Pioneering the Strategy Sprint at National Australia Bank
100% Sell-In Success for Over a Dozen Teams

Role

Everything – Relationship building with domain, value prop development, framework development & continuous feedback, execution, facilitation, scaling.

Duration

V1 development + stress testing -
1 quarter

Organisation type

Large org - Big 4 Bank

Context

  • I developed the Strategy Sprint so that my Payments Design team could DEMONSTRATE that we are a strategic partner AND could operate within a predictable timeframe (which was a core need of Product and Tech).
  • By leveraging this way of operating, we outlined the future state AND the immediate tactical needs of the project from the start.
  • The Strategy Sprint is run during the kick off stages of a project in collaboration with Product and Tech.
  • Key measurable benefits included decrease in cycle time and an increase in Forrester Design Maturity score (both key metrics for our domain and Design Chapter respectively).
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Design approach

Relationship building with domain leadership

The Design Manager and I caught up each fortnight with Domain and Initiative Leadership to build trust. We always came prepared with discussion points like
What’s your top priority at the moment?
– What’s keeping you up at night?
– Here’s what I think we can do, and how long it should take. Are you open to it?
– These are the priorities for the Design Chapter, so this is what we need to achieve for each project.
A key concern for our Head of Product was project delivery velocity.

Framework development

I'd run adapted Google Design Sprints before. I created a Sprint framework that would work within the NAB context to respond to our Head of Product's needs.
e.g. I created clear time and participation asks for Product Owners.

I referenced Nielsen Norman Group for high level experience maps and other artefacts.

Continuous feedback

We needed to stress test the Sprint across multiple contexts before we rolled it out across the Domain, then ultimately the Design Chapter.

Examples of different contexts
Initiatives with high vs low volume of insights
High vs low subject matter complexity
Existing or new relationships with stakeholders
Initiatives with small vs large stakeholder groups

Socialise methodology within the wider org

Throughout the continuous feedback loop, I ensured our victories were visible at Design Chapter showcases.

The Design Manager and I socialised the Sprint activities leading to inclusion in the Design Chapter end-to-end process.

Outcomes

To make sense of the landscape, I reviewed the existing research and mobile app. This included:
Existing contextual inquiry and landscape review insights
Complaints data
Live chat data
Stakeholder interviews with the client

Some key insights:
• A surprisingly large volume of customers use the contact centre to confirm their flights prior to travel (esp first-time flyers)
• Many customers turn up on the day of flight, unaware that they have missed a critical step prior to flight (e.g., check-in)
• The Jetstar mobile app was launched and has an average 4.8 star rating on the App Store.

• Positive task completion scores for key tasks provided confidence to the reduce cost to serve.
Customers with low tech confidence and little booking experience could complete high usage tasks with ease using the new solution.

• Concept-testing for new Manage My Booking experience was well-received by research participants.  

• We hit all design milestones agreed to at the start of the initiative.
• 100% sell-in success for the Strategy Sprint on all Payments initiatives I lead (over a dozen projects), despite initial resistance from stakeholders. Over 80% of projects initially didn't want to do the Sprint.

• Concept tested how to scale the Strategy Sprint across the 30,000+ people org with experts who'd completed a similar milestone - saved $500,000+ and years of effort by avoiding mistakes experts had previously made.

Orchestrated Strategy Sprint education sessionfor NAB's COO in partnership with our Chief Design Officer to demonstrate the commercial benefits provided by the Design Chapter.

• Lead ~70% of Strategy Sprints in my Payments domain.

• $180,000-$250,000 saved on a single project
by running the Strategy Sprint – a scaleable cost saving.

• Coached and mentored Payments designers to autonomously run Strategy Sprint plays.

All Strategy Sprints completed within the 2-2.5 weeks timeframe as promised to Product and Tech partners.