Virgin Money, the financial services brand of Virgin Group, set out to build the most innovative digital bank in Europe and to create a world where everyone feels good about their money.

Free from major legacy systems, Virgin Money had the opportunity to rethink (and revolutionize) digital banking experiences for modern customers.

Partnering with 10x Future Technologies and Oliver Wyman/Lippincott, Virgin Money brought together a team of cross-industry experts that included product managers, strategists, designers, business architects and innovators—working collaboratively in Agile methodology in a series of 2-week ‘sprints.’

Centered around key ‘jobs to be done’ when it comes to managing money, we created a value proposition that aimed to democratize access to financial services typically reserved for the elite to help every client, with ease and simplicity, become “better off”. Elements of fun and a daring spirit—signature to the Virgin brand—were key in bringing a little joy to every interaction and ultimately helping people feel less anxious (or even good) about managing their finances.

With a clear value proposition and experience guidelines in place, we ran a series of rapid ‘sprints’ to develop a prototype and build a final product—creating, validating and pivoting ideas quickly and efficiently.

I worked as the digital bank account ‘Onboarding’ Squad Lead (one of 4 Squads), liaising with clients and various stakeholders involved—gathering and consolidating the team inputs and managing how solutions were being imagined and co-created. I facilitated daily group discussions to design, evolve and build prototypes (from low to high fidelity), including planning and moderating consumer qualitative testing, such as in-person focus groups and online surveys.

Our four Squads interacted weekly through presentations to gather feedback and ideas, but more importantly, to ensure concepts were seamlessly connected from beginning to end.

The bank app we created was packed with clever tools that helped clients join in, track, budget, save and pay effortlessly, and with a bit of fun.

Virgin Money was later acquired by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, which aimed to create a brand with six million personal and business customers capable of taking on the UK's biggest banks. CYBG decided to leverage its existing technology, but nonetheless Virgin’s new bank was launched in 2019 following the value proposition and prototype we designed—keeping good on its promise to dare to be different.