The Challenge - conduct a mixed methods research study to understand what Financial Advisor (FA) tools and platforms competitors are using and what advantages those platforms have over Large Main Street Bank.
Timeline – over 16 weeks, we gathered insights to fuel Large Main Street Bank's FA platform strategy.
Methodology - mixed methods approach broken up into four phases
Findings - identified and prioritized benefits, features, and functionality to improve Large Main Street Banks' platforms
Phase 1. Literature Review (Cerulli reports and previous internal research)
Discover common themes and categories to explore
Phase 2. Content analysis (online press releases and articles)
Discover which competitor is doing what
Phase 3. Surveys and In-Depth Interviews
Interviews with 25 advisors who joined Large Main Street Bank from competitive firms uncovered that they and their clients have high expectations and first-hand knowledge of more integrated and better-performing tools. Discovered which tools are superior, how they work, how far Large Main Street Bank lags behind, and why FAs need them.
Phase 4. Fishbone diagram
Cause and effect analysis to discover root causes for superior competitor FA tool.
Recommendations
Two deliverables were generated out of this study for Large Main Street Bank; the first being a comprehensive report with all of the rich, thick description; the second being an Executive Summary presentation used to build awareness to the problems that fueled the emerging technology strategy.
Financial Advisor concepts
Numerous participants provided detailed descriptions and drawings of their expectations for technology.
Afterwards
Slides from this research study are still being socialized as part of the new FA Platform strategy. Three critical investments are being made, which cannot be shared widely at this time.
Core Team
Amanda Andres, Riley Hughes, and Matthew Lynch.