Building an Award-Winning Mobile Banking Experience

Jim Marous (00:07):

Welcome to another episode of Banking Transformed, the podcast that dives deep into the trends, innovations, and strategies shaping the future of banking. I'm your host, Jim Marous, owner and CEO of the Digital Banking Report, and co-publisher of The Financial Brand.

Jim Marous (00:21):

Digital banking success hinges on more than just lists of features and technological capabilities. UX and UI thinking in banking design starts with a fundamental question, what do users truly need to accomplish their financial goals?

Jim Marous (00:40):

This approach combined with rigorous user-centric design, has revolutionized how financial institutions deliver digital banking experiences. Today's guest, Ty Griffin, senior head of UX and UI at Alkami, joins the Banking Transformed Podcast.

Jim Marous (01:00):

He shares insights on how Alkami recently became the first technology provider certified by J.D. Power for providing an outstanding mobile banking platform experience.

Jim Marous (01:10):

Listeners will gain practical insights into creating distinctive digital banking experiences that drive engagement, satisfaction, and relationship growth. Listeners will also, learn how to balance innovation with security and regulatory requirements.

Jim Marous (01:28):

A digital banking app must balance sophisticated functionality with simplicity, ensuring features like mobile check deposit, funds transfers, and bill payments feel effortless.

Jim Marous (01:40):

Award-winning applications distinguish themselves through personalized experience, proactive insights, and seamless integration of advanced features while maintaining bank grade security.

Jim Marous (01:53):

So, Ty, you joined Alkami about four years ago. What was your mission when you joined Alkami, and how is your vision for what's possible altered during that relatively short amount of time?

Ty Griffin (02:07):

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Jim. So, yes, I've joined Alkami about three and a half, four years ago, and my first mission was to really understand the domain and the industry as a whole.

Ty Griffin (02:18):

I've had over 20 years of design experience, but really understanding financial institutions and the users was critical for my role here. And so, really diving then and getting the opportunity to actually travel with our sales team and interface with clients and see what their needs are was really critical for this role.

Ty Griffin (02:41):

And so, I would say at the end of the day, getting an under true understanding of what a B2B, B2C application experience looks like, and providing a solution for not just our end users, but our customers as well, was really critical.

Jim Marous (02:59):

It's interesting, Ty, as you went around, I'm sure you saw that almost every financial institution is in a different stage of the digital transformation experience. Some have challenges with back office, some have challenges with the fund facing experience.

Jim Marous (03:14):

As you went around, what was the most common user experience pain point that you see in mobile banking today? And how are you addressing these?

Ty Griffin (03:25):

Absolutely. First off, I think it was coming from just how financial institutions approach UX as a whole before I speak about the end user experience.

Ty Griffin (03:35):

And that part there, I think I've had the opportunity to sit down with clients. And one thing that was consistent was financial institutions were looking for the opportunity to differentiate themselves one from another.

Ty Griffin (03:51):

And what I realized was that idea kind of falls short, if you will. And what I mean by that was where do we place differentiation in this whole mobile banking platform experience thing? Because the reality was they were focused on differentiating themselves from their competitors, where I was hoping they were more thinking about differentiate the experience from one user to another.

Ty Griffin (04:18):

And so, I would say that that was one of the biggest challenges of changing the narrative of not just seeing UX as pretty pictures or I like this design A over design B, but really engaging and understanding who the users are and how they're different, and providing a solution that UX was a vehicle to a means to other opportunities on the platform, I would say.

Ty Griffin (04:48):

And so, I thought that was really some of the biggest challenge I've seen from an operational standpoint on how FIs really thought about UX.

Ty Griffin (04:55):

Within experiences, I also, noticed that there was a challenge with actually technology stacks. And there was a mix of different technologies infused into platforms. And so, the ability or inability, should I say, to merge these into one holistic solution was really challenging.

Ty Griffin (05:15):

And so, from a end user experience perspective kind of looked like we brought our users along for this technology ride. And as we started to figure out what technologies were needed, we just kind of slapped it into the experience, and we just brought the user along with us.

Ty Griffin (05:32):

And so, they've gone through a front seat view of the challenges that FIs have had. And I say they, the end user, have gone through first look at the challenges of integrating solutions to making them seamless.

Jim Marous (05:48):

So, how does Alkami design a platform that does balance the cutting-edge innovation that's possible with the practical functionality for the diverse user base that you referenced?

