Transcription:
Sonali Chatterji: (
Yes, that's my cue. Um, hello, everybody. Very warm welcome to all our colleagues that are joining us today. I am Sonali Chatterji. Um, I lead up the financial services business here at ThoughtWorks, north America. And I'm so dellighted that I have an opportunity to welcome you all today. I will be a moderator for this session. And let me tell you, I'm coming from a very gray day here in New Jersey, but worry not because we have an extremely eclectic panel joining me today and we are gonna have an action packed 40 minutes. I promise you that. And when you go back to your desks, you will go back with a couple of bright ideas, just negating the green assets around me here today. Uh, friends, the last 18 to 24 months have seen so much of action in the space of digital investing. You know, we have seen the older demographics get onto the bandwagon.
Sonali Chatterji: (
We have seen the millennials just grow from strength to strength, right? We know that there is going to be a multi-trillion dollar passage of investments that is going to happen from the older generation to the new. And so what an attractive segment, right? And these guys are the digital natives. They are what is paving the way today and is going to pave the way for the future. So what I'm trying to get to in a nutshell is that there are multitudes of consumers out here. Each one of them needs to be met meaningfully. And in context. This cannot happen without a robust digital platform strategy that will cater to each one of them, not just now, but for the future for the next generation. So please help me welcome my panel today because these are the leaders that are leading this charge from the front end center. So let's hear from them, we will do this in alphabet order. So let me invite Ed to do his introduction and then we'll move on to the ladies in the room, Ed, all yours.
Ed Robinson: (
Oh, thank you, Sonali. That was a lovely introduction. And I'm, I feel so very honored, uh, to be, uh, on this panel, uh, and with these great leaders with me and I'm really excited, today's, uh, discussion. So just quickly bit, uh, about myself. Uh, my name's Ed Robinson, uh, one of the co-founders of Stash, uh, Stash is a digital financial services platform, uh, subscription based, what we care about and what we focus around is how do we help empower everyday Americans to build long term wealth, uh, by nature, that's done through design, that's done through an app. Um, the thing that drives us every day is that 80% of America lives paycheck to paycheck. And for us we wanted to build a solution that helps everyday Americans get started because they feel like they can't get access. They feel like they don't have enough money and they feel like they don't have the education or the guidance or advice to actually make those right informed decisions.
Ed Robinson: (
Uh, just quickly about Stash. We started in October, 2015. Uh, we're a team of around about, uh, just over 400 incredible, incredible mission driven, um, employees. Uh, we have got, we're helping around 6 million, um, uh, everyday Americans, uh, and we are just growing quicker and quicker day after day as people really understand that if you wanna set yourself up and your family and your future, um, it's about putting little bits of money away today. It's about getting that advice, getting that education, um, and really investing in yourself. And that's what we believe in at Stash and I'm really excited to, uh, in today's panel. So thank you.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Thank you, Ed. Jessica.
Jessica Schnepf: (
All right. Well, good morning and probably good afternoon, everyone. Uh, I'm Jessica Schnepf. Um, I joined M1 Finance in February of this year as their director of product design. Um, I'm pretty brand new to FinTech. I will, but definitely not brand new to building consumer product experiences that customers just absolutely love and that drive real business value. So I spent a several years at, uh, one of Expedia's brands, Hotwire leading their user experience for all travel products. I joined Instacart as their first head of design and, and really position design to be a strong lever for Instacart's massive growth. And since then, um, I've really just been developing a passion for joining earlier stage companies to, you know, drive change in, in how the world operates. I strongly believe that technology, um, especially consumer product, is the most stimulating and rewarding space to, to work in.
Jessica Schnepf: (
Um, it can have a profound impact on how people live their everyday life. I've seen it throughout my entire career, and I think today's topic of designing the next generation platform is very near and dear to my heart because that's what I, I completely obsess about every single day, you know, here at M1. Um, our mission is really to empower personal financial wellbeing and we are envisioning a new future that considers a person's full financial life. So day in and day out, I'm leading a team of product designers and user researchers to deeply understand our customers and what their needs are. So we can design M1's super finance app. You know, we think about that super finance app as a personalized and really holistic product experience that makes investing and spending and borrowing easy and accessible and really gets our clients to their financial goals faster. So I'm gonna be sharing more about, uh, details, you know, later in the discussion about how we're building that finance app. So, so definitely more to come, super excited to be on the panel. Thank you.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Thank you, Jessica. Kelly.
