According to Kirsti Jansson, THNK Class 11 participant and Vice President of Transformation Integrity at ATB Financial in Canada, banks typically have legacy environments, so it takes longer to get things done. As banks have grown, their systems remain unchanged – and those legacy systems make it very expensive to do things quickly and with agility.
For Kirsti and her bank, shifting to agile has been crucial in working smarter and faster. “A lot of work is happening a lot faster because of Agile,” says Kirsti. “You have to be willing to fail. Right now, a big part of our culture is celebrating your failures. It’s a core tenet of agile, and that’s why we’re embracing it.”
Distinctively faster-moving, adaptable, collaborative, and user-centric, agile projects yield quicker results, successes, and failures. In short, agile development allows you to “fail fast” and innovate on proven user-centric concepts.
As well as shifting to agile, the emergence of innovation labs is also on the rise. DBS Asia X of DBS is a space to collaborate with startups and the broader fintech community to “reimagine, reinspire, and create the future of finance.” At Amsterdam-based KAS BANK, Managing Director of Corporate and THNK Class 14 participant Remko Dieker has also built an innovation lab, with the aim of testing client solutions in rapid sprints. Within the first year, the lab had four initiatives that were well-received by clients as well as the bank’s management team.