Episode Transcript

Greg Farber:
Welcome to the Building Interest Podcast presented by Leader Bank a series of free flowing conversations on a wide range of banking and money related subjects. We are here to discuss all the issues that impact your financial future. Do you want to buy a home, start a small business or secure your financial future? Or maybe you want to maximize your savings ability, get your budget in order, we can help our talks with experts and influencers across the world of banking, we’ll set you in the right direction. I’m your host, Greg Farber. Let’s jump right in. Welcome back to the Building Interest Podcast. I’m your host, Greg Farber. And today is gonna be an exciting conversation as I’m here with Lindsay Rohan First Vice President of Bank Innovation, and Eric Prue, First Vice President of Residential Lending Innovation. So both of you, we’ve crossed paths a number of times on different projects over the years, and I know your role has evolved even from those times. So maybe Lindsay, start us off, just kind of share with us what bank innovation is and what you do?

Lindsey Rohan:
Yeah, definitely. So my team, we support our deposit front lines, which include our business and government banking teams, our branches, our elevate team. And then also our back office teams deposit operations, loan servicing. And we kind of cover three main areas. So one is researching and rolling out new products and technologies that would help those departments, two is improving existing technologies and trying to always keep a step ahead. And then third is to help teams with process efficiencies.

Greg Farber:
So is it fair to say that you’re really focused on improving the client experience, make it more seamless for the end user, regardless of who that might be?

Lindsey Rohan:
Definitely. So we sit in the middle of so many groups, and we’re constantly working with the teams to see how we can make the experience better, whether that’s an efficiency that a team can make to get things done faster for clients, or whether that’s just improving something that we offer to clients.

Greg Farber:
So when you say new products, you don’t even necessarily mean a banking product, you might mean something on the back end, that helps an operations team be more efficient in or something along those lines.

Lindsey Rohan:
Exactly. So one of the things we did two years ago was Docusign. And rolling that out, not even just for our teams, but bank wide. When COVID hit and it was kind of imperative we did have a vendor, but once we got DocuSign, it really spurred how much we could leverage it and making things faster and easier for clients to get things done with us.

Greg Farber:
Awesome. Eric, I don’t want to forget about you. On paper, your role sounds an awful lot like Lindsey’s, your title sound almost exactly the same. But I know your focus is a bit different. Can you tell us a little bit about Residential Lending innovation, and what that involves?

Eric Prue:
Yeah, the role is very, very similar to Lindsay’s. And we actually, you know, talk regularly and bounce ideas off each other because the at the end of the day, the objective is the same. We’re serving our internal and external clients by either supporting existing systems that we have rolling out new products, or rolling out new technologies. And lastly, working on process improvement. So our goal at the end of the day is always to how can we better serve our clients. Is that our internal, external clients, help loans get through our process faster, make it easier for clients to interact with us? That’s really the gist of what res lending innovation is. And it’s really more than it’s really rooted in like a mindset, we approach everything with how can we make this better? How can we improve? And how can we better serve our customers. And that’s really our focus on a day to day.

Greg Farber:
But not just the client, like the like the client that actually has the loan, but the client that might be a realtor partner, or an attorney partner, where our internal loan officers or anything like that you’re talking about any aspect of a relationship where we might have a technology that can improve that?

Eric Prue:
Exactly. So in 2019, we partnered with a local FinTech called Reggora to automate our appraisal ordering. There’s a whole list of reasons why we did that. Some of them were for client service, some more for our own internal efficiencies. But when we partner with them, one of the things that we were able to do is automate the ordering. And that really helped reduce your improved quality, accuracy of the orders, the timing of it was very consistent when they went out. We saw a significant lift in our in our operation after implementing that.

Greg Farber:
So you’re seeing seeing an improvement in an internal process, but you’re also seeing an improvement and how that translates to the external client experience.

Eric Prue:
Exactly. Yeah, even our appraisal partners that we work with, they also benefit because they’ve got a centralized portal to work with us. And then also, it also improved our accounting process because we were able to move from a manual invoice review process to one that was more data driven.

