CIBC Live Labs
The innovation and digital technology lab of CIBC
I met Yusef Dualeh for sushi since we both used to volunteer for a design meetup in Toronto. During lunch, I wouldn't stop complaining to him about how terrible the user experience is for most banking apps. Hearing my frustration, Yusef asked to introduce me to Iris Chan, who was a manager on the CIBC Digital team. I accepted and pitched the concept of a “smart personal finance chatbot” in our meeting.
Iris liked the idea and wanted me to pitch it to her boss, Nuno Carreira. She asked me to bring some designs with me to help visualize what such an experience might look like. After my presentation with Iris and Nuno, they both liked how I thought about personal finances and asked me to join CIBC. Initially, I was hesitant to join such a large corporation considering how slow they tend to move, but I decided to give it a try to experience it for myself.
Senior UX Designer and Product Manager
Apr 2017–Dec 2017
Within my first month, I noticed each team had their own design files that they worked from. This led to each team creating a slightly different looking experience for the users depending on which part of the bank they were interacting with. Frustrated with this problem, I started advocating for a design system that all teams can use and contribute to. Iris helped me get in front of other managers from the CIBC Digital team who liked the idea and saw it's value, but none were willing to sponsor it at the moment.
Shortly after, I was transferred to CIBC Live Labs—which was almost its own entity within the larger bank—led by Ricky Chandarana. This is also when I took on a split role of Senior UX Designer and Product Manager. Live Labs gave me the opportunity to work with people across the organization (going as high as senior executives of the bank). However, after some time, I found it discouraging when I realized that we weren’t making a difference. A lot of what we built had the opportunity to create a positive impact on our users, but as soon as a concept left Live Labs, it drowned in the bank’s bureaucracy without an active sponsor.
Some of the projects I worked on included:
- Application of machine learning for bill payments
- A natural user interface to provide customer support
- Chatbot to help Canadians choose a bank account and credit card
- Foundation of an inclusive design system in partnership with the a11y team
- Refinement of the design process within Live Labs
