Shaping a new identity for one of the world’s leading banks
People
Employees involved in the transformation, ensuring organisational alignment
Planet
Sustainability was key to all designs and processes, aligning with the bank's goals
Profit
ROI by streamlining operations and enhancing customer experiences
How the introduction of our Digital Spine™ redefined the bank’s employee and customer experience, and set a new vision for its digital future.
Big picture
As a ‘Big 10’ financial giant and one of the world’s oldest banks, our client operates in 60+ countries, serving 40+ million customers with 200,000+ employees. Despite its vast size and global reputation, the bank struggled to meet the evolving employee and customer needs in an increasingly digital world. Our Digital Spine™ helped the bank reinvent itself for a more agile and digital future.
Hurdles
The bank’s intricate network of legacy systems, patterns, templates, and elements spread across 200+ interfaces and a web of tech stacks. This posed a significant fragmentation challenge.
The complexity made it nearly impossible to standardise design and code quality throughout the organisation. Additionally, the bank’s sustainability ambitions were challenged by the lack of organisational agility in developing products, services, and systems. Simply put, the bank needed a new, digital backbone and way of working.
Game plan
We were brought in as the preferred partner to drive a design-led digital transformation. Drawing on our financial services expertise and leveraging design systems for quality at scale, we first mapped the client's propositional capabilities and identified key challenges.
Through in-depth research and leadership consultations, we developed a comprehensive set of solutions, covering reusable product capabilities, tooling, tech stacks, governance, and an evolving design system. The result was a vast library of reusable design elements, allowing designers and developers to build efficiently while meeting the company's quality, cost, and sustainability standards.
The win
Our approach received enthusiastic support from the company's leadership, facilitating smooth implementation across the organisation. The design system was created with sustainability as a foundational metric, setting the blueprint for updating and optimising both design and business processes.
By incorporating sustainability into every aspect, we educated users on how to practically and measurably reduce carbon footprints and make environmentally conscious design decisions.
This resulted in a harmonious ecosystem of digital products that benefited customers, staff, and relationship managers. The integrated and connected ecosystem created significant synergies in ways of working, operating models, and enhanced the overall experience for the bank’s customers.
“It's incredible to see collaboration and innovation in action within an agile environment at this scale. I’m excited to see this ripple through our organisation.”
- Innovation & Engagement Leadership
Hurdles
The bank’s intricate network of legacy systems, patterns, templates, and elements spread across 200+ interfaces and a web of tech stacks. This posed a significant fragmentation challenge.
The complexity made it nearly impossible to standardise design and code quality throughout the organisation. Additionally, the bank’s sustainability ambitions were challenged by the lack of organisational agility in developing products, services, and systems. Simply put, the bank needed a new, digital backbone and way of working.
Game plan
We were brought in as the preferred partner to drive a design-led digital transformation. Drawing on our financial services expertise and leveraging design systems for quality at scale, we first mapped the client's propositional capabilities and identified key challenges.
Through in-depth research and leadership consultations, we developed a comprehensive set of solutions, covering reusable product capabilities, tooling, tech stacks, governance, and an evolving design system. The result was a vast library of reusable design elements, allowing designers and developers to build efficiently while meeting the company's quality, cost, and sustainability standards.
The win
Our approach received enthusiastic support from the company's leadership, facilitating smooth implementation across the organisation. The design system was created with sustainability as a foundational metric, setting the blueprint for updating and optimising both design and business processes.
By incorporating sustainability into every aspect, we educated users on how to practically and measurably reduce carbon footprints and make environmentally conscious design decisions.
This resulted in a harmonious ecosystem of digital products that benefited customers, staff, and relationship managers. The integrated and connected ecosystem created significant synergies in ways of working, operating models, and enhanced the overall experience for the bank’s customers.