Kelli Keough: (
Good morning to everybody. And thank you for having me and thank you to the panelists. I always look forward to these, not just to be able to share, but also to learn from each other. So thank you. I'm Kelli Keough. I'm the chief product officer for our JP Morgan wealth management offerings. And I say offerings because our goal at JP Morgan is to be able to meet people where they are and to provide the way that they wanna work. They wanna invest, they wanna bank with us in the way that they want. So whether that's digital in person, rarely is it ever an or it's really an and, and that's the way that we've been designing all of our offerings, whether that's for somebody who's new to investing or somebody who's a sophisticated investor, whether that's somebody who wants to do things a little more on their own digitally, or to work with an advisor, we wanna be there to help them and really bring the power of investing to more people. We know we have an opportunity to bank, so many of Americans, but not everyone's taking advantage of the power that investing can bring to them. So how do we bring that as we look forward?
Sonali Chatterji: (
Perfect. Thank you, Kelli. Um, so now time to deep dive a little bit, right? So let's get cracking into the real meat of things. Uh, friends, we discussed a while back that the consumer has changed. Consumer has evolved over the last 18 to 24 months. We have just seen so much happening. So I would love for each one of you to take a couple of minutes and really talk to us about your consumer, you, your market. How has that evolved? How has that changed, Jessica? Do you wanna go first on this one?
Jessica Schnepf: (
Absolutely. Um, so I mean, in the last 18 to 24 months, I mean, M1 has seen just massive, massive growth in both new clients. And of course, you know, a AUM on the platform, uh, the pandemic has definitely been a big driver for that. You know, folks are at home, they have more time on their hands, you know, maybe they have questions about, uh, the financial future. Um, but they also have easy access to tons of fintechs out there. And so they're exploring 'em, you know, it's not just our platform, it's, it's Stash, it's Ed's platform. It's, you know, you kind of name it. Um, I think for M1, you know, we also saw a huge uptick in growth really due to the whole, uh, Gamestock, uh, situation or fiasco however you wanna frame that. Um, and I think what we're mainly hearing is, you know, from our customers from the consumer market is, you know, fintech and investing is becoming more easily accessible.
Jessica Schnepf: (
Uh, these products are fun, you know, um, our customers are seeing, you know, uh, using our platform and others as a bit of a hobby, you know, for M1, um, because our customers are more long term minded. Uh, they don't necessarily see our platform as a game, you know, maybe compared to other platforms out there, but they're definitely trying out different apps. They're seeing, what do they like? What don't they like, what aligns to their investment thesis and/or we're helping them form their investment thesis through discovery and, and education. And, you know, really in terms of how, you know, even more specifics, how our clients are evolving. I think historically we've seen our client as a, a pretty savvy, sophisticated, long term investor, but that's changing. Um, we're seeing more spouses and partners of those established clients coming onto the platform. We're seeing more women coming onto the platform and we're definitely seeing more newbies to investing, coming onto the platform.
Jessica Schnepf: (
And what we're learning about those newbies is they wanna take control of their financial future. They wanna be self-directed, they wanna call the shots, but they need help. They need, and they want education. They need some handholding and guidance, but I think regardless if they're experienced investors or newbies, they're telling us that they want a more intuitive and time efficient solution than what a traditional brokerage has to offer. And so that's why they're coming to M1. Um, another interesting insight is we're hearing like money and finances are becoming less taboo. Our clients are social. They're talking about money, they're talking about their finances. You know, it's an important part of their life. They're getting advice from YouTube. They're getting advice from TikTok influencers, they're openly discussing their financial situation and they're sharing fairly prolifically about it, you know, on their social media. Um, and I think maybe lastly, what we're learning, um, from our clients is they're not only making financial decisions for their self, but they're making financial decisions for others that they care about. Um, so we're focused on designing and building more features and more services that consider a client's trusted partners like their spouses, their buddies, their friends, even their financial planners and tax advisors. That's a little bit of what we're seeing kind of shifting and evolving, um, with our clients and in the market.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Jessica, do you see, uh, like an uptake from a certain like age demographic, uh, is there a specific segment that plays in more into M1's business?
