The critical failing of user interviews is that you're asking people to either remember past use or speculate on future use of a system. Both types of responses are extraordinarily weak and often misleading. Source: Interviewing Users

The critical failing of user interviews is that you're asking people to either remember past use or speculate on future use of a system. Both types of responses are extraordinarily weak and often misleading. Source: Interviewing Users

This massive growth in scale has required an evolution in practices and organization to achieve success. Most of what technologists are aware of in this regard is labeled “DevOps,” but there is more nuance to it than that. The way infrastructure capacity is allocated becomes decoupled from specific hardware, so the infrastructure team has to adapt new tools. The way databases and message busses, among other things, are operated and made available to applications has become more “self-service”, and thus those teams have to see themselves as service providers rather than as infrastructure teams.

This massive growth in scale has required an evolution in practices and organization to achieve success. Most of what technologists are aware of in this regard is labeled “DevOps,” but there is more nuance to it than that. The way infrastructure capacity is allocated becomes decoupled from specific hardware, so the infrastructure team has to adapt new tools. The way databases and message busses, among other things, are operated and made available to applications has become more “self-service”, and thus those teams have to see themselves as service providers rather than as infrastructure teams.

Mobile banking is another key area of innovation, including NatWest’s personal finance app Mimo, which uses open banking application programming interfaces (APIs), artificial intelligence and data analytics to create a social feed that helps customers manage their money. Mimo is being beta tested with 5,500 customers. NatWest aims to extend the roll-out later this year. “These kinds of projects mean the people that work here feel much better about themselves than they did at the outset,” he says.

Mobile banking is another key area of innovation, including NatWest’s personal finance app Mimo, which uses open banking application programming interfaces (APIs), artificial intelligence and data analytics to create a social feed that helps customers manage their money. Mimo is being beta tested with 5,500 customers. NatWest aims to extend the roll-out later this year. “These kinds of projects mean the people that work here feel much better about themselves than they did at the outset,” he says.

These problems have three remedies. First, governments need to ensure that central banks’ monopoly over coins and notes is not replaced by private monopolies over digital money. Rather than letting a few credit-card firms have a stranglehold on the electronic pipes for digital payments, as America may yet allow, governments must ensure the payments plumbing is open to a range of digital firms which can build services on top of it.

These problems have three remedies. First, governments need to ensure that central banks’ monopoly over coins and notes is not replaced by private monopolies over digital money. Rather than letting a few credit-card firms have a stranglehold on the electronic pipes for digital payments, as America may yet allow, governments must ensure the payments plumbing is open to a range of digital firms which can build services on top of it.