IBM to HDFC Bank as a UX designer
Seven months ago, I switched from IBM ix to HDFC bank. Surprising isn’t it?
Not really. We have a misconception as a designer (or any one from the industry to that matter) that banking and UX would be like mixing water and oil. In fact, UX adds essence to everything it is part of, even financial institutions.
How about this…what if I tell you HDFC bank is the first bank in India to have an in house UX team that is at par with any tech giant in the industry in terms of processes. OOPS! Did I break your bubble?
Remember when I said UX is like adding flavour to the water? Now, be this water from any part of the world or from how much ever bigger pond, flavour or essence gives us enhanced water. Let me explain(because that was too much metaphor). The beauty of UX design is, it can be applied anywhere and in any industry. The principles or UX stays unchanged irrespective of where it is used.
HDFC bank has been in the market for about 25 years now and we all know how well it has been doing. It is considered one of the respected banks in the industry run by even more highly respected MD Mr. Aditya Puri since the beginning.
India is going digital at a scale that is unheard of and unmatched thanks to new collaborations between the public and private sectors. The mobile penetration in India is now estimated to have reached 1.27 billion and around a third of the them are active internet users. The appetite of the Indian market for digital content is ever increasing.
2020 is shaping up to be an interesting year for Indian User Experience Design . It could well be the year where Indian UX design proves to the world it has arrived and forces the world to take notice.
Now you may ask…Cut the chase and remove the blah blah’s and give me why a banking and financial company?
IBM’s UX maturity is very high, meaning people in the company ‘acknowledge the existence of UX team’ and also they value the UX processes. Whereas people in banking sector are still getting accustomed to this new emerging department. HDFC bank to that matter always had an innovation team who came up with stuff like API banking and WhatsApp banking. So adoption of having an in house UX team was easier.
And personally, it was time for taking up a challenge. It was time to step out of the comfort zone because that is where the learning happens. And I was right. Moving from IBM’s defined procedures that have been worked on for years, to HDFC bank’s fairly new department was the best decision I could make for my career.
We at HDFC bank follow UX processes like any other tech giant does- I am sure you must be aware of those… The biggest advantage that we get over the other giants is that we OWN the product. When we research or design, we get to actually step in our customers shoes. We get the real data, real people and real problems.
“Without data you are just another person with an opinion.”
- W. Edward Deming
And man! You can only imagine what it feels like for a UX designer to have such real tools to work with. Real data is spellbinding!
My feeling when I started working with HDFC bank was nothing different from Spiderman when he first discovered his unique abilities.
Banking industry does look like its boring and desk job and what not. But in HDFC bank we UX Practitioners are of different league. A league that came from merger of banking and user experience backed by research and UX processes at its core. The job here is way too much exciting and challenging.
In nut and shell, its like working with a start-up but backed by such huge institute. Its is working with the hand picked people from the industry under one roof called HDFC bank’s UXP.
This has been a very short excerpt of what it actually is. The idea here was that you shouldn’t stop yourself from taking risks as a UX designer. You are the most versatile of all in the industry. So go get that next opportunity! Who knows YOU could be the one helping build the next Google of Fintech.. ;)
