Mine for the Value - Introduction to Product Management for Retail/Consumer Banking

By Daniel Oduro

The ultimate aim of the book is to reinforce the business management orientation required in product management and also strongly underscore the fact that business is won at the frontlines.

 

The win is convincing when every player in the front-line team has a deepened understanding of the products and services that represent the main arsenal of the business.

 

As demonstrated in the book, it is only when team approach is adopted for most key product and service initiatives that impactful results get achieved.

This book is highly recommended for customer service officers, branch managers, product managers, branch operation managers, call center staff, the analytics team, operational risk team members and IT support crew.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Oduro
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9789988313555

Daniel Oduro

Daniel brings a wealth of demon- strable hands-on knowledge gar- nered from over 15 years of product management experience from Uni- versal Merchant and Standard Char- tered Banks. He spent several years working with Nestle Ghana, an FMCG com- pany, where he worked on various distribution, marketing and sales pro- jects. In his role as the National Sales Training Manager, he was responsible for developing a dynamic, skilled and proactive salesforce who were key to the company’s distribution strategy. As Head of Deposits and Cards at Standard Chartered Bank, Daniel grew a $250million deposit book to $320 million within two years, ramped up the online/POS card usage by 200% and achieved a Visa case study status for a card campaign. He consistently grew fee income on products throughout his tenure. He initiated, structured and launched two industry-first innovative term deposit products which continue to be flag- ships in the deposit portfolio. As Head of Liabilities and Trans- actions at Universal Merchant Bank, his accountability involved owning the product lifecycles of both deposits and e-channels from concept through launch and defining success measure- ments, tracking and communicating KPIs on same. The role involved monthly forecasting of each line item within the deposit and fees P&L, risk identification and teaming up with compliance/legal to steer product governance. A panellist at Harvard’s African Business Conference on ‹Building Quality Companies That Cross Afri- can Borders’, Daniel brings a practical entrepreneurship approach to this book and reinforces business orien- tation required in the contemporary treatment of product management. He is also a keen enthusiast of application of technology in all spheres of life. In his free moments, you’ll most likely find him playing his favourite sport; tennis. ‘A social tennis match does not hold value financially, but it’s priceless in the social connections it brings along’, quips Daniel.

Book preview

Chapter

1

INTRODUCTION

Business managers of retail/consumer banks continuously look for options to elevate the key metrics that define their businesses’ growth. Data such as the number of clients, size of deposits, credit products’ performance and the like, help indicate the business’s trajectory and the effectiveness of both sales and marketing efforts.

The fact of the matter is that there are myriad sales and marketing activities available to push the growth, development, and competitive agenda of a bank. Zeroing down to which of these multitudes of activities is the focus of this book. The author has lived the experience of creating, launching, managing and growing products, and he is thrilled to lay it all down.

One of the immediate problems a straight-out-of-school grad employed to manage any retail bank product is how inadequate the induction training is. One finds that the content of these HR-led programmes is corporate value-focused for the most part. The programme is also used to introduce new hires to the business structure, organisational chart, list of products and services, key management personnel and the bank’s strategic thrusts (vision and mission). Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, the mentioned items largely represent the items in the content consideration of induction and orientation program. Many organisations are replete with similar content and structure for their induction program.

What is apparent is that the fuller details of products and services are left for other senior colleagues to cover. Often, their core function and different schedules that spring up on them do not allow them time to sufficiently chaperon their new product managers.

Unfortunately, induction and initial training programmes for staff across various departments and units are approached as if they simply exist to checkboxes. But, the critical question is, what is the end goal? Is it just to welcome new hires and introduce the key elements of the company to such individuals? Typically, such new hires are immediately shown their desk and then begins the next phase of their time with some of these banks.

I have been there on two occasions with two different banks: one was a local bank of medium size and the other, an international giant. The steeper the learning curve, the bigger the frustration that the new hire is confronted with. What may lessen the burden of frustration is a more experienced colleague who can support the role’s primary function.

Key Questions Every New Product Manager (PM) Should Consider

· What is the key pitch regarding bringing change to the new business entrusted to me?

· What key or unique experience do I intend to bring on board in this new space?

· What is my understanding of the shape of the competitive space?

· What is my understanding of the relevant MIS, and how can I leverage it for business decisions?

Laying out a strategy and executing key plans help this endeavour if past retail banking strategy plans are referenced. The following considerations should occupy a space in any new product manager’s roadmap.

Listing out the key stakeholder ring:

Individuals in the bank who by their role, daily activity and the data they generate are extremely important to the success of launched products and services or understanding or acquiring useful customer insights.

