FINOVA / SERVICING
Transforming Customer Servicing
Designing a next-generation servicing platform for banks and building societies
As Product Design Director at Finova, I led the experience vision for a new servicing platform - bringing customer information, operational workflows and contextual actions into one coherent experience.
Please Note: This is an ongoing programme, and some details remain confidential. The screens and examples shared here offer a limited view of the work. I’d be happy to discuss my approach and present further examples in person, where confidentiality allows.
AI generated image illustrating an early prototype screen of the customer profile section. This is not a final design.
01 - THE CHALLENGE
A fragmented view of the customer
Customer servicing colleagues need to understand a person’s circumstances, answer questions and take action with confidence. Yet the systems supporting them often organise information around individual accounts, leaving colleagues to piece together the wider story.
Working with banks and building societies, including Cambridge Building Society and Hampshire Trust Bank, we explored operational workflows through observation, workshops and feedback. Three recurring challenges shaped our approach.
Scattered information
Customer details, accounts and interactions were spread across screens and systems, making it difficult to build a complete picture.
Unclear next actions
Important information competed for attention. Colleagues needed clearer guidance on what required action, what could wait and what needed further investigation.
We reframed the challenge around a simple question:
What would customer servicing look like if we designed it around customers instead of accounts?
That shift shaped the experience vision. Accounts, interactions, cases and alerts would come together around the individual, giving colleagues the context they needed before taking action.
02 - DESIGN IN PRACTICE
Early prototype screen: AI-assisted workflows, helping ops users work more efficiently and only reviewing case when needed.
Defining a shared vision
I ran collaborative workshops with stakeholders to define the vision for the new platform, bringing customer needs, operational challenges and business priorities into focus. These sessions helped establish a shared direction across Product, Design and Engineering.
Repetitive tasks
Manual activity and movement between systems added effort to everyday servicing and interrupted the flow of customer conversations.
See the whole customer
The proposed experience brings customer details, accounts and related information into a single intelligent workspace. Colleagues can understand the customer’s circumstances while keeping account information close at hand.
Relevant warnings and support needs sit alongside the profile, helping colleagues recognise factors that may affect how they handle an interaction.
Early prototype screen: Customer information, accounts and alerts brought together in one servicing workspace
AI-Assisted Case Management - Focusing human attention where it matters
Every case was checked through AI tooling, with only those requiring human verification surfaced to the operations colleague. This supported a management-by-exception approach, allowing colleagues to focus on cases that needed their attention rather than manually reviewing the entire queue.
The design challenge was to make that handover clear: helping colleagues understand why a case needed review, see the relevant context and identify the next action. AI supported the review process, while people provided verification where it was required.
03 - LEADERSHIP & ALIGNMENT
Shaping the vision, evolving how we design
As Product Design Director, I helped shape both the platform’s direction and the way the design team brought it to life.
Embracing AI in the design process
I supported the design team in adapting its approach and embracing AI, using Claude for rapid prototyping. This enabled us to make ideas tangible earlier, explore alternative approaches and give stakeholders interactive experiences to discuss and refine.
Product
Defined a customer-centred servicing vision, informed by research and testing with customers. AI-assisted case review supported management by exception, surfacing cases requiring human verification.
Communicating the platform’s value
I created a value proposition deck for Sales and executive stakeholders, translating the experience vision into a clear story about the platform’s purpose, the problems it addressed and its intended benefits. This gave teams a common foundation for customer conversations and strategic discussions.
Grounding decisions in customer insight
I led user research and testing sessions with customers to understand servicing workflows and evaluate proposed designs. These sessions helped us challenge assumptions, identify friction and refine the experience around the needs of the people using it.
People and practice
Aligned stakeholders through vision workshops and helped the design team embrace AI, using Claude to prototype ideas rapidly and make them tangible for discussion and testing.
04 - OUTCOMES
A shared vision and a new way of working
As the programme continues, it has established a foundation for the platform’s development and evolved how the design team works.
05 - REFLECTION
Business
Created a value proposition deck for Sales and executive stakeholders, connecting customer needs, the platform vision and its intended benefits.
Supporting people through better design
This programme reinforced that designing a platform also means helping teams adopt new ways of working. Customer research kept us grounded, workshops built shared direction, and AI-assisted prototyping helped us explore ideas more quickly.