How Wright-Patt Credit Union Generates Innovation From Within

When it comes to improving member service and internal operations, who has a perspective better than the people who spend every working day dealing with those challenges? Such was the approach Wright-Patt Credit Union ($8.1B, Beavercreek, OH) took in its first-ever Partner Innovation Challenge.

In a kind of Shark Tank competition — only collaborative instead of cutthroat — several teams of WPCU employees developed solutions to address problems they personally experienced at the credit union, then presented them to a panel of senior managers. The panel used four criteria — impact, creativity, feasibility, and sustainability — to evaluate the solutions, and the winning team won a $2,000 prize for its proposal on how to streamline and automate certain processes in mobile and online banking.

“Their concept was focused on enhancing user experience by allowing members to self-serve and make changes effortlessly, minimizing partner errors,” says Remie Cruz, Wright-Patt’s director of innovation and automation.

A Funnel Of Ideas

The objective of the challenge is to encourage different departments to identify a shared experience and use their talents to craft a solution that enhances critical technology, creating a “funnel of ideas,” so to speak. According to Cruz, that concept dates to current CEO Tim Mislansky’s time as chief strategy officer. At that time, the credit union was questioning how to better foster innovation throughout the credit union, perhaps through a hackathon or a similar event.

“We knew our front-line partners would have expert experience in making innovative recommendations,” says Cruz, who has been with the Ohio cooperative for nearly 15 years, the past three in her current role. “This Partner Innovation Challenge was a great way to get them involved in our strategic processes.”

Such an approach, the WPCU team decided, would yield not only better solutions for the member experience but also greater stakeholder value internally.

“It’s not really about technology at all but empowering the best ideas of our partners,” Cruz says. “It’s about letting go of the way we are used to doing something and thinking about it differently.”

Not The First Rodeo, But The Largest

Wright-Patt has a culture of encouraging innovation, but the Partner Innovation Challenge — which launched in May and wrapped in July — took the credit union’s past efforts to the next level.

“Wright-Patt Credit Union is a very collaborative culture where ideas are always solicited for various reasons across the organization,” Cruz says. “Many teams have departmental contests, but this was our first time attempting to ‘gamify’ in a competition format for all credit union partners.”

The challenge was open to any of the organization’s more than 1,300 employees and was a major feat for the credit union’s Innovation and Automation and Service Excellence departments.

“None of this would have been possible without their hard work,” Cruz says.

Teams submitted ideas targeted at improving the member or partner experience, and three elimination rounds showed off staffers’ talent for generating ideas as well as presenting them.

“As contestants worked on their pitch presentations, many put together visual prototypes to help convey their ideas,” Cruz says. “It was very exciting to see their creativity and ingenuity in action.”

To encourage submissions for its first annual employee innovation competition, Wright-Patt credit union created T-shirts to give away.

The credit union also designed a special logo to commemorate the event.

Iterative And Novel Innovation

One important aspect of the challenge: No idea was too small or too big to consider.

“When we think about innovation at Wright-Patt Credit Union, we look at it through two lenses — iterative and novel,” Cruz says. “Iterative innovation builds on our current processes, products, or services. Novel innovation is a new product or service introduction. The Partner Innovation Challenge highlights both of these.”

The winning idea combined both internal and member-facing improvements by integrating with the core processing system a new streamlined and automated process to allow mobile and online bankers to self-serve, change loan due dates, or add or cancel ancillary loan products such as GAP insurance.

The concept is quickly becoming reality.

“We recently wrapped up project planning and resources are being scored for execution,” Cruz says. “The winning partners will be able to see their idea come to life as project team members.”

That points to the Partner Innovation Project’s ability to improve member services and internal processes alike while providing staffers valuable experience in presentation skills, innovation, and research that contributes to their professional growth. Plus, Cruz says, the contest encourages employees to think differently, which spurs creativity and improvement across the credit union.

No Losers. Just More Ideas To Build On.

One semi-finalist idea was to streamline a core system process to connect accounts for cross-transfers. That would involve building a flow that allows partners to bulk enroll members versus setting up individual items manually and would require enhanced visibility to account details.

Another idea involved improving notification when members need to confirm their auto insurance to avoid collateral protection insurance.

“Many ideas were close contenders,” Cruz says. “We were impressed with the thought and ingenuity all contestants displayed. Many of the ideas that didn’t win could still be explored in the future.”

Particularly, she notes ideas for an online check register application, setting up a new savings product focused on children, and creating a partner fund as examples. The whole process, meanwhile, generated collaborative discussions and shed light on challenges impacting daily operations that, in turn, impact members’ experiences.

“They have left a positive impact by encouraging our leadership team to continue to approach obstacles with an innovative approach,” Cruz says. “These ideas might be refined in the future as our strategic priorities evolve and resources become available.”

A Springboard For More Innovation

Cruz says a second Partner Innovation Challenge is in the works for next year, with more to come after that as the entire staff continues to learn how to turn existing and emerging operational challenges into opportunities to improve internal processes and member service.

As for the challenge team itself, Cruz says a major challenge it first identified was ensuring it communicated with key stakeholders across the organization about the time commitment involved alongside daily expectations.

“To address that challenge, we identified all key stakeholders in the planning phase and committed to finding ways to minimize disruption to operations while still fostering a creative space,” Cruz says. “We went around the organization and did various pitches of our own, gathering feedback on challenge activities, timeframes, aids to assist participants, and even prizes.”

The team incorporated that feedback into the challenge before launching, and brainstorming afterward already has provided a few improvements for next time. For example, it will extend the final presentation timeframe beyond the five-minute elevator pitch-style presentation, fine-tune expectations to facilitate a low barrier of entry, and put more effort into the final round to make it even more exciting and buzz-worthy.

“It’s not just about holding another challenge next year, which we plan to do,” Cruz says. “It’s about understanding what worked, what needs improvement, and how to make the next iteration even more impactful.”

Cruz and her colleagues have already gleaned a lot of actionable insight from the Innovation Challenge experience. The most important, she says, is to cultivate a culture where employees feel safe to share.

“Encouraging an environment where your employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, ideas, and even failures without fear of judgment or retribution is critical,” Cruz says. “When employees know their input is valued and they won’t be judged for being vulnerable, they’re more likely to contribute to help uplift the credit union.”

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