Fintech projects are transforming the banking industry, but they also pose significant challenges for project managers who need to align them with the strategic objectives of their organizations. How can you ensure that your fintech project goals are aligned with the banking vision, mission, and values? Here are some tips to help you.
Before you start planning your fintech project, you need to understand the banking strategy and how it relates to your project. What are the key objectives, priorities, and drivers of the banking organization? How does your project support them? How does your project fit into the overall portfolio of initiatives and programs? You need to have a clear picture of the alignment between your project and the banking strategy, and communicate it to your stakeholders, sponsors, and team members.
One thing I find fundamental is not to talk about fintech as a end in itself, but the means to solve a customer need first, and a competitive issue second. The introduction of this article propose a question that being accurate, is also as broader as it gets, so in my view, I agree that every fintech application launched by a bank must be aligned with the bank's strategy, of course, but also play a role complementing operations goals at all levels. Each application, from the start, should have its own metrics (how success looks like), since in my experience, there will be conflicts emerging from sudden successes.
Once you have a clear understanding of the banking strategy, you need to define SMART goals for your fintech project. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Your project goals should be specific enough to provide direction and clarity, measurable enough to track progress and performance, achievable enough to be realistic and feasible, relevant enough to align with the banking strategy and value proposition, and time-bound enough to have a clear deadline and milestones. SMART goals will help you focus your project scope, plan, and execution.
Fintech projects are often complex, uncertain, and dynamic, requiring frequent changes and adaptations to meet customer needs and market conditions. To cope with this volatility, you need to use agile methods that allow you to deliver value incrementally and iteratively, and respond to feedback and changes quickly and effectively. Agile methods, such as Scrum, Kanban, or Lean, can help you align your fintech project goals with the banking strategy by enabling you to prioritize the most valuable features, deliver working software frequently, collaborate with stakeholders and customers, and inspect and adapt your project based on empirical evidence.
Digital Platform Business Development & Ecosystem Strategy Senior Director at CRIF
Agile approach is fundamental to develop MVP or better MLP for different reason: reduce the overall costs, receive customer feedbacks early, learn for mistakes, satisfy early di investor. It needs a strong management focused on right agile tecniques to guarantee the success that needs to be delivered by agile experts
Another key aspect of aligning your fintech project goals with the banking strategy is to align the team culture. Fintech projects require a high level of collaboration, innovation, and experimentation, which may differ from the traditional banking culture. You need to foster a team culture that supports the fintech project vision and values, and that is compatible with the banking culture. You can do this by establishing a shared purpose, setting clear expectations and norms, building trust and transparency, encouraging feedback and learning, and celebrating successes and failures.
Finally, you need to monitor and measure the outcomes of your fintech project and how they contribute to the banking strategy. You need to define key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the project goals and the banking objectives, and collect data and evidence to track them. You also need to report and communicate the results to your stakeholders, sponsors, and customers, and show how your project delivers value and benefits to the banking organization. You also need to review and evaluate the outcomes and lessons learned, and identify opportunities for improvement and optimization.
I'm not sure if the question makes sense. All projects should originate from the bank's strategic objectives; you shouldn't start a fintech project and then align its goals later.