Greg Farber:
So you both kind of touched on something that you were a part of a project that you rolled out and maybe we’re jumping ahead a little bit here in the conversation, but I feel like this is kind of where we’re going here is how do you come up with with these ideas? How do you find new ideas what the next project is going to be like? Obviously We say innovation, we’re thinking something new or something that’s going to make an improvement. How does that even? How does that start when you get up in the morning, and you’re like, Okay, and now I’m going to find something to improve somewhere? How does? How does that come about?

Eric Prue:
I can take that one. You know, I kind of break that into two different categories. There’s ones that are more like iterative, where we, we recognize a flaw in our process, the way that we’re doing it. And we’ll kind of research our options and see if there’s a better way or a more efficient way that we could be doing it. And then there’s others that are much more directional on a day to day basis. Our team members internally are highlighting inefficiencies or things that need to be reworked. And so we’re always evaluating them, and putting them through our process of, if we have the time now, can we handle it? Can we take it on? What’s the impact, and we do enough of those iterative improvements that it, it leads to, in aggregate, an overall improvement in our process. So some are highly focused. And then some are opportunities that we identify on just on a day to day basis.

Lindsey Rohan:
And I think listening to clients of what they’re asking for, whether that’s internal or external, They guide us a lot of times, and we don’t even have to really figure out what to do next. They’re telling us what they want, and where to go. And I think we have some great examples of successes in the past, where if you just listen to what their needs are, and try to solve for that need, and prioritize based on the impact of that it can take you really far.

Greg Farber:
That’s actually exactly what I was going to ask you next is kind of like that you’re not just innovating a project that you’re given, but you have your ears to the ground. And you’re kind of feeling out where the business units or the clients outside, are having pain points or things that that we can innovate on top of. I think that’s pretty cool. So earlier, when we were just sort of chatting, you mentioned shiny objects. And I was curious if you could kind of talk about that a little bit how you actually decide what is an innovation worth pursuing, as opposed to what’s just something that looks really flashy, but might not be of value?

Eric Prue:
I think in residential lending side, it really comes down to evaluating like, does this fit in with our business model? is going to improve or improve our process? Is it something that’s a priority to us right now, there’s lots and lots of FinTech’s that have popped up over the last five to 10 years, and not everything is a great isn’t the right fit for, for us. And it might be where we are in our evolution, you know, where we’ve where we’ve grown to, or things that we need to do before we’ll be ready for that improvement.

Greg Farber:
So just because someone else has a fancy new technology doesn’t mean it’s right for us. And part of what you guys do is determine if it’s going to be the right thing for Leader and the way we want to grow.

Lindsey Rohan:
I think that’s exactly right. Like listening, like I said earlier to our clients and kind of what’s gonna fit their needs. There’s, as Eric mentioned, there’s so many cool FinTech’s out there, and a lot of them specialize in something. And that may or may not benefit our client base, we’ve looked at a lot of technology and then just ruled out we don’t have enough demand to do that. And we have more important priorities, like Eric said, on the Residential Lending side. So I think it’s kind of that balancing act of what school but what’s going to actually make an impact for our client base.

Eric Prue:
And I think at the same time, like we’re always keeping, we’re always learning about new companies and new technologies, and building that like Rolodex. So when we do encounter an issue, okay, yep, we have a solution for that. Let’s go reach out and partner with them and integrate that into our process.

Greg Farber:
Someone let’s jump ahead, now you’ve chosen a project you’ve chosen, a FinTech you want to work with or something you want to innovate in house or something. And what does that process look like internally in terms of the teams you work with, and and how that how that actually comes to fruition within the bank,

Lindsey Rohan:
I think everything we do is a team effort. So it’s not just our team, me and Eric, or our teams that are below us. It’s company wide teams that are working towards one common goal. And whether they have a small piece of that, or a large piece of that it’s incorporating them early and making sure you have those open lines of communication so that when you get to that final point, there’s no surprises, everyone’s prepared, we have our clients ready to go. And it’s going to have the best result possible. I think that’s what we always strive for.

Greg Farber:
So it’s not Lindsay’s pet project or Lindsay’s team’s pet project, the team is the entirety of the bank and whoever is going to be affected department or client.

Lindsey Rohan:
Teamwork is so important to every project that we do.

Eric Prue:
Yeah, and I think the beauty of, of the Leader Bank culture, that it’s not about one person, like you just said, it really is the collective contributions. It could be from somebody who’s giving feedback during user testing, or it could be a department head that, you know, this it’s really important to their area might help improve a process that they have. But it’s really that collaboration and constant kind of feedback and it’s everybody working together towards that greater goal.