Jessica Schnepf: (
You, I would say about 70 ish percent of our clients are definitely millennials. Um, they are, you know, in mid-level to senior professional roles. Um, maybe not surprising a lot of them are engineers. A lot of them work in tech and I think that's why they're very much embracing, um, FinTech and, you know, kind of those really modern solutions.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Lovely. Thank you, Jessica. Uh, maybe we can pivot to Kelli. Kelli, would love to hear your thoughts because again, you know, you represent an an organization which comes with so many years of legacy, so would be a great point of view to have from you now.
Kelli Keough: (
Sure. So while we may be a, a, an organization with a lot of legacy, I would say interestingly digital has been at the heart of our business and continues to be at the heart of the business. And that's because clients are asking for it. So if we look at over the last 18 to 24 months, we have seen our clients using digital in ways they never have, but we've also seen that they expect to continue to use digital even more so. So when we look at, for example, on the banking side, 54% say they plan to use digital even more than they have. And then when we look at our, what is it, our 54 million people who are digitally active, 44 million who were active last month on our mobile device, we saw even with that many people, 35% more logins year over year for our investing clients on the mobile app.
Kelli Keough: (
So what are we seeing? In the last 18 to 24 months, huge engagement with digital and especially mobile, even more so than on the web. Totally makes sense. The question is then what did the last 18 to 24 months, what was important for all of us to be focusing on? And for us, our clients needed a couple things really from us first and foremost, of course, they needed to be able to do things digitally easily with no friction, self-serve that was one click in many cases, to be able to do things that were scaled that were easy for the client. We all had to do that. I would say the second thing that we really had to focus on was how do we meet our clients who are used to meeting us in per person, often in the branch? So we needed to think really hard quickly when our advisors were no longer in the branch, literally overnight, how do we still be there for our clients?
Kelli Keough: (
How do we talk with them, advise them, and then also continue to acquire new clients. So that was a really important focus for us to shift to a digital engine. And that digital engine now is really revved up in helping our business as we go forward. And then I'd say the third thing that was an area focused for us in the last 18 to 24 months. And that's, you might think this wasn't the time to do it, but it was, and that's to create beautiful and simple experiences. So much like Jessica was saying the demand hasn't changed. In fact, it's only gone up to make it super easy, super enjoyable for our clients to be able to interact with us and to be able to see a holistic view of their financial picture in one place. And so that's been, I think, a learning for us is that yes, you have to get the basics, right? Yes. We need to keep building our business, but even as, or more importantly, we need to make that a wonderful experience for our clients as we go.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Excellent. And Kelli, I'm just curious, right? Because Jessica mentioned that it's 70% is the millennials, uh, how does that composition look for you?
Kelli Keough: (
Well, it does matter a little bit about our channels. So if you look at our self-directed investing space, it is predominantly millennial, but not only, but I also like to cite some recent data that, uh, thought lab did with several thousand investors who actually found that digital usage was as high or higher amongst the billionaire clients and as high or higher for baby boomers than millennials, we tend to think as of digital, as a space of just millennials or, or younger. But the reality is as we're seeing just as much or more usage on our digital platforms, by our high net worth ultra high net worth and/or those who are older. So it's not about one group, it's actually digital is a capability that is there for all. It's really a matter then of bringing it down to the individual person and not making, I'd say stereotypes or conclusions about different groups, because it's really something that's just part of the way we do business and part of the way our clients interact with us.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Fabulous. Thank you for that, Kelli. And I'll just pivot on to Ed, your sort of landscape from the consumer perspective.
Ed Robinson: (
Yeah. Uh, so, um, what we saw was very similar to what Jessica, uh, was talking about. Uh, we saw an actually before the pandemic, one of the big things that when we spoke to our customers, uh, holding back on the digital side was their ability to go into branch, uh, and build that kind of level of trust. Uh, and basically once that was basically blown outta the water. Cause every cause the lockdown growth just rallied and it hasn't, hasn't slowed down since I think on top of that, um, with all of the stimulus checks that were coming through, uh, if you remember that, uh, what I was saying 80% of America is paycheck to paycheck and 40% of America can't come up with $400 in an emergency. A lot of that money we saw started to flow into our systems. Uh, so when we talk about the design of our app, um, and the focus that we have, 86% of our customers are total first time investors and total beginners.
