Making operations solve for financial wellness

Products alone can’t create financial wellness. Fintechs and FIs need to align themselves internally to create the outcomes they’re looking for from their products and services. From cross-team alignment to deeper outreach strategies, relatively low-lift operational changes can let players of all sizes create a more equitable and wellness-conducive landscape.

Deep learning from clients

Financial-wellness efforts could benefit from a sector-wide standard—but, at the same time, clients’ needs for and definitions of financial wellness can vary significantly. Some may prioritize growing their income, others moving into homeownership, and still others paying down debts.

Ensuring that products and services match clients’ goals thus requires engaged listening. This includes during the product-development process as well as during client onboarding. Product teams may discover more use cases that need to be built into flows than they would through their own understanding of financial wellness; ensuring that this discovery period is comprehensive requires more than product teams’ efforts alone, though.

Cross-pollination

Deep engagement with consumers interested in improving their financial wellness—both during product development and after launch—requires intentional and structured cross-team collaboration. Sales, support, and product teams have to work especially closely with consumers who may be in sensitive or precarious financial situations. 

To sustain these operations, recruiters should consider hiring leaders with experience structuring integrated teams. Employees who can consider growth, product fit, and client wellbeing simultaneously are most likely to succeed. 

Internal wellness

The most cutting-edge wellness-oriented fintechs and FIs will also solve for financial wellness internally, treating their team members as clients in their own right. Beyond opening access to their financial products and services, these players will also lead by example through comprehensive benefits that improve long-term financial health. 

Through corporate culture thought leadership, wellness-focused employers can boost retention, hire competitively—and, crucially, demonstrate the long-term viability of solving for financial wellness.