Ty Griffin (06:01):

That's a good question because when I think about innovation, I actually think about simplicity and I think about how innovation is the ability to simplify our lives. If we think about the things that were innovative in the last decade or two, there are ways we've simplified our level of effort in the way we do things.

Ty Griffin (06:20):

So, when I look at innovation, I kind of see that as the ability to simplify things and bring a level of practicality to the experience. And so, I actually see them as one in the same as innovation and practicality. The challenge is how do you take these technologies and deliver them in a practical manner, in a personalized manner as well.

Jim Marous (06:45):

So, what differentiates a functional mobile banking experience and one that truly engages and empowers the user during the financial journey? Because one is a matter of making things simpler, making it easy, just making it so there's not a problem with it.

Jim Marous (07:01):

But now, more than ever, financial institutions are really saying, how do I get people to engage with my platform more? How do I have them keep on coming back? As you referenced, it's more similar to like an Uber or Amazon app that keeps on drawing you back.

Jim Marous (07:17):

What differentiates just doing the basics really well for an experience and one that actually empowers a journey through engagement?

Ty Griffin (07:28):

Well, yeah, functional banking application or experience, it's simple basic utility. It allows users to complete essential tasks, but often lacks depth, personalization, and that level of delight.

Ty Griffin (07:40):

Where I believe a more like engaging experience empowers the user and goes beyond just functionality to create a holistic, once again, personalized, and maybe even a bit more like proactive experience that resonates more emotionally with the user.

Ty Griffin (07:56):

And once again going back to that personalized experience is really the next step in delivering these experiences.

Ty Griffin (08:03):

And so, when you think about UX, a lot of times we like to think about just the visual aspect of things at the end of the day. And so, that's a really myopic or a really one-sided view of the holistic experience.

Ty Griffin (08:19):

And there's many applications out there today such as you have your Facebooks, you have your Apple platforms and Google. They really focus around hyper-personalization.

Ty Griffin (08:31):

And well, what I'm noticing is when things become more hyper-personalized and geared towards you as an end user, the UI kind of fades into the background and the content, it moves forward. Because you kind of look at the experience different and those more engaging experiences.

Ty Griffin (08:53):

And in some ways that happens is when a user goes onto Facebook or YouTube, they're in a mindset where they're ready to engage and explore. And so, they're very vulnerable and open to ideas, concepts, opportunities, and offers and whatnot.

Ty Griffin (09:10):

Digital banking's a bit different there, where the experience actually starts outside of the application. Mobile banking actually starts within a conversation or in context of a task that needs to be done.

Ty Griffin (09:28):

So, the user tends to come to mobile banking experiences with a task at hand, with a level of intent. And so, they're not as receptive to other products or things that you want to offer to them until they get that one task complete.

Ty Griffin (09:46):

And so, I think the idea is to be mindful of the context of the user and understand that banking lives outside of the digital experience as well. It happens in conversations with your spouse budgeting money.

Ty Griffin (10:01):

And I find it more and more that once the user, like I said before, gets to the experience, they've already made decisions about what they want do. And so, to engage them is to allow them to do that task easily and then contextually.

Ty Griffin (10:14):

And from a personalized perspective, maybe upsell or promote other things during that journey or at the end of that experience. So, at the end of that transfer where you can upsell or offer another financial product, if you will.

Jim Marous (10:33):

So, Ty, when you talk about different organizations, everybody's at a different stage of their digital transformation journey, and you have a lot of customers, some at the beginning, some up to speed already.

Jim Marous (10:45):

How do you build a process that moves everybody along in building a better digital banking experience when everybody's in a different spot in the whole transformation process?

Ty Griffin (10:58):

Yeah, I think the first thing is to simplify the conversation to really get back down to the basics and boil things down to key strategic objectives. And whether there's a large or mid-size or small financial institution, I'm really trying to get them to articulate what it is they're trying to accomplish.

Ty Griffin (11:18):

And what I find in some cases is that that strategic objectives or those objectives aren't clearly there or defined in the ask. And so, bringing them to where, let's not just talk about designing UX, but let's talk about your goals. Who's your audience? Who are your members? What do you know about your members and how we can build a platform or solution around that information as a whole.

Ty Griffin (11:44):

Now, whether that's small and you're using a CMS tool to deliver campaign ads to different customers and segments, that's a starting point.

Ty Griffin (11:53):

Then you decide to integrate a solution-like segment into the platform, and you get more hyper-personalization with data. And then you start to, at a higher level, maybe for a larger institution, like I said before, even think beyond the digital experience, think outside of ways to connect from a social aspect and other different channels at the end of the day.

