Over the past decade many aspects in the consumer’s world have changed – lifestyle, profession, transportation, healthcare, entertainment, and so on. However, one thing remains – the need for quick, almost instant, solutions. This generation continues to be after instant gratification. To meet this almost real-time need of the consumer, banks and other financial services organisations need to be prepared. This preparation often starts ‘ahead of the need’ warranting the capability to crystal gaze into the future and to be able to design products at the go.
Such capabilities also call for freedom. Freedom to revolutionise the way financial services institutions operate. This is where eMACH.ai comes into the picture. eMACH.ai offers a broad, comprehensive, composable and contextual platform that enables banks and other financial services organisations the capability to contextually compose technology solutions to revolutionise the way financial services institutions operate – all translating to a delightful customer experience. Today, this is not a wish list, but due to the rapidly evolving business environment, it is an imperative for financial services institutions to stay ahead of the competition through such capability.
Organising the Thinking Space
Through the Lens of First Principles
The future resilient, eMACH.ai is a First Principles Thinking based technology. First Principles Thinking mandates the breaking down of complex concepts into their fundamental truths.
Intellect applies First Principles Thinking to technology. Non-functional requirements address various aspects of a system, including user experience, operations, performance, analytics, risk management, integration, and security. Traditionally, dedicated research labs might be established for each of these areas. However, with First Principles Thinking, this approach can be reframed. The core principle in this domain is customer service. The way software is designed is driven by the fundamental principle of serving the customer well.
First Principles Thinking necessitates an inquisitive mindset as it questions every assumption about a given problem resulting in going to the basics to identify new opportunities and create new solutions. It begins with organising the thinking space which involves considering Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability. Desirability defines what is needed, Feasibility determines how to do it, and Viability focuses on going to market.
For this Intellect leverages Design Thinking. In our tryst with Design Thinking, we discovered that there are four vital prongs to holistically harness the power of this human-centric problem solving approach – Design Mind, Design Space, Design Process and Design Framework.
The Design Mind
The Design Mind is indispensable for the practical application of Design Thinking. This is necessary as a conditioned mind helps to probe opportunities without bias. The application of First Principles is predicated on the Design Mind.
The design of eMACH.ai starts with observing the many Unstated requirements of the user drilling down to the level of the experience of the banks’ customers when triggering and during an Event. (Event here stands for any transaction done by the bank and its customer.) Understanding the unstated requirements also helps zeroing into Anti-Patterns that banks face. (An Anti-Pattern here is an unintended negative ‘outcome’ that leads to less than desirable experience for the customer.)
The Design Space
Design Thinking is often equated to a team sport in which every team member, on or on the field, plays a vital role in the outcome. However, to enable teams to connect, it is necessary to have the right space or platform. This is where a collaborative Design Space becomes important. Space has a great impact on the human mind. Designers need to leverage spatial elements that help cross-collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas among participants.
This is the purpose of 8012 Fintech Design Center, a physical space designed to inspire and help shift the thinking process and organise it. This, in turn, expands performance (a deeper focus into First Principles). The domino effect positively impacts the business space. Hence, the business outcome can only be expanded when you organise, expand the performance space, and impact the business space.
The Design Process
Building eMACH.ai, a broad, comprehensive and innovative open finance platform from scratch, leverages frameworks. We define Frameworks as algorithms that help hasten a design process along a proven path. In other words, ideas need the support of stakeholders for actualisation.
The Design Framework
As every stakeholder has stated and unstated needs and interests, sustainable models are required to bind all stakeholders. These models are called Design Frameworks. Intellect’s engineers have leveraged appropriate Design Frameworks and processes to elevate banks’ ecosystem, with a focus on the customers’ desirability, the existing infrastructural feasibility, and regulatory viability.
The outcome is a clean and clear architecture that allows for the separation of elements and the use of APIs to consume what is needed. Putting together these functionalities is eMACH.ai. With this, the banks today have the broadest, most comprehensive and most innovative open finance platform to compose their own unique ‘My Signature Solution’.