Making a financial institution user friendly

Joaquín Márquez Correa is Director of Global Design for Digital at Banco Santander, one of the largest banks in Spain. In this episode, Joaquin reminds us how prevalent financial services are in our day-to-day lives and how Santander is betting big on great user experience to better service their customers.

Transcript

ALFONSO DE LA NUEZ:

Welcome to UXpeditious! A show that brings you quick, insightful interviews with design, product, and UX leaders.

DANA BISHOP:

In each interview we dive into how UX research impacts user insights; shaping the design and business strategy of some of our favorite tech tools and products.

ALFONSO:

I’m Alfonso de la Nuez, Chief Visionary Officer and Co-Founder of UserZoom.

DANA:

And I’m Dana Bishop, VP of Strategic Research Partners at UserZoom.

ALFONSO:

And we are your hosts.

On today’s episode, we’re talking with Joaquin Marquez Correa - Director of Global Design for Digital at Banco Santander. We are going to talk about why the financial tech industry is leaning on UX and Design to foster innovation across global platforms.

DANA:

Joaquin has over two decades of experience in UX and Digital Product Design. He has successfully implemented 200 projects in Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and in the UK.

ALFONSO:

Thanks for joining us.

JOAQUÍN MÁRQUEZ CORREA:

Thank you for having me here.

ALFONSO:

So, why don't we start by introducing yourself, please?

JOAQUÍN:

Absolutely. I'm Joaquin Marquez, and I am the Global Head Of User Experience for Banco Santander. I've been here in this position since 2019, and I've been responsible for creating the global design community. That includes all the design teams that we have in our footprint in more than 10 countries.

ALFONSO:

You and I go back about 20 years or so in the UX industry. Santander is, I mean, this is the largest bank in Spain, first of all, and one of the largest in the EU. So, why don't we talk a little bit about why the financial industry is leaning into the design, and UX world?

JOAQUÍN:

Well, I think that the answer is pretty simple. banks are a very relevant part of almost everybody's life. So, it's where you can save, and invest your money, receive your paycheck, get loans to buy a car or a house, or nice holidays just to name a few. So, I would say that as a relevant actor in your life, it makes sense that we try to make your life easier, and help you prosper. At the end of the day, we're a service just like any other digital service you are using. And those are the services like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, you name it. They have set very high standards in user experience. So, you will ask us, banks, and financial institutions, to be at least as good as they are.

ALFONSO:

So, let's talk a little bit more about the global nature of your job through the lens of UX. Because one thing, in my mind, is to bet on design. Another thing is to do it globally with a bank that has so many offices, so many markets, so many different personas. Can we talk about that a little bit?

JOAQUÍN:

Sure. Well, just to give you a little bit of a context, we are right now operating as a bank in 10 different countries, but we do have businesses in more than 15 different countries.

We do have also the retail banking, corporate banking, private investment banking. So yes, we are huge. We are huge. We are more than 200,000 employees around the world, and all of them should have the same vision, which we call One Santander. This is something that came directly from the top management to the bottom of the organization.

How do you do that? Providing that great experience, of course, and to make you feel that you are part of something bigger than your local branch or bigger than the ATM you used to go when you need to do a withdrawal. So, as a global lead for the user experience teams inside Santander, my job is to ensure we provide a seamless, and recognizable experience for all of our customers. All of our customers in every country that we are. And for that, what I do is work side-by-side with our design teams to provide them support tools, methodologies, alignment, and very important efficiencies.

Because in this new reality that we are in, there are two things that are very key for the service that we provide. One is the deliverable, and the other one is that we need to go, or to stay a step ahead of your needs in every country that we are. So, we need to be very efficient. We need to help our teams to devote their time, and their talent to do what they do the best. So, for instance, it doesn't make sense that you have a very design-talented team that spends most of the day designing patterns, forms, or popups, and so on. What they do is to try to create the best customer journey for you. So, we as the global team, try to provide them with those tools, and those synergies to help them be more efficient, and more effective in the daily work.

ALFONSO:

And you just described this in a few minutes, but boy, that's not easy.

JOAQUÍN:

I really enjoy the challenges. But talking about what are the main challenges that we are facing or what are the main innovations that would be part of for our job, I would say it's not about techniques. It's not about tools. I mean nowadays, everybody takes for granted user experience. Everybody takes for granted that using our services should be easy, should be usable, should be friendly.

ALFONSO:

Yep.

JOAQUÍN:

I would say that the main challenge that a huge organization like these face is how you implicate the design mindset inside the organization. I mean, we have been here as a bank for the last 150 years. Of course, there wasn't user experience since the beginning. And how do you become a relevant actor inside a strategy of a bank? How do you implicate this design mindset, this customer centricity approach?

ALFONSO:

Absolutely.

JOAQUÍN:

Inside the organization. I mean, this is all about how a user experience is a relevant part of the strategy of the company. Recognizing the value it provides to the organization, and how it brings to the table the user perspective. Usability, as I said, and user centric, and now, I mean, it's part of the normal equation. Nobody will argue with you about that they are necessary. But the challenge is how you make it a central part of the way you make decisions regarding how do you decide which are the new services or products you will deliver to your customers? And how that, is that providing a huge impact on your daily business. You know that we've been since the beginning of user experience searching for the ROI of design?

ALFONSO:

Yes.

JOAQUÍN:

I mean, this is like the holy grail quest. No?

ALFONSO:

Yes.

