Go-to-market product consulting for professional services

The challenge

Business Need

Financial services organisations have to adjust to changing global financial regulations quite often — and even more frequently in recent times as a result of Brexit-related policy changes.

Our Client, one of the Big Four professional services firms, offers consulting and business enablement services to a wide range of customers, including financial services organisations. Being aware of the vast scope of industry changes taking place globally, the Client saw an opportunity to proactively address their customers’ challenges around ensuring accurate and up-to-date prudential reporting in times of changing policies.

Considering the market tendency for frequent regulation amendments, the company was looking to go above and beyond for their customers by providing them with a tangible solution to their problems. As such, they decided to build a business case for a dedicated capital adequacy and liquidity management application for prudential reporting,

The solution they had in mind would need to provide accurate real-time reporting capabilities and user-friendly dashboards, which would enable stakeholders to easily analyse key capital adequacy and liquidity indicators.

When the Client engaged Objectivity, they had a roughly etched vision in mind that needed to be assessed against market, persona, and user needs. As such, it would be up to the Objectivity team to ensure that the Client starts right and that their product tackles users’ most relevant problems as well as ensures stakeholder buy-in.

To meet these needs, Objectivity decided that the best way forward would be to organise a series of product development consulting workshops, during which their team of experts would:

• Validate the initial concept
• Align the stakeholders’ product vision
• Support the Client in outlining the product’s pitching strategy
• Create a high-fidelity prototype of the solution
• Prepare the cost estimation
• Design the architecture of the application
• Draft a preliminary development plan

The solution

Project Details

The Client approached Objectivity with this initiative as they had already worked with them on over 40 projects. The company was impressed with Objectivity’s end-to-end approach to delivering software products, which encompasses the entire product lifecycle from the initial consultancy stage through to design and development.

During the product consulting workshops, Objectivity analysed the problem and identified the missing pieces without which the solution would not adequately address future users’ needs. Once the key product requirements were defined, the team organised a design sprint during which they created a high-fidelity interactive prototype.

The prototype had a variety of example user interfaces and was designed to accurately reflect the needs of the defined personas as well as their typical user journeys. It was able to present exactly what a typical user session of the application would look and feel like. Moreover, it was created in a way that ensures seamless alignment with the go-to-market pitching strategy prepared during the consulting workshops.

At this stage, the Objectivity team also made sure to present the complex prudential reporting data in a detailed and comprehensive manner, but one which would be user-friendly and easy to decipher and manage. They came up with a unique way of presenting capital adequacy and liquidity indicators and underlying data, which would ensure that the user is able to analyse a range of indicators at a progressively more granular level, as needed.

In addition to conducting a series of product consulting workshops and creating the prototype, the Objectivity team designed the solution’s architecture and prepared a detailed delivery action plan. They also estimated the effort and costs, informing the Client of the budget they could expect to spend given the decision to proceed with the project. The detailed cost assessment served as a part of the Client’s business case, helping to ensure that potential future customers are made aware of the type of investment the solution would entail.

The results

Business Benefits

When the Client approached Objectivity, they had a vision of the product they were looking to create, however their concept wasn’t yet fully formed. Initial project plans were discussed by multiple stakeholders who had varying and, at times, uncoordinated ideas. Objectivity enabled the stakeholders to align their goals and vision through a series of product consulting workshops.

Objectivity’s team of experts defined what type of solution would most effectively meet the needs of the Client’s financial services customers and created a prototype to exemplify the most relevant user journeys.

Having access to a prototype equipped with high-fidelity mock-ups enabled the stakeholders to see their initial vision come to fruition. This type of tangible solution, in turn, allowed them to reflect on their original aims and understand how their various ideas can be realised into a consistent product.

The collaborative workshops ensured that the solution would address future customers’ most pressing needs, proving a valuable addition to their product portfolios. Moreover, having Objectivity’s technical experts take part in the product consulting workshops would contribute to faster development during the later stages of the product’s rollout.

The Objectivity team, having the necessary business knowledge, would be aware of all the key intricacies and user expectations while developing the solution, allowing them to make tactical decisions independently and to remain agile. As such, the Client would be able to eliminate bottlenecks, thereby accelerating time-to-market.

Additionally, the Objectivity team also briefed the Client as to how best to sell the product’s unique features when presenting the solution’s business case to potential investors. The team conducted the workshops with the stakeholder buy-in meeting and pitching strategy at the front of mind, knowing how crucial it is to present the application’s functionalities in a manner that will speak directly to future investors’ expectations.

The Client’s various project stakeholders were able to align their ideas through jointly working on the product requirements during the consulting workshops. Whereas, having an interactive prototype and a pitching strategy helps increase the chances of future investor and customer buy-in. The company was able to start right and make sure that the right problem is being tackled.