Building a high-performing technical team, while adapting to constant internal and external changes, can be a real challenge for leaders across Financial Services. Therefore, it is the insights and learnings shared amongst fellow tech leaders that can help transform the industry.
On the 22nd February 2024, at the prestigious Cheval The Edinburgh Grand, Openbox brought a group of Technology Leaders together to share stories and discuss ways on how to manage the ever-changing technology playing field, while setting your teams up for success.
Our speakers included:
- Ian Skelly, Head of Engineering at Tesco Bank
- Stephen Doherty, Technical Co-Founder at Nude Finance
- Kevin Ryan, Co-Founder at Openbox
The group shared perceptions, feelings and experiences on what they’ve faced throughout their career and progression into a leadership role and key insights on what they feel is important when running technology teams in order to get the best outcome for the business and for the customer.
We’ve recaped the key insights from the event below.
The Sweet Spot Of Structured Collaboration
Kevin Ryan, Co-Founder of Openbox, opened the event with a clear message: a good process cannot defeat a poor structure. The unity and collaboration between product and engineering is vital in ensuring the customer value is never compromised and deadlines are still met.
It’s important for leadership across these organisations to bridge these teams to come together on a shared vision, but it’s easier said than done.
Cross-functional working has become more accepted in recent years, but difficulties still arise when aligning core teams. So what can leaders do to align these teams and ensure collaboration is happening?
A shared product roadmap and creating a collective goal is a good start. Challenges will undoubtedly arise due to technical capabilities and desirable products, so it’s important for leaders to set the standards on what’s desirable and what’s viable for the overall success of the team.
In financial services, it’s important that technical leaders understand how to adapt and thrive in the face of these challenges. The commonly used Agile framework can of course help connect teams and systems, but it doesn’t always work as the silver bullet they might hope for. Architecture, legacy systems, testing and measurement are critical components in building the entire picture and understanding that large complex systems don’t naturally lend themselves to quick easy fixes.
Leaders that drive a one-team approach can infuse a culture of collaboration, understanding and agility, therefore ensuring a shared vision that can empower teams to come together in delivering great products for their customers.
Building A Minimum Lovable Product Through Test and Action
Stephen Doherty, Technical Co-Founder at Nude Finance, was next up to speak where he shared the founding story of Nude. He talked about a phased approach that helped them build a successful technical team from the ground up and go all the way from big idea to successful exit.
The first steps for Stephen and the team was to verify there was a problem to be solved, test the idea with customers, build a solid plan and then start to build the product - all with just one developer and one designer. The ethos at the time was ‘just get it done’.
Stephen shared his experience as a technical founder and how important it was for him to listen to the team, step back, and allow the people he hired to execute on his vision. Empowering the team and showing real trust was critical to the speed and quality of delivery.
Adapting to FCA challenges and the discovery of new problems on a regular basis pushed the team to move fast and focus on testing and delivery. They rallied around action and experimentation in order to deliver the best product to customers and inspire advocacy and sharing amongst peers - this helped reduce the customer acquisition cost from £140 to £20.
Stephen highlighted the importance of having the common goal and being conscious of how every team member plays a critical part in the big objective.
Transforming To The Digital Revolution Through Becoming Agents Of Change
Moving from legacy products in financial services to digital innovation is no easy task. Ian Skelly, Head of Engineering at Tesco Bank, shared the inspiring change story on building ‘an API ring of steel’ at Tesco Bank and how it took a team of people eager to make change and stay consistent around their shared vision for the business.
Apprehension, curiosity and resistance to change are all expected, particularly in the Financial Services industry, and so drivers of any transformation will face the constant questions and frictions on why such changes to ways of working are needed. The technology team had to stay focused on their role of being the ‘architects of tomorrow’ to make sure the company stayed on the path, all the while, redefining the purpose and vision of the engineering team.
Ian shared the journey of bringing Tesco Bank into the digital age and how people were key. Those who didn’t want to change left and others rallied around the future vision.
Ian stated the importance of having the right people and empowering them, having high expectations of them and inspiring them to take pride in their work.
Managing change internally, hiring the right people and staying focused on the end vision can drive successful transformation in Financial Services. It is the leadership that plays the critical role in seeing where the gaps are and bringing the right people along on the journey.
Conclusion
In the panel section of our event, our speakers were asked what advice they would give themselves five years ago and one of the shared responses was around confidence. Having the confidence and certainty to make big changes is difficult, but having faith in the roadmap and the future vision of what’s to come can empower leaders to innovate, inspire and connect teams effectively.
Our speakers also aligned on the importance of communication and addressing everyone across those teams to be able to make real change.
To reference Ian: “people who change products, platforms and services, also run them..this is DevOps in its most basic form”.
Openbox regularly bring together Technical and Customer leaders in private events. If you would like to attend or speak at a future event, please email
About Kevin Ryan and Openbox
Kevin Ryan is Co-Founder of Openbox, the premium digital experience partner to the financial services industry that seamlessly connects technology and customer. He has been leading and delivering technical projects for the likes of JP Morgan, Clydesdale Bank and RBS for more than 20 years and is invaluable for his ability to simplify and explain complex concepts to stakeholders at all levels.
Openbox is armed with decades of experience and our consultants work with you to deliver high quality digital experiences that meet industry regulations and customer expectations, every time. Our dedication to exceptional collaboration and communication, paired with our deep industry knowledge, sets us apart from other digital experience partners. We work with you to drive successful digital adoption, strengthening your customer acquisition and retention. Be the only choice for your customer with Openbox by your side and be the digital experience leader in financial services.