In the Banking Perspectives blog series, we invite senior leaders from across Moody’s Banking to share their insights on technology at Moody’s and the wider banking industry.
In the previous blog, Omar Akkor, Senior Director Manager for Banking Product Strategy, discussed the technology testing process at Moody’s Banking. In this edition, Omar walks us through the Moody’s GenAI development process in more detail – and how innovative ideas eventually become working solutions.
Q: Talk us through the idea generation process and how these ideas transpire into actual solutions for our customers. From 400 ideas, we don’t take all of them to prototype. How do you sift through these ideas?
O: First, we need to have an objective and a use case. We ask ourselves: “What are we trying to achieve? Are we trying to provide customers with a better customer experience? Are we trying to improve internal operational efficiency, or help customers make their processes more efficient, automated or profitable?”
So, the first thing is to really assess what the objective is of that use case. These are questions that help us make propositions to our management and steering committees to validate the shortlist, and help us triage the ideas.
Q: Once you’ve agreed on the objective, what’s next?
O: Once we confirm the objective, we then start the process of ideation: what problem are we trying to solve and what are the potential solutions? Once we have a concept in hand, we start the proof of concept (POC) phase. We break the challenge into smaller problems and start experimenting how to address each problem. During the POC phase, we also identify what data sources we need to use, as well as the skills, profiles, SMEs and experience we need.
It’s likely not going to be perfect from day one: we are experimenting. We might start with an idea, and as we make progress, we realize that it’s not the right approach. We then have to pivot into something else. I like to quote the actor Will Smith: "Fail fast! Fail often! Fail forward!" This is all possible as part of the innovation process.
"Fail fast! Fail often! Fail forward!"
Q: What comes after the completed the ideation and experimentation steps?
O: Validation would be the next step. We ask our specialists and SMEs to validate the responses, continuously enhance the prototype, define the dependencies and confirm the data sources and integration points.
Q: When do you begin development?
O: At the end of the experimentation stage, we usually take the prototype to select market players and ask customers to share feedback. This feedback is important to shape our Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Development starts after customer feedback is collected and the MVP is defined.
In the next edition of the Banking Perspectives series, Omar will discuss how collaboration with Moody’s partners helps to drive our innovation.
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Technology and innovation in Moody’s banking
Find out more about how we’re unlocking the next generation of technology and putting it to work for you.