Reflections on a digital transformation journey

What a journey!

Looking back, mid-2023 was a turning point in transforming customer digital channels at Nationwide. Challenges loomed large—a legacy tech stack, monolithic backend, and a tangled middleware—but the mission was clear: focus on delivering high-impact customer features at pace, while modernising the technology and laying a strong foundation for the future.

Fast forward: we delivered over 100 sizable changes in the last 7 months, and launched 1 high-impact feature a month —from selfie-based authentication to modern payment journeys and robust card controls. Today, 80% of mobile traffic flows through our modernized pathways, and we've doubled our speed in launching customer features.

How the team made it happen:

This transformation wasn’t just about shiny new features. We counted more than a 100 initiatives big and small within a comprehensive overhaul of people, processes, tools, and technology, built around some key pillars:

1.????? Setting Up for Success

• Restructured digital teams around value streams for better alignment and ownership.
• Conducted an “MOT” of problems to prioritize what mattered most.
• Built foundational capabilities like a design system (Nationwide’s visual language), a 45-component library, and a robust test framework.

(Fun fact: When we rebranded, these tools allowed us to update channels quickly and seamlessly!)

2.????? Agile, but Smarter

• Standardized documenting of requirements and tech design.
• Improved visibility, versioning tracking of visual designs to enhance designer-developer collaboration.
• Used GenAI for legacy code analysis and automating user stories—gaining speed and accuracy in pre-sprint stages.

3.????? Developer Experience on Steroids

• Leveraged IDE customizations for code snippets, SonarQube for automated quality checks, and GitHub Copilot to supercharge efficiency.
• Embraced trunk-based development with feature toggles, ensuring a cleaner and quicker merge process.
• Automated regression testing to run seamlessly during merges.

4.????? Testing Early, Testing Often

• Shifted testing earlier in the development cycle with automated UI and unit tests.
• Achieved 70% automation in testing, but stayed pragmatic—manual tests where they made sense.
• Cut the number of required environments by 50% with environment virtualization stubs, making testing faster and less resource-heavy.

5.????? Rewiring the Digital Highway

• Designed the “single highway” to modernize and reroute high-volume digital transactions to a scalable middleware.
• Enabled cloud coexistence, so all new microservices are built cloud-first while integrating seamlessly with legacy systems.

6.????? Culture as the Catalyst

• Fostered a “badges at the door” mindset where Nationwiders and IBMers worked as one.
• Gamified sprints with rewards for clean code merges and embraced fun in teamwork.
• Enabled early collaboration with stakeholders (security, run, architecture) to make them enablers, not blockers.

The Road Ahead

This is no declaration of victory—there’s still work to do. But with early signs from ongoing initiatives, I’m confident we’ll double our efficiency again next year.

To the incredible team of Nationwiders and IBMers — thank you for making this transformation possible. You’ve set a new benchmark for what’s achievable with collaboration, innovation, and grit. ??

Bala Chandrasekaran Simon Rimmer Piyush Chechani Sara Bhangoe Samantha Hollingdale Ravi Shah Devishree Nair

#Transformation #DigitalInnovation #CustomerExperience #NationwideBuildingSociety

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