Case Study
Jenius Bank: running product before the product team existed
A new US digital bank needed product decisions made before it had the people to own them. As Lead Product Manager on Method's team, I led onboarding for deposits and lending inside the bank while it hired its own product organization, and handed over complete flows once it had.
- Organization
- Jenius Bank (SMBC Group), via Method
- Timeframe
- August 2021 – May 2022
- Role
- Lead Product Manager, Method
25%
Faster onboarding
Time to complete onboarding across web and mobile, in user testing on near-fully functional prototypes.
2
Flows complete
Onboarding for deposits and for lending, both complete at handover in May 2022.
0 → 1
Product function
Held product leadership from incubation until the bank's own team was in place.
My role
- ·Led onboarding strategy and requirements for deposits and lending, across web and mobile.
- ·Helped lead the adaptation of the bank-in-a-box core platform the bank was built on.
- ·Brought fraud, compliance, legal, and trust and safety into onboarding design from the start.
- ·Held a product leadership role on Method's team while Jenius hired its own.
- ·Co-led a Method and Jenius offsite that shaped the financial wellness experience and the brand.
The challenge
SMBC Group set out to build Jenius Bank as a digital bank for US consumers, with no branches, run as a division of what is now SMBC MANUBANK. Its leadership came from major banks and fintech companies. What it did not yet have, during incubation, was a product organization to turn that experience into a net-new digital product.
Method was engaged at that stage to help shape the product and experience strategy, then stayed on as the bank built its own team. Product decisions could not wait for the hiring to finish, so Method's team held the product roles while Jenius filled them. I was one of them.
The hardest part was onboarding. For a digital bank, onboarding is the front door for customers and for regulators at the same time: identity verification, fraud screening, account funding, and direct-deposit setup all happen in the first few minutes. Every requirement from fraud, risk, compliance, and legal lands there, and each one can cost the bank applicants.
“In our early days, Method provided a ready team of experts and that allowed us to start building the bank immediately as we hired full-time resources. Their advice, expertise, and added capacity were invaluable in accelerating our efforts. The partnership was seamless, and they quickly became an integral part of our team.”
Approach
Embedding
Running the function while it was being hired
Method deployed a team of product leaders who held those roles while Jenius hired into them at speed. The aim was continuity: decisions kept moving, and each area was ready for the bank's own people as they arrived.
I moved the teams from waterfall planning to cross-functional product squads, so design, engineering, and risk worked from one backlog instead of handing documents between phases. Alongside that, Method set up the research and discovery foundations with the bank's product and customer experience leaders: research tools, a research repository, a knowledge base, and an internal newsletter. I helped shape the culture and operations of the broader teams around them.
Onboarding
Designing the front door with risk in the room
I led onboarding strategy and requirements for deposits and lending across web and mobile: identity verification, account funding, and direct-deposit activation. I brought fraud, compliance, legal, and trust and safety into the design work from the start, so their requirements became part of the flow instead of late-stage blockers.
We tested against near-fully functional prototypes rather than static mockups, which let us measure how long onboarding actually took. Across web and mobile, onboarding time came down 25% over the course of that testing. Ahead of launch, I also set reliability targets and exception handling for chargebacks, reconciliation mismatches, and refunds.
Platform
Onboarding requirements as core banking configuration
The bank was built on a bank-in-a-box core platform that we adapted heavily, and I helped lead that adaptation. Onboarding turned out to define much of the core: limits, authorization rules, and the settings that govern what a new customer can do, and when. Getting onboarding right meant getting those settings right.
I also worked with the core banking team that owned the configuration, and the work on the bank's financial wellness experience.
Direction
An offsite to set the experience and the brand
I co-led an offsite with Method and Jenius staff that shaped the bank's primary financial wellness experiences and its broader brand identity.
Handover
Complete flows, and a team to own them
When I left in May 2022, onboarding for deposits and lending was complete, and the bank's own product team had been hired in behind Method's.
Outcomes
Onboarding complete for deposits and lending
Both flows were complete at handover, designed with fraud, compliance, and legal requirements built in from the start.
25%
Faster onboarding in user testing
Measured in user testing on near-fully functional prototypes, across web and mobile.
Product roles handed to the bank's own team
Jenius hired its product organization behind Method's, and the work did not stop for the transition.
Where the bank went next
Jenius launched in 2023 and passed $1 billion in savings deposits and $700 million in loans before its first anniversary. SMBC wound the bank down in 2026, moving its savings accounts to Axos Bank and its loans to Launch Servicing.
What it taught me
- ·Embedding while a company hires is its own job. Making good decisions is not enough; they have to be made in a way the people who arrive next can own.
- ·In a regulated product, onboarding is where the whole organization meets the customer. Bringing risk and compliance into the design early costs less than negotiating with them late.
- ·Requirements written for a customer's first few minutes end up configuring the core. Product leaders in banking need to read the platform, not just the screens.
Building something complex?
I help teams turn strategic ambition into the structures, decisions, and delivery practices needed to make progress.