Desktop Admin
Theme Builder
Background
Client customization is at the core of Alkami’s digital banking platform and is a key driver in winning new clients. When a financial institution signs with Alkami, one of the first steps is to work with our implementation and design teams to develop a branded theme and plan a go-live date to transition to our platform. At Alkami, a theme is a white label solution built to match the branding of the bank or credit union. A client’s theme extends throughout the online banking configuration and typically includes desktop, mobile web, and native apps for iOS and Android.
Project Summary
From Alkami’s inception in 2009, each theme created for a client has been a custom front-end experience without any reusable code. As our number of clients continued to grow, managing hundreds of custom themes for multiple engineering teams was impacting sprint velocity and allowing little time to develop new products and features.
In 2018, Alkami’s design and front-end team came together to brainstorm options to make the process more scalable as our company grew. From this meeting, an idea emerged for a self-service tool that would allow clients to create and manage their own themes.
The Challenge
Automation
Launching a new client theme on the Alkami Platform typically took 6 months to a year and involved eight internal teams. How do we automate this process?
Technical Implementation
The downstream process of moving a theme from a QA environment to staging and production environments was a manual process. How do we allow clients to do this without the possibility of overriding their entire build?
Design
How do we dial down the design options present in a theme and still make clients feel like they are getting a custom branded experience? How do we scale for the future?
Authentication
Where will this self-service tool live? How do we authenticate users at our financial institutions to use this tool?
The Solution (2019)
Advance Alkami’s online banking experience by powering “self-service” customization capabilities for our clients by enhancing the front-end framework and transforming the delivery of UI components.
Discovery
Early discovery was led by the front-end product owner, a senior designer, and myself. We began developing the features and customizations available in our current theme design process so we could ensure that they would be accounted for in the self-service tool. During this phase, we began exploring options for the name of the product and finally decided on the most straightforward options - Theme Builder.
Wireframes
Early iterations of navigation menu options as we worked through possible features.
MVP Design (2019)
Every year, Alkami has a large conference to show off upcoming products and features to our clients. With the 2019 conference quickly approaching in April, I moved into HiFi designs to ensure that our front-end team would have enough time to build a working prototype to show at the conference. During this phase, I took over complete ownership of the design as my teammate during the discovery phase left the company.
Usability Testing (2019)
Conducting moderated user testing with our clients at Alkami’s 2019 Client Conference.
Project Halted (2019)
After the client conference, Theme Builder was put on hold. Although we got positive feedback from clients and potential users, our architecture team determined that hosting the Theme Builder tool was out of scope until a backend infrastructure update was completed to allow clients to move their theme from staging to production.
The Rebirth
Theme Builder (2020)
A year after the 2019 solution was put on hold, the team reconvened in early 2020 to find a successful path forward. With a new front-end Product Owner leading the initiative, Theme Builders new MVP direction aimed at first solving ongoing theme issues with existing clients. Using a phased approach, the initial release of Theme Builder would address immediate client satisfaction concerns. Each subsequent release would add additional features to support both new and existing clients.
New Personas (2020)
Theme Builder shifted to solve for existing client needs as they relate to open tickets for theme change requests in our backlog.
Current Clients
Improve client satisfaction concerns
Provide existing clients with the ability to self-manage basic theme updates like footer links bypassing a need for development and a 3-6 month wait time.
Front-End Development Team
Reduce the volume of new themes and client change requests that the front-end team receives and increase the points per sprint so that the team is able to devote to 18-Month Roadmap initiatives.
Prospective Clients
Provide the Sales team with talking points to increase the win rate with prospective clients by offering more robust UI flexibility and customization needs to allow clients to better differentiate themselves against other financial institutions.
New Clients
Once all phases are released, new clients can use Theme Builder to create new themes.
2020 Solution Coming Soon…