The Challenge

With the launch of the iPhone in Canada in 2008 and following the rising adoption of apps in the App Store, financial institutions asked themselves, "would people bank on a mobile phone?" It is worth noting that at that time, there were more feature phones than smartphones. So if your strategy were to reach the most mobile phones, you would not build a mobile banking app first. Many businesses were monitoring the adoption of smartphones. As the iPhone gained momentum in adoption and then the Android phone entered the marketplace, it was all but certain that smartphones and apps were here to stay.


Mobile Strategy

Our hypothesis in 2008 was that people would bank on a mobile phone. If so, what would deliver that experience to the consumer? The options were: a website optimized for the mobile browser on a smartphone or develop a mobile app. Mobile apps developed using the native programming language did have a better experience and allowed the developer to access features native to the device's hardware like the camera and GPS. Apple even created human interface guidelines to ensure app creators would design superior mobile experiences consistent with the iPhone. However, mobile apps came with the tradeoff that changes needed users to update the app, which was a perceived friction point (especially without auto-updates). We also need to consider the investment in our teams to have mobile development skills. Upon examining mobile experiences usage, we needed to deliver both mobile web and app banking experience to serve the largest number of customers. I prioritized launching the mobile web first, followed by the mobile app on iOS, then Android.


Research

Understanding how customers were using mobile devices and digital banking was instrumental in how we prioritized features. For example, our analytics revealed that the most common customer journey was to log in, view balances, and then log out. To capitalize on this insight, we launched a feature that allowed users to view their balance without logging in. We called that feature QuickView and was launched before the big banks. Our research found that mobile users had different constraints and motivations than desktop users. This research introduced a fundamental tenet where only the best mobile experiences were prioritized rather than creating parity features with desktop.


Results

For the next six years, we released a white label mobile banking app that allowed our financial institution customers to express their brand and continually released the highest customer valued features. They include:

  • Balances,

  • Account History,

  • View Cheque Images,

  • Messages,

  • Alerts,

  • Personal Financial Management,

  • Transfers, Payments, Deposit Cheques,

  • INTERAC e-Transfers, (mobile enhancement First in Canada)

  • QuickView, ( First in Canada)

  • Manage Billers,

  • Mobile Contactless Payments on Android,

  • App Provisioning for Apple Pay,

  • Find Branch ATM,

  • Financial, Calculators,

  • Biometric login,

  • Content areas like Rates

  • In-App Marketing with content management integration

Two hundred forty-four financial institution brands launched this mobile banking app and made it available to over 6 million users. The mobile app won a UX award against finalists Telus (a national telecommunications and technology giant) and nTrust (a fintech). It was ranked #1 using the Forrester Research scorecard based on its excellent mobile experience and unique feature offering against the Big Canadian banks.

Skills

Product Management, Agile Software Development, Business Case Development, Pricing Model Development, Mobile Development, Implementation Process development, Usability Testing, Web Analytics, Mobile Payments Design, User Experience, Project Management, Vendor Management, Strategy creation, Customer Development, Collaboration model development, Cross-functional team leadership, and Product Marketing.