Ty Griffin (12:16):

At the end of the day, I think for larger institutions, it's really important that if they have the means to leverage external channels, social media and things like that, to drive users back to the digital experience and to be able to drive conversions from external channels.

Ty Griffin (12:35):

But like I said before, some of the smaller institutions start simple, segmentation through campaign ads. CMS and whatnot, start to find shortcut ways to build, if not truly defined by data, levels that seem to the user at least like some type of personalization.

Ty Griffin (12:55):

Because that's where that loyalty's really going to come in at when you start to let the user know that you know who they are, and they start to get that sense that you have their best interest at heart.

Ty Griffin (13:06):

And so, I think at those different levels is leveraging the platform in different ways from CMS all the way up to using data for personalization is how I would say that we would pull together different financial institutions, no matter what level they come into the organization.

Jim Marous (13:23):

So, Ty, what role does user insights and data play in shaping the design and continuous improvement on a mobile banking platform?

Ty Griffin (13:32):

Yeah. When you think of user data, that comes in a couple of different forms from a UX perspective for a design team in particular. We actually conduct usability test at the beginning of our product delivery lifecycle within our design ideation phase.

Ty Griffin (13:50):

And those usability tests bring back data that gives us a sense of predictability at the end of the day. And so, the goal there is to not necessarily deliver the — if we can't deliver the best experience, how can we get that to 80% based off of the data that we have during usability test to drive a level of predictability?

Ty Griffin (14:12):

Once we feel comfortable with that, we run that through our product delivery life cycle and eventually send that into production.

Ty Griffin (14:20):

Now, once it's in production, you go to the other end of the funnel and you start looking at telemetry data and insights, and you get a real glimpse of what people are actually doing on the platform at the end of the day. And that data there really allows us to really close the gap, that 15 or 20% or whatnot of the experience.

Ty Griffin (14:38):

And so, looking at data, whether it's through the discovery phase or actually going into live production and seeing what people are doing on our platform is critical. And so, data lives at the beginning and at the end. And it really, honestly, it's a cyclical process that's a continuum of improvements with that information.

Jim Marous (15:00):

So, mobile platforms obviously become critical in fostering loyalty with customers and members. How does a strong focus on design and usability drive deeper connection between a financial institution and their customers and members?

Ty Griffin (15:19):

Yeah. I think loyalty comes from consistency, familiarity, and maybe a level of predictability at the end of the day. And so, consistency is the user expecting a consistent level of performance from the technology stack and how it operates holistically, the experience.

Ty Griffin (15:41):

And then the familiarity part of it is it's feeling like the experience knows who they are, who the user is at the end of the day. And then taking that information and creating a model of predictability to service the user with recommendations that are best fitted for that particular user's needs, and kind of tells a story that is personalized for the user.

Ty Griffin (16:04):

And so, consistency, familiarity, and predictability, I think are some of the key things that a great user experience has to have to build that level of loyalty with the end user.

Jim Marous (16:16):

So, Ty, I don't know why I waited this long. I talked about it in the introduction, but Alkami was certified by J.D. Power for providing an outstanding mobile banking experience. Since then even, you received other awards for what you've created.

Jim Marous (16:35):

What really differentiated what you are providing at Alkami from what else is in the marketplace today?

Ty Griffin (16:43):

Yeah. Jim, I think J.D. Power certification, it goes beyond just saying UX is important. I think it holds us to a user-centered standard within our organization. And this evaluation is best practices into really how the sausage is made here at Alkami. And so, really dives into that.

Ty Griffin (17:06):

And so, it holds us accountable, like I said before, to having a user-centered mindset when designing solutions. The evaluation also, amplified the voice of the customer. Half of that evaluation was all about customer feedback. And so, that's very important. And I think it sets a benchmark as a whole to the user expectations.

Ty Griffin (17:27):

And so, I think it's a very prestigious award. And I think when people think of the J.D. Power certification, I think they should think of just another checkpoint of holding technology and our platform to a standard that's really centered around a user. And we're really honored to be certified by J.D. Power.

Jim Marous (17:52):

Well, it also, says a lot about the focus that Alkami has put towards the overall user experience and the user interaction. And we're moving as an industry beyond experiences to engagement and all, but it's really in how you can make your mobile banking platform replicate what people are getting elsewhere outside of financial services.

