4 banking product development challenges and how to solve them

Product Managers in banks face an ongoing challenge – getting ideas into customers' hands as quickly as possible.

Creating banking products tends to be a long, expensive process requiring a sponsor and a team of engineers. But at 10x, we've proven that this process can be much faster and more efficient.

In this blog, we look at some of the common challenges with product development in banks and share how to solve them. This blog includes insights from our recent webinar on supercharging the product lifecycle, which you can watch here.

Challenge 1: Technology slows down product development

Product Managers in banks can improve the everyday lives of millions of customers. They focus on improving the customer experience, but the technology at their disposal prevents them from developing products quickly.

For example, research we conducted recently at 10x found that it takes global banks, on average, three months to release a product. It takes the same time to change a rate within an existing product.

But popular apps like Spotify, Instagram, and Netflix are updated far more regularly, with new features, bug fixes, and UX improvements often coming weekly. So Product Managers aren't just competing against functionality from other banks – they also need to be mindful of the experiences big tech companies offer and the rate of change customers expect today.

Personalization is also a significant factor. Many tech companies successfully use data to personalize the user experience – which customers could expect to see more of within their banking apps.

However, this would be difficult for many banks today. Even though they hold lots of customer data, banking tech stacks tend to be organized by product, making it difficult to look at the whole customer relationship and personalize the experience accordingly.

Challenge 2: Product innovation is siloed

Like banking technology, Product teams are also arranged according to product lines. It would be difficult for two Managers working on different products to collaborate because they use different systems and datasets. As a result, it becomes more effort than it's worth to collaborate.

This is not a reflection of the attitudes within banks but a consequence of how tech environments have evolved to be product-specific. As a result, there's a lack of flexibility when designing products, which stifles innovation.

Challenge 3: It’s difficult to test and learn

As Product teams start the development process, it becomes clear which ideas will take too long to deliver and what isn't possible with siloed systems and datasets. Ideally, banks would have more flexibility in creation and be able to build products more quickly. That way, banks can test them on small customer segments to see what works.

Today, many Product Managers find themselves in a vicious cycle. Because it's hard to take a product from idea to launch, they are less likely to push certain ideas forward because of tech limitations. In addition, the costs involved in the banking product development process with traditional technology mean it's common to need stakeholder backing and budget approval for ideas. Again, putting another barrier to getting a good idea into customers' hands.

Challenge 4: Analyzing product performance is slow

Analyzing the performance of products often takes too long. In some cases, Product Managers have to wait until month-end to get reports on how products behave and how customers use them.

This lag can be a frequent cause of stress for Product Managers. Problems take longer to find and resolve. Trends take longer to spot. And when Managers get asked about product performance, they may not be able to give as much detail as they'd like.

Regarding product updates, stakeholders may want to know how a change will impact customers. But without up-to-date performance data, it may be difficult for Product teams to give an accurate answer, which could result in delayed or canceled updates.

How can product teams overcome these challenges?

While the challenges we've outlined in this blog are restricting, the technology exists to help banks break down these barriers for good. Here are three ways that SuperCore®, our cloud-native banking platform, enables a more effective, competitive product lifecycle.

Customer-centric, API-first architecture: The platform is built around the customer rather than the product, so getting a snapshot of a customer's entire financial relationship is easy. Product teams can use this data to personalize the user experience in real time through APIs.
Banking products get built in clicks: Product Managers can click to combine any banking feature, regardless of product line, to innovate on the spot while removing design siloes. For example, why can't a current account have an overdraft that functions like a credit card? The ability to build products easily reduces the time and cost associated with releases, enabling banks to innovate freely and launch same-day updates.
Real-time data: Our real-time events stream gives banks an accurate, up-to-date understanding of product performance. Product teams can make data-driven decisions much faster while predicting changes' impact gets easier.

To see the 10x platform in action, get in touch today to book a demo.