Ed Robinson: (
These are people that are everyday Americans. Uh, average age is around about 33, uh, across the whole platform. They work at Walmart, they work for the Navy or the army. They are teachers, they are FedEx and Uber drivers. They are the core backbone of America. And when that money hit, um, their systems and the ability to easily download and try, um, new financial apps, uh, that's where stash really has exceeded. Cause our focus is around financial education and advice. And one of the coolest things that we had, um, and what we've built is, um, we're the world first, uh, ever to build what's called stock back. And what stock back is the first banking product that actually allows a customer to invest automatically as rewards when they shop. So if they go and buy McDonald's and buy a big Mac, they become a McDonald shareholder.
Ed Robinson: (
You see? And so we were able to close that gap, uh, between that 80% of America that lives, paycheck to paycheck, because they're actually starting to build a diversified portfolio on top of that. When you, um, layer in the education and advice component of our, um, system and architecture, we notice that a customer now has McDonald's stock. We should start educating them, start educating around diversification, start educating them around volatility. We are not a day trading firm. We are literally an anti Robinhood. Uh, we only have four trading windows. We believe in tried and tested, um, uh, you know, philosophy around buying and holding diversification and adding little bits on a regular basis. And we just continue to preach that day in, day out, uh, with the, you know, um, the meme stocks and everything that happened crazy at the beginning of this year, uh, with the abundance and excitement around crypto, um, our customers that continue to come to us and say, Hey, listen, how do you keep doing what you do, which is provide us with education and advice.
Ed Robinson: (
So we don't get a burnt by buying things that are super hot or volatile. And so again, that's, that's what we've seen. Um, our customer base is quite similar to Jessica's customer base. Um, we unfortunately do not have, um, ultra high net worths on our platform. Uh, we are literally going after people that are living paycheck to paycheck and by providing them that education advice, we're allow them to get out of the debt trap. Uh, uh, we're out to get them kind of making finance a source of hope rather than fear. Uh, and that's what, uh, we are very much focused on at Stash.
Sonali Chatterji: (
That's great. Thank you, Ed. And I mean, such lovely, uh, value systems from every organization that we just went through, right? So this is so exciting and we took some time to talk about the consumer of today, but we all know that we are, we have to plan for the future. The consumer of tomorrow is gonna be a little different, a little bit, you know, at a different composition from what it is today. Um, so one question that's coming up to my mind right now is, um, and this has become such a much abused word, right? Digital platforms. So please go ahead and give us your definition of what does NextGen digital platform mean to you and how are you going about setting up your ecosystem? Right. Uh, Kelli, we'll start off with you this time.
Kelli Keough: (
Sure. So NextGen platform, I think, first of all, we have all fallen in the trap in the past of thinking of digital as either self-services Mike Sha said in one of the previous sessions or just providing information to clients. But the reality is, is that clients are looking to us for much more than just information. They want specific, personalized, helpful advice, guidance. They want it to be for them about them. And they're okay with us leveraging their data. If we can give them the value that they want and need. Now underneath that, then the experience and the platform of the future is data driven. We believe strongly that there's an element of planning that's associated with that, so that you're not just looking at market outcomes, but you're really thinking about what is it I need, what am I saving for what I am investing for and how am I doing relative to that?
Kelli Keough: (
And to have digital be a core part of that, whether that's on your own, but especially collaboratively with a, with a human on the other end, who can help you and give you that guidance. So the platform of the future's personalized with data planning centric, so that it's in the context of my specific goals. And then importantly, it needs to meet clients where they are and what they're doing. Now, what does that mean? It doesn't just mean I'm on my phone. It actually means what am I doing on my phone? What am I doing most often on my phone? One of the things that we are really paying a lot of attention to is how much our clients are in the payment space. And as Ed said, one of the first things that they're doing is they're actually paying bills and so forth. So we're really focused on how do you think about payments at the center of that experience and building, investing out of that and as part of that whole continuum holistic experiences. So it's go to where the clients are, go to what they're doing and be able to add value into that with personalized, specific goal oriented capabilities that are really built out of that holistic experience. And at that core of it right now, what we're really seeing is payments are at the center of it and important for us to consider with investing.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Sounds great. Thank you, Kelli. Uh, Ed, do you wanna throw some light on how Stash is thinking about it?