JOAQUÍN:

And it's very difficult to measure that. But we can measure the impact that we are bringing to the company in different parts of the relationship that you have with your customers. And that is something quite challenging. Remember that we started here in Spain as a bank, but we have expanded to different countries. And to do that, we have not started from scratch on different countries. So, sometimes we have acquired a local bank institution with their history, their methodologies, their processes, their politics. And you need to make them part of the digital culture of the customer centricity culture that we have in inside Santander. I would say that that's one of the biggest challenges because you need to evangelize a lot. You need to do a lot of internal selling of this idea, and you need to keep on proving that you're delivering value.

I would say that has two sides of the same coin. One is how do you educate your top management business people, and sales people inside a company to understand why we need to invest time, and effort, and money on knowing our customers or keep on listening to them and so on?

And the other part is how do you educate your own design teams to learn how to talk business? I mean, sometimes it feels that when you have, I don't know, risk department or financial department inside a company, and a bunch of guys who are designers, it seems that they talk completely different languages. But they need to understand each other. So, as I said, one part of this equation is how do you educate your business people to understand design, to start thinking design, and how you educate your designers to start talking business?

So, the only way that you can succeed inside an organization of this is to start talking exactly the same language as the people who is going to buy your idea, as the people who is going to provide you the budget to do that, and the people who is going to provide you the sponsorship to keep on working on that.

ALFONSO:

But ultimately to make this happen, this thing called convenience, easy, innovative, and valuable, all those things are taken for granted. But the fact is, this is really hard. And one of the first things that you need to do is culture, is get the culture in the organization, starting with management.

JOAQUÍN:

It's a huge part of the challenge, but I would say that's very fun to do that.

ALFONSO:

That's right.

JOAQUÍN:

It's fantastic when you get to talk with the top management, and start making them to see things that, for us, I mean are pretty obvious. But for them it's like, wow, we haven't thought about that. You are giving me some opportunities to innovate that I wouldn't have thought would be possible. When you bring on the table discovery research, and say, hey. User research is not only about user testing when you already have a prototype or when you have a proof of concept. User research can help you to identify new ways of doing business, new territories to explore, or I can help you to innovate in the way-

ALFONSO:

Innovate.

JOAQUÍN:

Absolutely.

ALFONSO:

I was hoping you were going to say innovate.

JOAQUÍN:

Yeah.

ALFONSO:

Exactly.

JOAQUÍN:

I can help you to innovate because I will bring here into this meeting room the voice of the customer.

ALFONSO:

Exactly. So, can we talk a little bit about the word innovation, and how, again, UX research fuels innovation in your industry. Particularly in the financial industry,

JOAQUÍN:

Well, I would say that keep on talking to your customers helps you find ways of doing things that are completely different. Just to give you an example, banking, banks, and financial institutions have been always that their business is always related with money. They have thought that our main mission is to help you save your money, and to give you a loan when you need it, and to help you have a withdrawal, or when you go to an ATM.

But that is a very short sign vision. I mean, we can do a lot more for you, and for your life. So, we have conducted some user research that has widened our eyes, opened our eyes, and say, hey. I can be a partner for you when you are just getting married. And maybe when you're planning to, I don't know, to have a baby. And you have a lot of fears, and you have a lot of concerns, and you are leading with a huge ambiguity in your life. I can help you because I know exactly what you will need in terms of financial needs. That's it. But also, I have the data.

I know I'm not selling you an investment. I'm not selling you a new kind of account. I'm just telling you, hey, I have the data, I have the knowledge. Let me help you. And that makes you a more relevant actor in their life. And that is something we shouldn't have discovered if we hadn't tested, we hadn't conducted several meetings with real people. Not telling them, hey, please tell me if you are able to use my application.

I mean, it's not an easy field. I think that we as financial institutions have the duty to help you understand your financials. So, the financial education can help you not only to be more successful when you're going to invest, but it also is a very relevant part of inclusion, of social inclusion.

There's a lot of people that right now are receiving a paycheck, and they don't know what to do with that because they don't have the education for that. This is something that nobody teaches you at school, I don't know, why? It's not just about money. Sometimes it's about your dreams.

ALFONSO:

That's right.

JOAQUÍN:

You don't want a mortgage, you want to have a house.

ALFONSO:

That's right.

JOAQUÍN:

You want to have a house because you want to have a family. That's your dream. Mortgage is just a means to an end, but it's not the end of the road. And this is something that we are just learning in the financial institution. Users doesn't want a mortgage. We need to provide them a product that is called a mortgage. And we need to make it very friendly, and very satisfying to use, and so on. But we need to understand that what you are dreaming of is to have a house.

ALFONSO:

Totally. Well, listen, Joaquin, I love every one of our UXpeditious podcasts so far, but this one has been special, man. One is because you and I go back such a long time, and two, and more importantly, is because you've given us so much interesting information about what you do as a leader, as a design, as a UX leader in a huge industry.

JOAQUÍN:

Thank you.

ALFONSO:

Thanks so much for joining us.

That was Joaquin Marquez Correa - Director of Global Design for Digital at Banco Santander.

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DANA:

Thanks for listening to UXpeditious. Make sure to continue listening to our new episodes each week for quality insights from UX industry leaders. If you like what you heard, help us out by rating and reviewing the show on your favorite podcast platform.

ALFONSO:

UXpeditious is produced by UserZoom in partnership with Pod People. Special thanks to our production team: Christopher Ratcliff from UserZoom; and the team at Pod People: Rachael King, Matt Sav, Aimee Machado, Hannah Pedersen, Colleen Pellissier, and Michael Aquino.