How a FinTech and Commercial Bank Make On-The-Fly Product Enhancements

These two examples illustrate the difference in speed-to-market with a simple product enhancement at a FinTech vs. a Bank.

FinTech

A product manager wants to make a small product enhancement on-the-fly. This isn't a must-fix bug, it's a small but NEW feature that's added to the the existing product. Let's say it's feature X that has four requirements - we'll call them requirements A,B, C, and D.

The product manager writes a Use Case describing feature X and requirements A, B, C, and D. She gives it to her developers. They code it, QA test it, and then have the product manager do some UAT on the new code. If it looks good feature X can then be released into production. How longs does this take? When the FinTech has its own proprietary software this entire process can take as little as ONE DAY. I know, I've done it. If the FinTech outsources technology it will take longer, maybe a week or two.

Commercial Bank

At the bank the idea of making product changes on-the-fly is typically not even considered. Developers would think the Product Manager is unorganized rather than opportunistic. The entire upcoming year of discretionary development at banks is planned out. If your enhancement isn't on the project list you are out of luck. Again, we are talking a simple change that might take less than 8 hours of coding and testing (not involve compliance or credit input). Feature X will compete with other features. Bank processes and culture don't support new things just popping up on-the-fly. Feature X has to get in line with everything else and wait. And wait. It could be months and months or extend beyond a year.

Given the difference in speed between a FinTech and a Commercial Bank is it any wonder that bank products are often one to two generations BEHIND competitor FinTechs?