File Delivery Information Reporting
The Problem
File Delivery is a way in which Customers can access transaction and account information for Information Reporting (Receivables products) and submit information to be used in Payables products.
Capital One (C1) has struggled to expand its File Delivery Offering, and taking advantage of big revenue generation potential, due to the problems customers have going through the Onboarding process, and due to associates experiencing difficulty engaging new customers during the sales part of the process.
The Goals
As part of a data platform modernization effort, we sought to understand where clients and associates have issues and trouble with the File Delivery process, so that we can work together to design a scalable experience.
To look at the entire process, from sales, to onboarding, to product implementation, in order to understand delays and identify the reasons behind the subpar performance.
To create an improved onboarding experience that could allow us to replicate the same process for other areas of the business.
To find ways to improve the client engagement process in order to generate an increase in product sales.
The Team
This effort was a very interesting opportunity due to the nature of the project. We were tasked with the responsibility of taking a look at a massive section of the business during a time that presented several challenges due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
As the lead designer in this project I collaborated with partners in different areas of the business along the way. I worked with Sales, Onboarding, Engineering, Design and Product partners on occasion. However, I was the single person responsible for the project.
I had complete ownership of the effort from beginning to end. Due to the pandemic, I did not have the opportunity to work with a team, which presented many challenges but at the same time gave me the autonomy to structure an initiative with almost complete independence.
This required a different type of teamwork, a different type of collaboration method.
The Process
A very extensive research plan was crafted, knowing that the ultimate goal of the project was to identify the ways in which we could improve an entire section of the business. This required a process geared towards ideation and strategy, more than one aimed at arriving at Design Solutions.
Given the resource limitations, the process needed to be adjusted and timelines extended.
Research
I began the research process by conducting a series of conversational interviews with associates involved in every area of the process.
Sales, Onboarding, Product Setup, Product Servicing, Project Stakeholders.
Shadowing sessions took place in order to gain an understanding of the tools used. These evolved into working sessions due to the magnitude of the effort, which initially planned for 3 months, turned into a full-scale 8 month research effort after uncovering how deep we really needed to go.
Client interviews were also conducted in order to obtain a different perspective of how the process is perceived from the side of the user. Proxy Client interviews became an important part as well, which we used to understand how needs and issues are addressed by other institutions and other industries.
Working Sessions
Once the initial phase of the research gave me a better idea of the areas in which I wanted to focus, I crafted a set of Working Sessions with Product Setup partners in order to get a deeper understanding of how internal tools worked, and how they interacted with each other. A lot of attention was also given to how different teams from different areas communicate and transition from one phase of the process to the next.
The sessions were structured with a combination of detailed walkthroughs, prioritization exercises and collaborative sketching.
Findings
Synthesizing the vast amounts of information obtained through the research was a project on its own. It was especially challenging given the lack of team collaborators, so I decided to segment the process even further and tackle specific areas of the process one at a time.
I realized that, even though the initial assumption by leadership and stakeholders was that the main reason for the issues laid in the complexity of the Implementation (Product Setup) process, the reality was that the problem started much earlier. My conclusion was that the delays and technical issues were a consequence of problems within the Sales and Onboarding phases of the process.
Design
In order to communicate the research findings I started work on a comprehensive Process Blueprint, which I would use to help partners understand the process and make it easier to identify pieces that needed to be addressed.
The Blueprint was a great way to showcase the process in its entirety, allowing for easier validation sessions. It was a tool used to show partners why we needed to shift gears and look at this effort through a different lens.
Building Relationships
It was time to take the project a step forward and start exploring paths that could help the message across.
Identifying the right associates and establishing a partnership was key to the potential success of the initiative. In a world where we don’t see anyone in person, and everyone is deep under tens of Zoom meetings, creating and building relationships takes a whole new meaning.
This effort had the potential to impact all the pieces of the process and as a consequence it could prove highly beneficial to other areas of the business.
Crafting Initiatives
As part of the process, we needed to understand the risks we could encounter along the way, and weigh those against the potential benefits from addressing the problems we found.
I organized a full team workshop in which we were able to analyze the entire project so far, understand the problems better, prioritize findings and develop initial ideas for potential work generated by these findings.
Plan of Attack
After several rounds of analysis and validation we arrived to a clear understanding of what needed to be done.
Prioritized findings were converted into 4 main themes. These teams were used to generated specific initiatives that would address the issues with the biggest potential for impact.
As part of the plan, I worked on determining resources that would be needed and strategizing how to structure future teams, who would work on each of these initiatives.
This was a long term plan and we needed to make sure we laid down the basis for it to be a successful endeavor over the next 2 years.
Outcome & Future Plans
Once the plan of attack was devised. It was time to find ways in which the research and analysis effort could continue to make progress, while these specific issues were being addressed.
A series of workshops were crafted with the sole aim of identifying the right data we needed to address these customer needs; how to obtain it, how to find it if we already have it, and how to use it to provide users with valuable information and tools.
Additionally, it was important to create a plan that would allow us to identify other products in the business that could benefit from the File Delivery service.