ICP 2,3,4
ITI220 [Section 09] [Fall 2015] [09/30/15] – [Nikita Abraham], [ICP2 – IT Client Interview Summary] For the “Client Interview” portion of the IC Project, I met with my client for a face-to-
face meeting last Friday (September 25, 2015). As I mentioned in the previous assignment, my
client, Shibu Daniel, also happens to be my father. He currently works as a Vice President of
User Experience (UX) in Bank of New York Mellon. The entire interview took about 30 to 40
minutes to complete.
As an organization, Bank of New York provides investment services to various
individuals and institutions. These services primarily have to do with asset/wealth management
such as stocks, bonds, real estate and other similar securities. In addition to maintaining acquired
assets, BNY Mellon also provides trade execution services. Essentially, this means that if an
institution wants to buy an investment vehicle, BNY Mellon can act as their brokers and
consolidate the trade. As part of asset management, the company also acts as advisors, delivering
necessary financial advice and providing credit offerings (giving out loans) if necessary.
As such a large organization, the proprietary technology that BNY Mellon has developed
allows its clients to maintain and stay abreast of their assets. My father currently works under
“Client Technology Solutions” - a branch of the company’s massive IT department. In addition
to a UX team, there are also Product Managers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, and
Quality Assurance teams working within this particular branch. As a whole, the primary purpose
of the “Client Technology Solutions” sector is to support multiple lines of business by providing
technology solutions to both internal and external clients.
While the scope of what a UX designer does will vary from company to company, my
father’s primary responsibilities include conceptualizations for technology solutions, low and
high fidelity mockups and prototypes, running usability tests, and conducting and analyzing user
research. While conducting user research, the individuals who represent BNY Mellon’s clients
include CFOs (Chief Financial Officers), Operations, Accountants, Portfolio Managers, and
Sales Assistants among others. As mentioned, his team supports multiple lines of business -
some include Asset Servicing, Corporate Trust, and Treasury Services – within the company and
to external clients of the company. The UX team is an integral part of the IT industry. In fact, all
of the solutions or tools that my father’s team offers are all technology-based.
As an international investment organization, BNY Mellon has a significant amount of
data about client activities flowing in regularly. Understanding, organizing, and making use of
this data is synonymous with the company’s own success. While data is constantly being used to
provide clients with the best solutions for asset and wealth management, the real insights lie in
using current data to make educated predictions about the future.
As a UX designer and a member of the “Client Technology Solutions” sector, my father’s
biggest information need is most closely related to Big Data. For preliminary understanding, he
wanted me to research the following topics within the scope of Big Data: what is Big Data and
why it is important, how can companies use visualizations to organize data, how have companies
done so (real-world examples or case studies), and what frameworks or software are available for
data processing in this way. The information gathered will be useful in helping my father
understand how to represent large data sets better, how to organize data so that it can be
understood, and how to use the organized data when designing technology solutions. In addition,
insights can be made into consumer behavior as well as risk mitigation.