Jim Marous (18:18):

I often refer to my Uber experience or my Amazon experience, or what I'm even getting from airlines today as far as how they continue to interact over time while making everything easier and more effective and differentiated from competitors.

Jim Marous (18:34):

But it says a lot for being able to get the awards you've received and the recognition you received for the fact that you're getting accolades for the work you've put in. So, congratulations.

Jim Marous (18:43):

So, given what you've learned, what lessons can other financial institutions take from platforms like Alkami to rethink their approach to digital transformation?

Ty Griffin (18:57):

Yeah. I think the opportunity for Fis is like I said previously, to rethink where differentiation should really lie, not just within the brand of the financial institution, but at the end user level is where you're really going to get your bang for your buck when it comes to differentiation on the platform. And that's going to be driven by data, technology, and AI to streamline that delivery of that.

Ty Griffin (19:24):

And so, another thing is placing big bets on technology. Financial institutions, we're hearing them talk about how it's important, but I think they're going to have to place some really big bets on really thinking outside the box.

Ty Griffin (19:41):

Another aspect I would share is not to think if you build it, they will come from a design perspective, from a digital banking platform perspective. So, once again, think outside the box. How do you bring them back to that experience and how did that experience now, feels more tailored towards them?

Ty Griffin (20:00):

And so, I think my quote there would be, just because you build it doesn't mean they will come, would be the number one message or thing that I would share that I think financial institutions may want to be advised or think about.

Jim Marous (20:13):

So, this is kind of like a personal question, Ty. You're a designer and I've worked with designers in the past, and sometimes they came up with ideas that in banking, outside of banking, my personal life, that may not align with what I thought I wanted.

Jim Marous (20:30):

You have experience through the research you're doing, through the work that you do with so many different financial institutions in Alkami. And it's hard for financial institutions, for bankers, for leaders to think outside the box of what they were used to. This is probably why so many mobile banking apps tend to look almost exactly the same.

Jim Marous (20:52):

How do you convince organizations to take the design ideas you've put together and deploy them on their mobile banking platform?

Ty Griffin (21:03):

Yeah. The thing I always say here is there's this — I always want to make sure as head of design at Alkami, that they're not necessarily just Ty's ideas or even Ty's team's ideas as a whole. They're a collective of feedback and information that we gather.

Ty Griffin (21:18):

And so, my ability to be client facing really and then have the ability to sit down with end users and conduct usability tests, really gives me a 360 view of the entire platform and the understanding.

Ty Griffin (21:33):

So, the first thing I would say there, Jim, is our solutions are collective of data points at the end of the day. And I agree with you, there hasn't been a lot of evolution when it comes to the designing of the platform. And I think the challenge is the reasons for that is going to be that it's hard to measure the ROI on it in some cases.

Ty Griffin (22:00):

And the reason why I believe it's hard to measure is because we're just not data centric enough. And so, the data's there, we just are not leveraging the technology to identify the value of some of the decisions we make on the platform.

Ty Griffin (22:15):

And so, when I come up with a design, I'm always trying to find a way to show data around it, to convince them this is the predictability model that we found that this design fares better.

Ty Griffin (22:28):

Then delivering something in production and building a relationship with our financial institutions to place some big bets, like I said before, and try some things and get some feedback and to understand that design is iterative. And so, it's even iterative in production at the end of the day.

Ty Griffin (22:44):

And so, it's a journey that I would encourage FIs to take with me from a creative perspective to see where we go, what we learn, and how we ideate on it.

Ty Griffin (22:56):

And so, it's not a one size fits all, but at the end of the day, I would say from a creative standpoint in getting FIS on board with concepts that may be outside the box, the goal is to convince them to come along on a experience journey with Alkami as a whole.

Jim Marous (23:12):

It's interesting, digital banking overall, it continues to evolve. And the expectations of what consumers want to feel, what they want to see, how they want to interact with their products, with their services, with their financial institution continues to change.

Jim Marous (23:27):

With all that said, what emerging technologies and practices do you believe will have the most significant impact on the future of mobile banking?

Ty Griffin (23:38):

The elephant in the room, number one, AI. Absolutely AI. I mean, there is no other answer than that, Jim. Just AI completely.

Ty Griffin (23:46):

Last night I actually was interfacing with AI and I said, “Let's role play.” And I said, “I want you to be a mobile banking application, and I can actually speak to you through AI, and you're going to pretend that I want to make a transfer.”

Ty Griffin (24:04):

And it role played with me. And then it allowed me to make a transfer off of request. And I came back and I said, "Can you add a level of security?" And it said, "Sure. How do you want to add that security? Do you want to do a pin or a password?"