Lindsey Rohan:
I think a good example of that is our big is thinking team right now they’re working on something for municipalities offering new solutions. And I’m not out there talking to all the municipalities, although I’m sure they’d love to bring me along with them. And sometimes they do. But they’re the ones kind of starting that dialogue and making sure they go deep and ask those questions so that when they come back, we have enough information to actually build a product or see the viability of that. And then we can work with maybe our technology, our IT team, or some of the other teams to make it happen. So it definitely has a flow from start to finish. And it involves multiple teams to really get that right result,

Greg Farber:
Internal and external teams.

Lindsey Rohan:
Yes.

Greg Farber:
Did you have a background in retail banking before taking on this role? Or was it all sort of homegrown?

Lindsey Rohan:
Homegrown. No, I actually came here, right out of school right out of college. And I was more looking for an analyst type of role not really in the banking segment directly, and came across Leader and just really was intrigued by the fast growth and the unique things that they were doing. To me, it wasn’t the traditional bank setting, and came over did the interviews kind of felt right at home right away. And the rest is kind of history.

Greg Farber:
When you say you felt right at home, you you started in an analyst role. Obviously, you weren’t heading up bank innovation at the time. What kind of projects were you? Were you? I mean, the reason I’m asking this right, is that we think of banking is a very traditional sort of money product thing. And here, you come in, and you’re saying you’re not money product at all, you don’t have a background in retail banking, and all of a sudden, you found this niche, like what kind of things were you working on that you got developed into this direction.

Lindsey Rohan:
So when I first came over, it was actually right, when Zrent was launching, just kind of cool. So I helped with the customer support and kind of learn the ins and the outs of that product, it happened before it was developed. Obviously, before I came, that’s a great example of listening to our client’s needs. Because it’s a huge rental market in the Boston area, we did a ton of two to four family mortgages for those clients and the FinTech’s, or the technology being offered, was really specific to property managers that have 50-100 plus units. So it was a gap. And we were seeing a lot of businesses coming in landlords coming into our branches to make deposits. So just kind of listening to those experiences. So I helped with that, and kind of getting it off the ground. And then they they went a different direction. But I think those principles of the technology and being able to support that,

Greg Farber:
That almost feel like you’re working more for a FinTech than for a bank?

Lindsey Rohan:
A little bit. Yeah, but I had also some branch focus at the same time. So there was a balance there.

Greg Farber:
So you could build that experience on the branch side to add to where it come now. Right. Exactly. And Eric, if I’m not mistaken, you also came to leader right out of college? Is that right? That’s correct.

Eric Prue:
Joined November of 2012. So come to find us through a friend referral, I figured that I would stay for about six months while I found a new job. Yes. I did not think that the mortgage business was something that was interesting to me. It’s funny, talk to a lot of mortgage professionals, and it feels like everybody kind of stumbles on it.

Greg Farber:
What happened? Where did you go wrong?

Eric Prue:
I had a lot of fun. So I kept learning and there was opportunities presented. So I started in our post closing department then moved on to our processing department and had it kind of had a goal to that I wanted to be an underwriter. And by the time that I became an underwriter, I was constantly talking with the team that was managing the technology at the time, and asking them, hey, can we improve this? I think you were actually on that team.

Greg Farber:
Yup.

Eric Prue:
But we were kind of I was always gravitating towards how can we make this process better what technology we can use to improve the process, reduce the amount of work or number of screens that somebody has to go to? And got the opportunity to move over to technology and the rest is history?

Greg Farber:
Right? And again, same kind of thing. Now, do you feel at this point, you’re a little bit more FinTech than traditional banking?

Eric Prue:
Yes, definitely. It’s a lot of fun. We get to partner with fit, like legitimate fintechs. But I feel like the culture and the mindset within the bank is that we operate like a fintech. We’re not, you know, going out and raising a series a or a seed round, but we approach everything with how can we make this better? And almost always there’s a technology component, in that.

Greg Farber:
We’ve talked about how you both came right out of college. I mean, how do you how do you feel that that, you know, does that? Is that an advantage for you? Is this a situation where you have a unique skill set that allows you to contribute in a different way?

