Monticello recently participated in a roundtable hosted by American Banker to gain further insights into human-centered design thinking to drive customer experience in banking. Participants – including design thinking experts from banking, tech and consulting firms – discussed their own firms’ journeys with design thinking and the importance of integrating design thinking across the enterprise. Design thinking is not only suitable for designing products and experiences for customers, but also vital for employees and partner organizations who can benefit from the approach. Beyond merely incorporating design thinking, however, organizations need to back it up with an Agile organization that allows the kind of experimentation and feedback that is required for effective implementation.
Participant surveys revealed the current state of design thinking in banking – a plurality of participants felt their organizations were only at a basic level of strategically integrating design thinking and that the biggest obstacle to moving further with the approach was cultural barriers. This shows that banks will require support for transformational change in order to make greater use of design thinking as they continue their journey from a product and monetization focus to a human-centered approach.