Background

Credit unions face unique challenges in understanding how their performance compares to similar institutions. Without access to robust peer comparison data, they struggle to identify areas for improvement and make strategic decisions about their lending portfolios.
‍
Some important contributions that I made to this project helped tremendously when continuing my research process in different aspects of my designs.
‍
Some of those contributions are listed below:

👉 Competitive Audit: To better understand the financial analytics landscape, I conducted a competitive audit that helped my team and me become stronger subject matter experts for our peer reporting solution. We analyzed existing financial analytics platforms, focusing on how they served credit unions and similar institutions. We evaluated their strengths, weaknesses, and market impact, particularly noting gaps in customizable metrics, peer group relevance, and actionable insights.

👉 Literature Review: I also completed a literature review to better understand industry expectations around portfolio benchmarking and performance analysis. We reviewed white papers, industry reports, and regulatory guidelines to gain insights into how credit unions approach benchmarking and strategic decision-making. The literature highlighted a growing demand for more tailored, flexible analytics tools that went beyond static data reporting.

👉 User Interviews: User interviews were a critical part of our research process. As a team, we aligned on key goals and motivations we wanted to explore with executives and analysts. We sought to understand how peer comparison and portfolio insights could better fit into their strategic planning processes, and what frustrations they faced with existing tools. Over the course of several weeks, I conducted interviews with CEOs, CFOs, and lending managers, using video conferencing tools to record sessions and transcription services to ensure we captured every insight accurately.

Identifying the Problem

📍 Credit unions needed a way to better understand how their portfolio performance compared to similar institutions. Without clear benchmarks, it was difficult to gauge success or identify areas needing attention.
‍
📍 They also needed tools to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in their lending strategies. Understanding where they excelled — and where they lagged — was essential for strategic planning and competitive positioning.

📍 Beyond assessment, credit unions were looking for ways to discover new opportunities for growth and improvement. They wanted insights that could help them expand their offerings, improve member satisfaction, and drive business success.

📍 Making data-driven decisions around product offerings and risk management was another critical need. Without reliable, actionable data, institutions struggled to optimize their portfolios or effectively manage risk.

‍As a team, we identified our main objectives as:
‍
✋ Allow credit unions to compare their portfolio performance against similar institutions.
‍
✋ Provide insights into areas where lending strategies are succeeding or falling short.
‍
✋ Help institutions find actionable ways to expand and enhance their services.
‍
✋ Equip credit unions with the data needed to make informed decisions around product offerings and risk management.

✋ Offer tools to track and analyze performance relative to peers for ongoing strategic adjustments.

Research and Discovery

As someone passionate about helping credit unions make better strategic decisions, I saw firsthand how difficult it was for these institutions to benchmark their performance effectively. Without access to relevant peer comparisons, many credit unions were left making decisions without full context or confidence. I wanted to legitimize these challenges and create a solution that could empower credit unions with better data and insights.

As a team, we decided to focus on executives and analysts who regularly reviewed portfolio performance. We wanted to gather their thoughts on what meaningful benchmarking meant to them and what insights they gained from comparing themselves to peers in the past. We recognized that the underlying problem was the lack of accessible, relevant, and actionable benchmarking data — and our solution was to bring powerful, peer-based insights directly to their workflow.

✏️ We conducted extensive research to deeply understand the needs of credit union executives and analysts. Our efforts included 15 interviews with credit union CEOs, CFOs, and lending managers to gather firsthand perspectives on their challenges and goals. We also analyzed existing analytics tools to identify common limitations, and held workshops with credit union associations to better understand industry benchmarks. In addition, we reviewed regulatory requirements and reporting standards to ensure compliance needs were met, and conducted a competitive analysis of financial analytics platforms to identify opportunities for differentiation.

✏️ Credit unions needed relevant peer groups based on factors such as size, geography, and membership demographics to make meaningful comparisons. They sought customizable metrics that could align with their unique strategic priorities, rather than one-size-fits-all reporting. Executives emphasized the importance of receiving actionable insights, not just raw data, to better inform decision-making. Visual representations that could be easily shared with boards and committees were also a priority, along with the ability to drill down into specific portfolio segments for deeper analysis.

Design Process

🙆 To support more meaningful benchmarking, we developed an algorithm and interface that allowed credit unions to define relevant peer groups using factors such as asset size, membership, geographic location, market characteristics, field of membership (e.g., community or SEG-based), and product mix. Alongside this, we designed an intuitive interface for selecting and visualizing key performance metrics, including loan growth, delinquency and charge-off rates, yield, operational efficiency, and member retention.

✏️ Our report design offered users a flexible, high-level view of institutional performance, enabling comparisons against peer averages, trend tracking, outlier identification, and customized views tailored to different stakeholders. Throughout development, we prioritized user feedback by conducting iterative testing with credit union executives and analysts, including concept validation with Figma prototypes, interactive testing with 12 institutions, and beta testing with 5 partners. Continuous feedback drove ongoing refinement of the experience.

Designs

The design of the Credit Union Peer Analytics Platform focused on clarity, flexibility, and usability. We created a modular, user-friendly interface that allows users to define and refine peer groups through guided filters and saved comparisons.

‍

Getting started with Peer Reporting

Users can view previous and just created Peer Groups

Create a new peer group

Users are able to create a peer group using differeny perameters provided by the system.

Toggle on Peer Grouping

To support a complex workflow, we designed a familiar panel interface that allows users to easily toggle peer reporting on and off as needed.

Reporting functionality

The platform offers flexible reporting capabilities for creating board presentations, regulatory submissions, and internal strategy documents.

Lessons Learned

This project provided valuable insights into designing effective data analytics tools for credit unions. We learned that context is crucial—raw data alone offers limited value, but peer comparisons help transform data into actionable insights. Clear and thoughtful data visualization is also essential, especially when dealing with complex financial metrics that need to be quickly understood by a range of users. Customization emerged as a key priority, as each credit union has unique goals and requires flexibility in how performance is measured. Most importantly, users consistently valued insights over raw data—they wanted tools that interpret and highlight what the numbers actually mean. Finally, iterative refinement through continuous user feedback proved critical in shaping a platform that truly meets users’ needs.

Next Steps

Based on user feedback and emerging market opportunities, we identified several areas for future development that will further enhance the platform's value. These include advanced predictive analytics capabilities to support forward-looking decision-making, integration with strategic planning tools to align insights with institutional goals, and expanded benchmarking focused on digital banking performance. Additionally, we see strong potential in offering member experience and satisfaction comparisons, as well as introducing scenario planning and simulation features to help credit unions model the impact of strategic choices in a risk-free environment.

Credit Union Peer Analytics Platform

OVERVIEW