Evaluating the available distribution channels:

The book’s ultimate aim is to reinforce the business management orientation required in product management and strongly underscore that business is won at the frontlines. The win is convincing when every player in the frontline team has a deepened understanding of the products and services that represent the main arsenal of the business.

As will be demonstrated later in the book, it is only when a team approach is adopted for most key product and service initiatives that impactful results get achieved.

This book is highly recommended for customer service officers, branch managers, product managers, branch operation managers, call centre staff, the analytics team, operational risk team members and IT support crew.

Customer need

How do we establish the need of the customer? This has always been a burning question. The strategic meetings and board room discussions are laced with it, but it sounds quite inconsequential. Truly not high sounding but it represents the puzzle which if unravelled, perfectly makes all things look simple.

How do you spot the need of the customer, so you diligently find ways to satisfy it? Do you need to organise focus meetings, conduct all manner of surveys, administer cleverly crafted questionnaires, synthesise frontline reports, mine from various client interaction feedback data or just send a direct question to potential clients? Any of the tactics mentioned above to establish client need is useful, and frankly, depending on how effective and efficient our expectation of a strategy is, one of them or a combination of all the mentioned items might be helpful. I would have achieved one of the most important objectives of working on this book if every product manager clarifies their work from reading the knowledge contained herein.

Product management’s role can be placed on various levels at the organisation’s structure, depending on how it helps with the strategic agenda. For some companies, it is placed at the tactical level whilst for others, it may be the middle level. For a few others, it is at the management level. The placement, no doubt, can have a telling and impactful effect on the value that is eventually created by the product manager.

Notwithstanding the different levels of importance assigned a role, the key is to have the job holder understand the raison d’être of their job. If the PM fully grasps the knowledge around all the activities they engage in and the why of each one, they own their space. Knowing what to do is not enough in this game, but understanding the why puts one in charge of each product’s destiny.

‘The Financial Trail’

In the early days of my career with Nestle, I got introduced to one of the most brilliant concepts to designing marketing communication plans, referred to as the ‘path to purchase’. The concept in the initial stages assumed a linear path for all consumers — awareness, consideration, conversion and evaluation. On this path, there are online and offline elements which customers apply before reaching the desired spot of purchase. The fact that this concept audits the minutest of all media touchpoints gets us not to underrate the influence of any one of them. An important takeaway is that you the reader, myself as an author and indeed any person you know potentially goes through the same path, wading through either complex or simple paths and being hit by different motivators to influence each of their buying or purchasing decisions. So, if I wanted to research this concept, I could use my household to reach meaningful conclusions because that household is a microcosm of the entire market.

It is incredible how simple solutions are within our reach. We, however, often overlook such easy kill options and pursue the elegant ones. The result is hard work that doesn’t bring smart results. What is lost on us in almost all cases is that as staff of banks, we are ‘clients’ to a very large extent. Our financial aspirations mirror that of the collective individuals out there who we define as our target.

Let’s pick Kofi Smart as a young man in your neighbourhood. He is in his final year at the university, and typical of most young people, he is active on social media.

This young man’s banking consideration could certainly be inclusive of ease of access, price sensitivity, digitally-driven solutions, a brand that stays fresh and modern, etc. How many of such are out there? Which of the considered factors are important such that their absence in any solution package leaves such a client eternally dissatisfied?

The above looks very much like an ordinary description of a student whose banking needs is not very remotely placed. He is the student you once lived. Decisions he makes exemplify those of most young people his level and age. There will be outliers no doubt, but that is where one of a PM’s functions comes to play.

Anytime a decision is being made to craft a solution to attract a certain segment of the market, there is the ease of reach, the potential size that makes business sense and the cost of serve, making up the considerations and the bank’s current systems and distribution infrastructure.

While my point above seems to advocate a certain commonsensical approach to validating a business case’s key underpinnings to justify committing business resources to serve a segment, I would also be quick to encourage a solid understanding of academic treatise as important.

Customer Needs

What are the banking needs of a person? It must be pointed out that the question is being looked at from a banking perspective and that not every need of a customer should be or ought to be serviced now. It is assumed for the purposes of this book that the evaluation of customers’ needs is being made within the context of the bank’s current resources. I must qualify the question in that way so that what we are looking at becomes very relevant to the PM. Typical banking needs is inclusive of the following:

· A safe place to save money (proactive branding and compliance efforts make this happen);

· Transparent pricing (any business with an over-tactical view of pricing does not have confidence that it has a good product to sell);

· Convenience (built into this, is the ease or little difficulty in getting something done, how the client wants something or how close it is to how they need it, proximity to expectation, a useful way);

· Simplicity of process (not difficult to do or understand, having few unusual parts).

One of the useful knowledge to grasp in being customer-centric is an understanding that