Building a smart, future-proof savings app

YBS can claim some big – and well-deserved – numbers: the UK’s third-largest building society, over 150 years of experience, and more than three million members.

Community driven, member owned and proud of its reliable reputation, YBS has been helping customers reach their financial goals for generations.

But even with many years of tradition behind it, YBS has always been committed to seeking modern digital solutions – which is why it came to us.

YBS had been on a journey with its savings app.

Multiple partners had already been involved, resulting in the vision for the app’s future getting lost.

The YBS leadership team knew what they wanted: a rejuvenated, modern mobile product that would deliver more features, greater capability, and a seamless experience. But they knew that their internal capability couldn’t achieve this.

The app – built only a few years before – wasn’t built in a sustainable way and the internal development team were under pressure to accelerate. And whilst the YBS team had the appetite and budget to make it happen, they had other challenges to face.

YBS had a large mobile team – but their internal organisational structure, processes, and procedures lacked some clarity.

To meet the brief, we needed to:

• Get a full understanding of the history of YBS, the app development, and the launch journey – not to mention the impressive efforts that had got them so far already

• Strengthen efficiency and maximise output by addressing issues such as an internal skills gap and a post-Covid need for team maturation

• Nurture collaboration business-wide, while acknowledging that dependencies were not necessarily under control within the mobile team

Discover

We started by listening, not telling. Forcing a fixed framework was never part of our plan – we needed to go on a journey together. And to truly improve productivity and capability, we began with a series of deep-dive discovery workshops to get under the hood and understand where things were going well, and where improvements could be made. It became clear that the ecosystem needed fine-tuning. It wasn’t simply a case of bringing more mobile experts on board. To work through the process blockers we established a “North Star” unified vision. Along with crystal-clear KPIs to build greater team cohesion.

Design

Rolling up our sleeves, we dived straight in. Delivering core features was our primary focus to build credibility within the internal team. We brought passion, care, and quality to establish better practices and build on their existing work. It was clear tough decisions had to be made, including new bars to be set. We involved the entire mobile team in this process, making sure they felt heard, supported, and confident in their capabilities.

Deliver

By introducing career frameworks, team structure, and shaping the hiring process, we helped YBS strengthen the foundations of its mobile team. We embedded iOS and Android engineers into the team, leading in some areas and providing senior capacity in others. Beyond mobile engineering, we trained and mentored product leads, enhanced internal Agile capability, and offered design leadership to ensure a clear path forward for the engineering team. With a motivated, confident, and capable internal team equipped with the right tools and processes, YBS was set for success.

The milestone release didn’t waste any time in delivering on the vision. We helped YBS achieve a significant rise in member engagement and delivered its first milestone app release in two years in record time – just three months.

Within six months, the in-house team’s delivery speed and output increased by 400%, thanks to improved processes and quality, not simply by increasing staff volume. We also provided talent acquisition skills to attract the best, ensuring the new vision and approach became a sustainable part of the digital culture. And our work with YBS continues. We’re still involved: running hack weeks, offering mentoring, product and backlog prioritisation training, and providing Agile coaching to help YBS develop its in-house talent.

We’re also helping with other special projects, and we continue to support across product, IT, operations, and testing. And now, as our presence dials down (a sign of successful engagement), YBS continues to thrive.