Ty Griffin (24:17):

And so, AI just from a user experience standpoint, it is going to really change the game. And it's not going to just change the game for the end users, but for how organizations operate internally. So, I'm going to speak to that in two parts.

Ty Griffin (24:32):

I think from the end user experience interfaces are becoming a bit faceless, if you will, and great design gets out of the user's way at the end of the day. And so, I think with that said, I think you're going to see more AI driven interfaces and more hyper personalization.

Ty Griffin (24:50):

But from the internal organization, how we work as a financial industry and as financial institutions move forward, I think it's going to allow them to analyze data much faster which are going to make them quicker to be responsive and actually proactive to our users' needs.

Ty Griffin (25:10):

And so, I think with the ability to analyze data faster, I think AI is going to also, change job titles or redefine roles within financial institutions. I think everyone's role is going to be sprinkled in with a bit of data analysts across the organization because people are going to have this information at their fingertips.

Ty Griffin (25:29):

And so, their ability to move faster and have insights quicker is going to allow them to pivot, make change, and once again, build experiences that really resonates with the end user.

Jim Marous (25:42):

So, Ty, with that said, do you see the mobile banking app eventually working as an agent on my behalf, where I don't have to interact on every transaction, but where my app actually either interacts on my behalf or the financial institution interacts with my app on my behalf?

Ty Griffin (26:03):

I think AI's going to allow you to do that. I think AI is going to allow the platform to know the user, and I think it's going to bridge the gap in between both. I think it's going to understand the strategic objectives of the financial institutions, maybe their KPIs and what they're trying to accomplish, the products that they offer.

Ty Griffin (26:23):

And that's going to also, get to know the users as well on the other side. And I think that's going to create this marriage between the two that's going to become seamless.

Ty Griffin (26:32):

And I think that if FIs really engage in placing, once again those big bets in technology, I think their operational cost is going to drop for the most part. Because honestly, you're going to place that big bet early, but down the line, this thing's going to run into autopilot, if you will, for the engagement between FIs and their customers.

Jim Marous (26:55):

So, finally, Ty, let's say I'm a financial institution, and I just know I have to upgrade what I currently have, how would you advise financial institutions that want to be on simply a transactional app to create more engaging digital experiences? What step is that most important step?

Ty Griffin (27:18):

Yeah. I think the thing for financial institutions to really think about that first step is being data centric. That's going to be the first step.

Ty Griffin (27:30):

I think you may find financial institutions looking for that next digital platform, but without the data I got to be honest with you, that could be in some cases what we call a brick, because it's not really connecting holistically to your strategic objectives.

Ty Griffin (27:47):

And so, the first thing is to get the right people, I think, on staff, to really focus around the data, get to know your data. You're very powerful when you know your data. You can have a platform that has a lot of capability, at the end of the day with no data, it's useless.

Ty Griffin (28:06):

And so, I think a financial institution's first step is to really circle around the data, understand how that ties back to some of your strategic objectives, and then find a platform that's going to allow you to leverage that data to build unique experiences around their users.

Jim Marous (28:29):

Ty, thank you so much for being on the show today. It's interesting because one of the benefits you have at Alkami is you have so many financial institutions you're working with. While that can be a little bit cumbersome at times, the reality is they learn off each other.

Jim Marous (28:46):

And I know with working with Alkami for a number of years now, that the co-collaboration between what your clients want and what you can provide makes it a learning experience for you that they push your button to the same time you're pushing theirs, which ends up being a win-win because it moves the marketplace forward quicker than it would if it was just you recommending things to the clients.

Jim Marous (29:12):

So, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Ty Griffin (29:15):

Thank you for having me, Jim.

[Music Playing]

Jim Marous (29:17):

Thanks for listening to Banking Transformed, the top podcast in retail banking and the winner of three international awards for podcast excellence. We appreciate your support. If you enjoy what we're doing, please take some time to show some love in a form of review.

Jim Marous (29:32):

Also, be sure to read my recent articles on The Financial Brand and the research we're doing for the Digital Banking Report.

Jim Marous (29:39):

This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to my senior producer, Leah Haslage; audio engineer, Chris Fafalios; and video producer, Will Pritts.

Jim Marous (29:51):

I'm your host, Jim Marous. Until next time, remember, to remain competitive, every bank and credit union must rethink their digital banking platform from the inside out, leveraging consumer insights and the potential of modern technology.