Ed Robinson: (
Yeah, I think very much the same way that Kelli kind of described. I think, uh, if I was gonna kind of summarize everything she just said was how do you put the customer in the center? And if you put the customer in the center, they are going to live their life and they need a financial advisor to help them through those moments. And so if you think about, um, all the research that we've done is that doesn't matter how much money you have. Uh, you kind of have the same rough end goals you wanna be able to provide potentially for your family. You wanna be to make sure you can pay your bills. You can put food on the table, potentially put your kids through school, maybe even go on that once a year holiday. Um, our customers have that same, uh, um, kind of plan or they may be a little bit simpler. They aren't ultra high net worth, but they want to basically again, have finances, a source of hope not fear.
Ed Robinson: (
And so the way we think about it is very similar to what Kelli was saying is, um, really understanding what the customer's doing. Um, what are they reading inside the app? Where are they spending their money? Um, what are they, uh, you know, what are they doing with their lives? Um, and that data becomes very, very powerful because we have the ability, like a good financial side of my career in private banking and a good private banker should know the customer. Are they about to have a kid, is a college payment about to come up, what's rent due? What is your income versus expenses? What are the automatic budgets? The way we've built our platform up is that we can do all that digitally, um, basically almost in real time. So we can actually predict now for customers actually about is, is about to either have a kid or just had a kid.
Ed Robinson: (
We should be able to predict when a customer's about to go and use an ATM and point someone to a fee, um, a, a non fee paying ATM. We should know if a customer's about to overdraft and we can predict within five days, if a customer's about to overdraft, these are simple things that financial planner should be able to do, but now we can do it digitally in real time. And because the phone is sitting in their pocket in their pocket, we can actually notify them that, Hey, listen, you didn't realize that, Hey, you went and spent a little bit more on wine or dinner last night. You need to move some money around because you're gonna get overdraft. Um, come Monday when your T-Mobile bill comes out, these are simple things that are very data driven, um, that people who've been doing with spreadsheets for years and years and years, but now we can do it through technology and through really, really smart solutions. And so that's kind of like the way we see it at Stash kind of evolving. Um, and it's gotta be bespoke to that customer cause every person's different and every person on this call is gonna be different. So the advice, the recommendation is the education and the advice should be tailored to that person at the center versus it being a hammer approach.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Perfect. Thank you, Ed. Jessica, let's hear your thoughts.
Jessica Schnepf: (
Definitely seeing some themes here, some patterns between Kelli, Ed and what I'm about ready to share. But, uh, so yeah, at M1, you know, when we think about, uh, designing for that next generation platform, like all product design starts with the customer, uh, it's deeply discovering and understanding the customer's needs, you know, what do they want, what are they motivated by what's going on in their life? What are their goals? Who are they making decisions with? What are the outcomes that they wanna get to whether it's today, six months from now a year, five years, 10 years, 20, um, we're, we're focused on the long term and, and as our, our, our clients, so starting with their needs, let's let's, I wanna focus there first and then I'll talk about then how we're building product and that next generation platform that's gonna meet their needs.
Jessica Schnepf: (
But you know, our clients are telling us they wanna easily manage all their money in one place. Uh, they want a platform to make it easy to run their passive portfolio with holdings that they know with companies that they believe in, that they like, you know, that they believe in their, in the mission. Um, not surprising. Um, our clients are telling us, Hey, I wanna maximize my returns. You know, how can M1 help me? Um, they also want the freedom to choose their investments without asking for permission, you know, they can, they can do it themselves, uh, similar to, you know, both what Ed and Kelli are talking about. Our clients also wanna take care of their families spending and savings. It's not just about them. It's about, you know, their, their whole crew. Um, they're also looking for really robust data on stocks and ETFs so they can make better purchase decisions.
