Episode 144: Banking 2.0 or How to Drive Change and Scale in Financial Organizations with Anish Bhimani, Managing Director and Chief Product Officer at JPMorgan Chase, Commercial Banking

In this episode of Product Thinking, Anish Bhimani, Managing Director and Chief Product Officer at JPMorgan Chase, Commercial Banking joins Melissa Perri to share his insights on how product managers can scale and lead digital transformation in commercial banking. They explore the importance of building a customer-centric culture, the challenges of shifting to an outcome-driven mindset, and JP Morgan's digital evolution by mixing innovation and tradition.

In his role, Anish holds global responsibility for digital strategy, transformation, and product innovation in commercial banking. In 2008, he was awarded the Information Security Executive of the Year by the Executive Alliance and gained a spot on Bank Technology News’ "Top 25 Innovators." Before joining JPMorgan Chase, Anish was a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton.

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You’ll hear them talk about:

[10:55] - Managing business operations at scale provides unique challenges and opportunities, especially with JP Morgan Chase, who are interacting with almost half of US households and overseeing about a third of the US economy daily. Successfully implementing product management strategies in large-scale companies differs from startups. However, for JPMorgan Chase, the mindset shift from simply executing tasks to solving core business problems has been critical. The journey is still ongoing, but the company noticed a change from traditional multi-month deliveries to agile sprints and from strict requirements to problem-solving, design thinking, and product discovery.
[14:00] - In the finance industry, the concept of a product has gradually evolved beyond classic payments, loans, and credit cards. Today, there are four main types of products: financial products, experience products, business engines, and business platforms. However, the lines between experience and financial products are increasingly blending, especially in consumer banking. Customers care about their overall experience as they care about their money. As a result, the entire customer journey is essential to product consideration.
[17:33] - Product managers have to focus on the outcomes they strive to achieve rather than deliverables. In essence, products vary and each has a dedicated PM. However, many often support other products instead of focusing on their own and compromising their needs. Therefore, the major challenge lies in transitioning from a deliverable-focused to an outcome-driven mindset. Also, your primary focus should be to align everyone toward the same organizational goals.
[22:58] - In product management, balancing long-term outcomes and short-term outputs is essential. An uneven strategy might lead to friction among teams. Moreover, implementing OKRs can help in setting clear goals and measures. However, you must simplify and focus on a few metrics that drive business outcomes. But it all starts with customer experience, as operational efficiency often follows naturally.
[34:07] - Successful product leaders have to balance business knowledge with technology and product knowledge, as well as understand coding basics. JPMorgan Chase mixes long-standing employees with external hires to nurture a diversity of thought. The company might face cultural challenges and compliance requirements, but the benefits outweigh the negatives. Also, as business and strategy merge, JPMorgan's strategy evolves to build a more holistic customer-centric digital experience.

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Previous guests include: Shruti Patel of US Bank, Steve Wilson of Contrast Security, Bethany Lyons of KAWA Analytics, Tanya Johnson Chief Product Officer at Auror, Tom Eisenmann of Harvard Business School, Stephanie Leue of Doodle, Jason Fried of 37signals, Hubert Palan of Productboard, Blake Samic of Stripe and Uber, Quincy Hunte of Amazon Web Services

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