Service design & product design, Fjord · Financial services · 2017

Commercial bank CRM

Bank of America’s commercial banking organization (spanning middle-market and corporate) managed client relationships across more than 10 lines, each working through different systems with no shared view of the client.

At Fjord, I led the project as a coach-player. We brought leaders from across those business lines into one research and design process, turning their disconnected perspectives into four prioritized scenarios for a new version of their product, IRIS.

By Skipper Chong Warson · Published 2 Apr 2024 · Updated 7 Sep 2026

Unified banker and client relationship experience on Microsoft Surface Pro

One client, more than 10 versions of the relationship

Relationship managers and bankers used different methods and systems. A deal in one line of business could be invisible to another group serving the same client.

The brief was to develop high-level concepts for a client 360° experience. But that phrase was still an abstraction. Before anyone could design the platform, the bank needed a shared understanding of what bankers were actually trying to do across those organizational boundaries.

The organization was hiding a single client relationship

We conducted more than 20 interviews across users and stakeholders. For the first time, leaders from the different lines of business were brought into the same body of research.

The research generated four scenarios:

  • Review a client’s business and relationship with the bank
  • Capture and retrieve call notes
  • Identify and develop a new opportunity
  • Search across clients, accounts, and activity

By the end, “client 360°” finally meant something specific enough to design.

Build the product with bankers in the room

Across more than 12 validation sessions, we used whiteboards, digital mockups, and paper prototypes made from transparent overlays. We could assemble, move, and revise parts of the experience live as a banker explained the work.

That made the prototype a working model of the relationship, not a fixed interface shown after the important decisions had already been made. What survived those sessions moved directly into annotated wireframes, visual designs for Microsoft Surface Pro, and a starting design library.

What I led

I assumed design leadership mid-project, owned the engagement from that point forward, and remained hands-on across:

  • Research planning, interviews, and stakeholder sessions
  • Live paper prototyping and validation
  • Scenario definition and prioritization
  • Product design, team direction, and client presentations

The wider team included three Fjord designers, three client representatives, three Accenture Interactive business analysts, and 12 client stakeholders, including C-level leaders.

A shared model became a product

The scenarios gave leadership, relationship managers, and the product team one model for how a client relationship could work across business lines.

The work moved beyond concept. About six months after our engagement, a Fjord colleague interviewing at Bank of America saw the product we had designed in active development.

The interface was the result, not the starting point

The hard part wasn’t drawing the interface. It was getting people who owned different pieces of the relationship to see what they needed in the same client record. Like the blind men and the elephant. Once that happened, there was finally something coherent for the product to represent.

Other select projects