Jessica Schnepf: (
Um, you know, I talked a little bit about, um, our clients being social. They want to more easily share investing tools and knowledge with their friends and family. And lastly, they're very strongly telling us that they wanna spend their free time on doing fun stuff or other important things in their life and not really spending a ton of time on investing and, and budgeting chores. So with all that in mind, how we're thinking about building that next generation platform at M1 means, you know, in our term, it's, it's that super finance SAP. Um, we think about this as it's a holistic wealth building platform, and it's really made for this modern era of uniting, a personal perspective, and that automation, all the ease that comes with automation. So maybe said kind of in a different way, it's that personalized platform that provides holistic experience, you know, to help you manage all your finances in one place we're using automation to help you do it, easier to do it faster.
Jessica Schnepf: (
So our clients spend less time, you know, focusing on all that and they can go do all the other important things in their life, you know, if they wanna come onto the platform and twiddle any of the knobs. Totally cool. You know, but, but not necessary. So, you know, that super finance app really helps our clients build systems and habits in their lives to improve their financial wellbeing by making experiences even more rewarding when they're investing, spending, saving, and borrowing to, um, a few more specifics. We're thinking about that ecosystem that we're designing and building. Um, some of the things that we're currently focused on right now is creating a more seamless, like new user onboarding experience. So when clients, you know, first come onto M1, we're gonna help guide them even more to establishing smart financial habits. Um, from the moment they sign up to, you know, using and, and engaging with one of our products or all of our products, uh, we're gonna definitely continue to focus on, um, simplifying portfolio management, you know, more analysis, better analysis, best in class research tools.
Jessica Schnepf: (
Uh, we think about that super finance app, um, you know, helping our clients, uh, make investing and spending smarter, um, providing more transparency into, you know, their daily spending habits so that, you know, aligns more with their goals. Um, we're definitely gonna be putting more focus on creating a first class banking like capabilities. So once again, like automated analysis and budgeting, um, recently we launched a, uh, what we were calling our M1 owner reward credit card. So it's a top of wallet credit card with a pretty unique rewards cash back program. So every time a client, um, you know, uses a credit card at, uh, a brand that they already invest in, they earn cash back on those purchases. So with M1's automation, they can then reinvest their rewards back into their portfolio for continued growth. And that really kind of connects to that li long term mindset, you know, that our clients have, and we're gonna continue to add more benefits to that, um, owner reward credit card program, um, and, and make sure that's even more tightly integrated into M1's ecosystem.
Jessica Schnepf: (
And then a couple other things, you know, I talked about how our clients are very social, so we're designing more ways for them to easily share and talk about their finances with their friends and family. And then lastly, um, our most engaged users at M1 are, uh, they pay for our M1 plus membership. So these clients will, you know, currently and in the future will continue to get even more control, more automation, lower rates, and more rewards through that M1 plus membership. So we're gonna be adding more benefits and, you know, basically just how help them make it just easier for them to achieve that financial wellness.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Great. Thank you, Jessica. And I mean, I like the diversification, right? There's like just so much more to do with a particular client. So that's awesome. And a couple of things that I've been hearing, right? So the customer is at the center. It's about client experience. Your data is like your core platform. That's servicing meaningfully. Those needs that your consumers process, and then all of this needs to happen with like security, privacy, all of those things baked in as well. Right. Um, so clearly you all have a lot on your hands. You've been building these great platforms and many, many, congratulations on all the success thus far, but I'm sure that there would've been a lot of personal learnings from your successes, from the not so big successes. So let's hear a little bit about that, cuz what is a panel, if you don't hear some other personal stories, right. Um, so let me kick this off to Ed. Ed, let's hear your story first
Ed Robinson: (
So, um, I'm constantly learning, uh, and we're constantly failing and I think that's something to be really proud of, uh, because one of the things, um, you've kind of touched on is in the first kind of six years of Stash--Stash has been around, uh, for six years, uh, we've just been building utility and the utility is the piece that you kind of talked about, um, with Kelli. A little bit like yes that's legacy, but they've had these infrastructure for years and years and years and years. And for companies like ourselves and M1 and uh, digital companies, you've gotta not just have one offering cause customers are wanting more. And as we keep saying, the customer wants to be at, wants to be at the center and they wanna have access to these super apps. Um, and I think that product and that next product is always something that, uh, is a challenge.
