“Think Customer” in an Agile World
By Trina Forbees
August 21, 2023 - 5 min read
Housing markets and technology advancements move fast, so it’s important for lenders and servicers to partner with technology companies that support their evolving business needs.
ICE uses its powerful mortgage software, data and analytics to serve a diverse array of companies that drive the U.S. housing industry. Underpinning this success has been a client- and borrower-centric approach to product development, which over the years we have honed into what we call the “Think Customer” approach.
Think Customer is a product development framework that is born of a commitment to prioritizing both client and homeowner needs, providing personalized support and continuously enhancing solutions based on client feedback. In everything we do, we ask ourselves “How will this improve the homebuyer or homeowner experience?”
Think Customer has been codified throughout our product, development and product delivery teams using Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) — a methodology used by leading global companies — to align our efforts with the end consumer's needs. For example, embracing this framework has allowed our Servicing Digital product team to adopt a more dynamic development cadence that promotes expedited, customer-informed innovation. Quickly releasing new code into clients' test environments has allowed us to gather and incorporate feedback more effectively and roll updates into production environments on a regular cadence.
Personalized support begins at pre-production
Listening to our clients and rapidly incorporating their needs into our solutions is what drives us to provide extraordinary value. Here’s how we’ve formed product delivery teams to put the client’s needs and preferences at the forefront of everything we do, and to deliver a high-quality, personalized support experience during the planning and pre-production delivery phases of a product:
- Client advocate: Each client is assigned a point of contact (POC) who works to become an expert in the client’s organization beginning at the outset of implementation. The POC meets with the client regularly, addressing questions, triaging issues and acting as an advocate for the client’s feature requests and enhancements.
- Knowledgeable support: ICE’s product delivery POCs are also product experts, helping to enhance transparency and alignment with the product teams. They engage in Agile activities such as system demonstrations, program increment planning, all-hands meetings and releasing playbook reviews. This involvement helps the POC provide guidance to clients on how to optimize their use of our products.
- To help clients and their borrowers get the most benefit from products, the POC works with clients to walk through various configuration options, help them identify the best configuration for their business case and even assist them in the configuration process. The POC is there to help clients successfully deploy solutions and to provide the guidance and support they need every step of the way.
- Real-time communication: All clients are given access to a platform that facilitates real-time communication with their POCs. The platform promotes ease of collaboration, allows clients to submit questions and potential issues, stay up to date on issue resolution status and serves as a hub for important update information such as roadmaps.
- Feedback and improvement: ICE values both client and internal team feedback. Clients and internal team members are invited to rate the level of service provided through regular surveys. This feedback helps assess the team's performance, identify areas for improvement and support the continued delivery of value and benefits to clients and their customers. Client feedback has been overwhelmingly positive to date and has helped improve overall client satisfaction.
Our Think Customer approach is more than a philosophy. Rooted in the Agile framework, it allows us to deliver product enhancements quicker, support client adoption and help them successfully support their borrowers. From dedicated POCs to knowledgeable support, clients have access to experts who understand their unique business requirements.
Embracing Think Customer has allowed us to adopt processes that promote agility, efficiency, and innovation — all so we can help our clients reach their unique business goals and attain a market advantage.
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