Testing new opportunities, fast

It can be a challenge for established organisations to keep pace with agile start-ups. We pioneered a process for Natwest to test innovative concepts in just 8 weeks.

8 week rapid process
4 stages

The brief

The banking industry is being heavily disrupted by digital-only brands, financial technology (fintech) products and open banking. Established institutions are facing new challenges and opportunities as they work to stay ahead of a growing number of agile competitors.

There’s no doubt that traditional banks have the scale and experience to develop innovative concepts. But it takes time and money, especially for organisations who struggle to move at pace. So when Natwest wanted to test a new idea, the team came to us to develop a rapid prototype and find out, fast, if it could work.

[Video title]

We’ve worked with Hi Mum! Said Dad for a long time. It’s a very strong and natural partnership and I know you deliver great quality work. You’re great people to work with.

Linh Nguyen Slater, Natwest Head of Research

Cost-effective testing

We’ve pioneered a four-stage digital innovation programme, designed to test the commercial strength of a new idea – before any major investment. 

We define a hypothesis, then bring it to life with a working prototype. Then we test it with real users, before progressing to full launch. These gateways avoid wasting time and money by travelling too far in the wrong direction. 

We ran this process for Natwest across eight week-long sprints. We worked with the team to create a hypothesis, build the prototype, and conduct extensive user testing.

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Linh Nguyen Slater, Natwest Head of Research

We’ve worked with Hi Mum! Said Dad for a long time. It’s a very strong and natural partnership and I know you deliver great quality work. You’re great people to work with.

We were able to save Natwest the time and money that could have been spent investing in the wrong solution

Designed for disruption

Disrupted industries are a key focus for us. Sometimes disruption is the result of changing customer behaviour; sometimes new technologies enable new types of services or new ways for people to engage with brands. Whatever the reason, businesses need to stay agile to stay ahead.

We have extensive experience helping disruptors disrupt. And we’ve protected many established organisations from being disrupted, as with our work with Natwest. With change lies opportunity, and we’re here to help every organisation be the best it can be.

[Video title]

We’ve worked with Hi Mum! Said Dad for a long time. It’s a very strong and natural partnership and I know you deliver great quality work. You’re great people to work with.

Linh Nguyen Slater, Natwest Head of Research

A proven process

For Natwest, our testing ultimately proved that there wasn’t a market for the particular idea we were investigating. But it brought to light other services that would be well-received by customers. In this way, we were able to save Natwest the time and money that could have been spent investing in the wrong solution.

We have now used this process multiple times with the bank, and have taken several ideas all the way through to public launch.

[Video title]

We’ve worked with Hi Mum! Said Dad for a long time. It’s a very strong and natural partnership and I know you deliver great quality work. You’re great people to work with.

Linh Nguyen Slater, Natwest Head of Research

Let's make magic happen