Ed Robinson: (
And the biggest failure is we've had is we think we've got the right product solution for some customers and we go and build it and spend three or four or six or eight months trying to build it and then realize that they actually didn't want that actual outcome. And we've wasted a ton of time, a lot of resources. And so that happens day in, day, day out, um, because we're constantly learning constantly evolving. I think the pieces where you can't stuff up is around security is around privacy is around data because if you lose the trust of your customer, when you are handling their money and you're handling their life savings, uh, that's the easiest way to erode, um, what you've been working so hard to build. And so one of the things that we're constantly updating and improving in on is just continually investing the team processes, um, and, and just the, the, the structure of how we operate, um, to allow us to fail, but fail in a safe way. So we constantly learn and build better, um, solutions for our customers.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Perfect. That's so honest, much appreciated. Uh, Kelli, do you wanna go next?
Kelli Keough: (
Yeah, I think the, one of the biggest learnings I've had over my career and I think in some of our organizations is forgetting the word and, and we like to think in ors, what do I mean by that? We think about it's digital or human, and the reality is it's and. Clients want that. They expect that, and you can't offerings pricing on for us on an or it has to be an and giving both to clients. The second thing I think, um, where we make the mistake sometimes is we think about beautiful and simple interfaces are for clients and then advisors and employees. It's okay to have whatever it is we give them. But the reality isn, one of my biggest learnings in my career was if you don't make it, uh, being a wonderful experience for advisors and employees as well, you will not have adoption in your clients.
Kelli Keough: (
It doesn't matter how great it is. So to me, beautiful and simple design is for clients and advisors and employees. And if you try to think of it as an or you're probably actually gonna hurt your overall adoption within an organization. And then I think the other thing is we often in order to get to market quickly, think we can put an experience outside of the other experience. Oh, let's if we do it separate, we can go fast instead of bringing it into a holistic integrated experience. And again, and my experience has been, clients have led me and us every single time back to an and they want what they know, and they want that new shiny thing, holistic, seamless, integrated, instead of it being in a separate place, in a separate app and in an or and the way that we think about it. So to me, that's, I think a theme that runs through is don't think about it, client or advisor, don't think about it as digital or human. Don't think about it as separate in a way and fast or kind of, or fast, we get fast, but instead go back to holistic and seamless and integrated. And that, and his really, I think, allows us to serve clients and advisors, how they need to be served.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Excellent. Thank you, Kelli. Yes, we are all going go back to that, right? The, the concept of and, and we won't forget that today. So thank you for that, Jessica. It's your last word? Turn it over
Jessica Schnepf: (
You. If, if anyone's been watching my screen, I've been shaking my head yes. The whole time. So a lot of what Kelly and ed really resonate and, and maybe I'm now stating the obvious at this point, but I think, you know, the, the learning here for me is always be listening to your clients like your clients have really complex needs. And oftentimes there's so much subtlety in those needs that they don't even fully grasp, you know, what they are. And so your teams really need to make sure that they're taking the time to understand the client's problems. If, and if they're not, they're gonna be risking kind of biasing their solutions toward their own internal perspectives over real true customer needs. Or a lot of times I'm seeing, you know, like, or biasing towards well-understood solutions kind of out there in the market, but that actually don't end up being usable or useful for your own clients.
Jessica Schnepf: (
And I think it can be really easy as kind of the internal teams, the internal folks who, especially who are also using our own products to think we know exactly what our clients want, but remember actually we don't, we have so much kind of bias built into, you know, how we're making decisions. Um, so I think, you know, some of my words of wisdoms and where I'm failing and succeeding is, you know, we need to be in that constant discovery mode, stay open to shifting attitudes, find the fastest and the cheapest way to test your ideas, make sure that they're truly solving a need and, and get our clients the right outcomes. Um, that's how I think, you know, you're, we're all gonna, you know, be able to successfully build that next generation platform that our customers are gonna love and that they're gonna keep coming back to continue using.
Sonali Chatterji: (
Excellent. Excellent. Thank you to Jessica. Uh, I mean all wise words and such honest and transparent words at that, right. And I really, really hope that our audience listening to us today have had some nuggets of wisdom that they'll take back. So thank you so much. The viewing audience, thank you for joining us and a very, very big thank you to a wonderful panelists. We all have a ton of things on our hands, but this means a lot sharing your experiences and in such candid manner, it truly means a lot. So thank you again, it was our pleasure to host you today and to the organizers. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thank you.