Lindsey Rohan:
I think that Eric and I we do bring fresh set of eyes to different things and we can understand the process and how things integrate by working with the fintechs, not to say that you have to be younger to do that. But I think that we’re more accustomed to having those day to day touchpoints. And growing up with technology, and some, so it’s a little bit easier for us to adapt in certain ways.

Eric Prue:
A great example from Residential Lending is when we first rolled out that new point of sale system, a lot of the conversations with our loan officers was this tool is also benefit is beneficial for the client. And it’s also beneficial for you developing the relationship is there was a mindset that when I’m on the phone, taking an application from a client, that’s when I’m developing the relationship. And really how we sold it internally is, that’s not when you’re actually developing a relationship. When you’re getting like transactional information from somebody, it’s then the guidance that in the value that you provide to the client. And that was, I feel like that represents how we approach technologies. How do you couple the improvements that we can get from technology with the human interaction, and that’s really where I think the secret sauce is in the financial services.

Greg Farber:
So maybe using technology to improve that contact point. And sort of making an efficiency there, letting that loan officer whoever it is, save some time on the front end, freeing that time up, then to have that guidance angle where they can develop that more personal relationship with the client is that it?

Eric Prue:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, another example would be a scheduling tool that we’ve implemented in the past few years is giving somebody the ability to just schedule an appointment with a loan officer or bank or just through a URL. It’s integrated with their calendar. So they know when they booked that appointment, that they’re going to be ready and available to chat. And you don’t have to have that back and forth via email or over text, or…

Greg Farber:
When can I call you, now’s not a good time, all that sort of stuff. Cold calls over dinner?

Eric Prue:
Yep, exactly.

Greg Farber:
Nice. Now, when people I don’t know, maybe you don’t tell your friends and family where you work. But we all go home at night. And at some point, we’re sitting around, like, Oh, what do you do for work? Oh, I work at a bank. And sometimes that kind of gets a bit of a blank stare, like people don’t really know what to associate with that? Do you find that they they’re surprised to hear that you’re really more focused on technology and innovation rather than people’s checking accounts?

Lindsey Rohan:
I do think it’s common for people to think brick and mortar, the branch locations, maybe the loan officer loan offices, when you think of banking, but there’s so much more to it, not even just the innovation, just the complexities of the back office teams and all the departments that support and keep everything running? So I think yes, people can be surprised. I think that I’ve tried to perfect how I describe what our team does. And I think that helps, but it usually does require some sort of explanation.

Greg Farber:
You’re absolutely right, though, about that. I mean, I know that I’ve learned just a huge amount of information about what happens on the back end of the Bank, just moving from res lending to a different area, and trying to understand how it all comes together. And you’re right, that’s not always necessarily obvious to everyone. Eric, I was going to ask your take kind of on that same, same line, like if you’re if you’re describing your role, and you’re not really traditional banking. How do you how do you see yourself? And how do you portray yourself as sort of being that innovator.

Eric Prue:
It really depends on the person, if I know the background. And so to really like, if somebody I think is genuinely interested, then that tends to lead to a much deeper conversation about what I do, what are the changes that we’re making? What I find most, what ends up happening most often is somebody’s interested in becoming a homebuyer. And that’s where the conversation leads to, like, it’ll go down that path instead. Because they find that to be really intriguing. And for myself, I’m thankful that I’m in the role that I’m in because I feel like I have, you know, a wealth of knowledge about home buying strategies, kind of demystifies, that whole process. And so that’s where a lot of those conversations end up leading for me.

Greg Farber:
So that’s really interesting point. And it kind of brings me to where I was gonna go next with this was that you have this background. And Lindsey, you mentioned that you worked on some retail projects. And obviously, Eric, you mentioned about post closing and processing and underwriting and everything. And, you know, it’s one thing to have technology and have someone who was all about innovation and thinks about technology, trying to sort of drive the bus, but doesn’t really know where the bus is going. But to have you guys be part of also the underlying teams and understand what people are trying to accomplish. Share with us a little bit how that background knowledge helps you be more effective and able to implement kind of new ideas.

Eric Prue:
I think for me, it kind of gave me some standing in the conversations. I mean, I moved into this role when I was 26. Thankfully, I had that background and understood each part because it gave the if it was a team member, a department manager A senior leader, anybody like it was like, okay, Eric understands the process and now understands how we can improve the process because he has deep knowledge of the under of that underlying process.

