop, a pharmacy, a boda. Volume, reversals, and staff who are not the owner. This is a business study. Recruit it as one: SME owners, not “SMEs who like fintech”.
The newly credited
First limit, first scare, first time they ignored a message that looked like a trap. They are not the same as people who have never been offered credit. Recent use, or a recent refusal, both count — separately.
The group treasurer
Chama or SACCO. The product has to survive a meeting, a paper book, and a suspicion of anything that can be withdrawn by one member’s phone. Do not test this with salaried users who save alone.
Sessions
Ask about a week, not about their character.
Debt, gambling, and supporting relatives are easy to humiliate people with, and easy for a professional respondent to perform. Keep the screener on ordinary actions. In the interview, pick a recent week and ask what left the phone. Let a story stay closed. The incentive is for the session they qualified for, not for a confession.
When you test a flow, include the handoff. An STK push, a Paybill, a reversal, a limit message. Moderated, on their Android, because that is where the prompt appears and disappears. Unmoderated recordings of a Figma wallet teach you the label and miss the fear. The practical version is usability testing in Kenya.
Exclude staff of banks, mobile networks, and competing fintechs. They will audit you. If you only need the “why” before any screen exists, book interviews the way any other Kenya product study should: behaviour, recency, place, and a tool you already use. Matching for common profiles is aimed at 48 hours. A treasurer or a receiver outside Nairobi takes longer, and should.
Questions
Recruiting money behaviour.
Who should I recruit for fintech research in Kenya?
Recruit a money behaviour in the last 30 to 60 days, not “fintech users” or “mobile money adopters”. Senders, receivers, till or Paybill holders, SACCO or chama members, and people who recently used or refused credit are different samples. M-Pesa use alone will not separate them.
How do I ask about debt and Fuliza without humiliating people?
Do not put “are you in debt?” in the screener. Ask which ways they covered a shortfall in the last two months, with ordinary options beside Fuliza, a bank app, a chama, family, or a shop tab. In the session, ask about a specific week, and let them skip a story. Pay them either way once they have shown up and matched.
Should fintech usability tests include the M-Pesa step?
Yes, if the real task leaves your app for an STK push, Paybill, or an agent. A prototype that skips that handoff has not tested the payment. Run those sessions moderated, on the participant’s own Android.
Can the same study cover consumers and SME treasurers?
No. A person sending money home and an owner paying suppliers are different decisions, different times of day, and different proof. Recruit shop owners through a business brief, not a consumer fintech screen.
Keep going
The next brief.
Which money behaviour is the product for?
Name it, how recent it must be, and whether this is a consumer or a business. We’ll price the study and find those people.