Northwest Bank

Strategically, Northwest bank is evolving from an average regional player to a nationally known brand. In real terms, this growth is measured in ‘dollars under management.’ With $10B already in-hand, the business is moving rapidly toward $25B, targeted for 2025. This growth would not be possible under the weight of technical debt, complex 3rd party integrations, and massive user constraints across the board.

We re-platformed and rebuilt Northwest Bank’s marketing site and online banking experiences. A migration from Drupal to Optimizely established a modern online marketing solution. In the process, customer impact, change communications, and design direction were carefully migrated from Q2 to Fiserv. The microservices architecture and universal design system necessary to establish a complete integration between marketing and online banking created a long-term, flexible, and structured path forward.

[$3.2M technology and design consulting fees over 2.5yrs.]

A Strategy Built on Real Data and Real People

We scrutinized market segments to establish patterns of common interest in order to create a data-driven foundation from which objective decisions could be made.

We rationalized 12 market segments down to 6 personas in the process, then prioritized those personas based on monetary value to the bank today and relative to its long-term strategy and market growth.

Accountable to True ROI

All personas tie back to market segments and product/service performance within those segments. As a result, performance is easily tracked and can be reported back to the CEO and board, justifying the multi-year, multi-million dollar investment.

 

A Complete Design System

All elements derive from known or well-planned content types, based on a holistic content strategy.
The system in place now is built from the start to accommodate desktop, tablet, and mobile formats.

 

Built on a Proven, Fully-Tested Microservices Architecture

A design is only worth the pixels it’s flashing if it can’t perform efficiently, predictably, and securely… especially in the financial industry. We designed a gateway with data handling standards that seamlessly connects the CMS with online banking. This architecture allowed us to develop a fully branded front end, integrate Fiserv with Optimizely, and put the bank on a long-term path for structured growth.

Now, future acquisitions, product and service expansions, and much more are easily achievable.

(This work also gave rise to a stand-alone product that is positioned to revolutionize financial institutions and turn fintech on its head.)

 

Results That Matter.

Northwest Bank now operates a cohesive digital platform that…

  • Operates 5x faster and requires 1/10th the maintenance

  • Receives 10x the return visits and 20x higher conversion rates

  • Operates just as securely (if not more so) than its Drupal predecessor

  • Anticipates accretive acquisitions on the bank’s path from $10B under management in 2020 to $25B by 2025