Greg Farber:
So you’re not an outsider coming in with a great idea. You’re an insider coming in with a great idea.

Lindsey Rohan:
Yeah I think that, by having that knowledge, I think Eric would probably agree, a lot of times the department’s, especially when it’s cross functional, they know what their team does. But they don’t know if they want to change something, how that’s going to impact the other teams. So we can have that kind of full picture of what we’re trying to accomplish, and making sure that each team is represented and kind of facilitate some of that change for them. Where if they just tried to do that directly, they might not be as successful. I’m sure they would be successful.

Greg Farber:
Has that ever happened right across you guys that you guys have projects that ended up crossing over from one one to the other? Are you guys really in totally different worlds?

Lindsey Rohan:
I’d say mostly were separate. But we have had a few crossing where we were trying to streamline how we book loans from origination all the way through loan servicing. So Eric supports origination, I support loan servicing. And we kind of had to come together between all the departments that to make that happen,

Greg Farber:
Right, because ultimately, it all ties in is the same customer information that comes through in the different departments. So I know Eric only wanted to work here for six months. But right now, it looks like you both clearly enjoy working here. And obviously the bank values having you guys as team members, can you you know, I’ve seen you guys advance through through your careers here myself firsthand. And I’m just curious what you can say about our culture and, and we’ve had this this effort in the last year and a half to really revamp what it means to be a Leader Bank, and we have a brand Bible, and we’ve we’ve refreshed all of our sort of marketing and everything. How do you guys fit into that? And what is the culture at Leader Bank, and how’s that enabling you to, to be have become who you are,

Lindsey Rohan:
I think there’s two big components to the culture that really, at least helps my team when it comes to moving the needle. One is when we have a challenge. Or if we’re trying to solve for something really going deep and understanding every part of that and trying to get all the details that we can to make sure that whatever solution we come up with, it’s actually going to solve that need. Or maybe it’s not going to actually benefit them any clients. So we don’t want to invest the time and the resources in that. So kind of having that open mindedness and curiosity to different things is really critical. I think the second piece to that is kind of creating a learning environment where it’s safe to fail, because you’re not going to be successful with everything that you do. And you’re going to try different things. And sometimes it may work. And sometimes it won’t. And pivoting from those moments is crucial that being allowing all the team members to feel safe and doing that is really important.

Greg Farber:
So a supportive brainstorming environment to kind of condense it into three words or less,

Lindsey Rohan:
Yeah, hopefully you get all those out before you launch something. But…

Greg Farber:
Of course, before we wrap up any advice for listeners, anyone thinking maybe to get into this industry? People just starting out their career? And they’re thinking, Oh, maybe, you know, I like technology. I’m all about technology. And I never thought banking would be the place for that. What would you say to someone who may be thinking of making a career switch or starting up?

Eric Prue:
Whenever I give advice to anybody who’s interested in this industry, or really any industry, it’s to be a sponge to learn as much as you can. And really make sure that you start to understand the why. Because once you start understand the why of what you’re doing, then you can enact change, ask questions. Don’t be afraid to fail. And I think those are a lot of the things that the Leader culture has, which has allowed us to get to the point of where we are now.

Lindsey Rohan:
I completely echo that. I mean, I kind of said that a few minutes ago. But just having that learning mindset is so crucial. You never know where you’re going to use something down the road. Or I was talking to you guys earlier before this about how I set in the Residential Lending office. But I had nothing to do with Residential Lending and just kind of hearing what was going on. I can really use that now when supporting loan servicing or some of the other departments.

Greg Farber:
The more you know about different areas, the better you can fit in the hole

Lindsey Rohan:
The more dangerous you become…

Greg Farber:
Well, thank you both so much for being here. If you have any other parting thoughts, by all means, and again, thank you for making the time it was really fun talking to both of you and watching you develop into these innovators that you’ve become.

Lindsey Rohan:
Thank you.

Greg Farber:
For more information on today’s subject, visit leaderbank.com. In addition to past episodes, you can also find our corresponding blog entries for more insights. This podcast is a production of Leader Bank N.A. equal housing lender, Member FDIC NMLS number 449250