From discovery to execution: Driving innovation through research
Editor's note: This article is an automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
What does an octopus have to do with market research?
Taylor Hobgood, consumer insights and innovation manager at Ally, says all researchers should try to emulate the sea creature due to its natural curiosity and empathy. Two characteristics that the team at Ally use daily, resulting in developments that customers actually wanted.
Learn more about the development of ‘Savings Buckets’ and things to impliment even if you are not on an innovation team in this session from the 2025 Quirk’s Event – Virtual Global.
Session transcript
Emily Koenig Hapka
Hello and welcome to the session, “From discovery to execution: Driving innovation through research.” My name is Emily and I'm an editor here at Quirk’s.
Before we get started, let's quickly go over the ways that you can participate in today's discussion. You can use the chat tab to interact with other attendees during the session, and you can use the Q&A tab to submit questions for the presenters during the session.
Our next session is presented to you by Ally. Enjoy the presentation!
Taylor Hobgood
Hi everyone. I'm Taylor Hobgood, consumer insights and innovation manager at Ally Bank.
Before I ever worked at Ally, I was a customer and the reason I opened an account was the ‘Savings Buckets’ feature. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this actually makes sense. This is how I already think about my money.’ It felt like a bank had finally built something for the way real people organize their lives.
Fast forward to today, I've joined the very innovation team that brought that feature to life, and now I know what made it feel so intuitive.
It came from deep, scrappy, human-centered research. The team didn't start with the shiny idea, they started with curiosity, with listening.
That's what I want to share with you today. Not a product story, but a process story. A look at how putting real people first can lead to insights that inspire real meaningful change for both consumers and the business.
Today, I lead research at Ally’s Innovation and Concepting Studio. My job is to translate real human needs into design opportunities to make sure we're building the right things for the right reasons, and that includes pushing the team to ask the right questions, to move fast without skipping the human part and to stay grounded in how people actually live.
Today, we'll keep it simple. First, I'll give you a peek into how our innovation team and Ally works, what our research process looks like, how we move fast while staying human centered and how a feature like, ‘Savings Buckets,’ came to life.
Then I'll zoom out and I'll share a few takeaways, concrete things that you can apply even if you are not on an innovation team, because what we found is that innovation research isn't about a specific title or structure. It's about your mindset, your curiosity and the way you listen.
Yes, that's an octopus and I'm showing it to you because if there's one thing I hope you take away from this talk, it's this, be curious and be empathetic. Octopuses, and surprisingly yes, that is the correct plural form of that word, are incredibly curious creatures. They explore, investigate and adapt quickly to new environments, but they're also deeply empathetic.
They're known to be sensitive to other creatures, aware of emotional cues and responsive to their surroundings, and that's exactly what good researchers do. Especially when we're working in ambiguity under pressure or without a clear roadmap leading with curiosity and empathy help you to navigate complexity, connect with people and to ultimately uncover insights that actually move things forward.
So, this is our anchor for today and really for this kind of work in general, be curious and be empathetic.
Let's talk about how we approach innovation at Ally’s Concepting Studio.
This is the framework we use. You've probably seen some version of this. It's rooted in design thinking, in human-centered design, but what makes it work for us is how it's lived out fast, messy, deeply human and always grounded in the people we're designing for.
We don't always follow it in perfect sequence, but these are the mindsets that we return to starting with empathy and ending with real-world solutions.
What does this process actually look like and why does it work?
I want to share a case study from our team's work on what eventually became the ‘Savings Buckets’ feature. I'm not sharing this to talk about the feature itself, but to illustrate how we work. This is one example of how curiosity and empathy helped us to navigate ambiguity and uncover what really mattered to people. And this same approach applies to any project we take on regardless of topic, audience or outcome.
Before we even get into the work itself, I want to pause here and explain that it all starts with the right team.
Our studio team is intentionally small and cross-functional. We're made up of two strategists, one researcher, one designer and one facilitator. While we each bring a different craft, we all wear many hats.
Everyone's involved in empathy, synthesis and prototyping. Titles matter less than the mindset. We're all listening, exploring and solving problems together. This kind of structure allows us to move quickly, think holistically and remain grounded in what consumers actually need.
Another important thing about our team, most of us don't come from backgrounds in financial services.
We've worked at places like SiriusXM, American Airlines, Kellogg's, all very different industries. And our diverse backgrounds help us to solve problems better and more creatively because we're not anchored in how things have always been done in banking. We're anchored in people, in human behavior.
Okay, so once you've got the right team positioned well within the company, you're ready to tackle business imperatives.
The business came to our team with a clear challenge. How might we increase customer engagement and retention beyond offering a competitive interest rate?
Something that I want to emphasize here is that our work isn't happening off on the side. We're actually positioned within the business to take on real strategic problems that matter.
So, this was our starting point, a very real, very relevant question. One that affects growth, loyalty, long-term value and ultimately the bottom line. And instead of jumping straight to solutions, we started with listening to people.
The way we listen to people is based on these three ideas.
We combine a quantitative and qualitative approach to research. Quantitative methods help us to understand the breadth of the problem. While qualitative methods help us to understand the why.
We adopt a bias to action mindset, meaning we're constantly learning and adjusting. If we hear something new, we pivot quickly to explore it. We don't wait for perfect data. We move fast. We talk to lots of people, and we find validity in the cumulative nature of the research across the project.
Finally, it's not just the researcher in the room doing the research. Our approach is fully democratized. Strategists, designers, facilitators, everyone's involved in research, everyone is hearing directly from customers. This shared empathy shapes our decisions and keeps us aligned on what really matters.
Across the Savings Bucket project alone, we spoke to over 2,000 consumers over the course of just four spreads, which is about eight weeks. You can see how our core ideas here help us to talk to a lot of people really quickly.
Through talking to these consumers, we learned a lot insights that helped us to solve the right problem. On the surface, it looked like people were just chasing better interest rates, but when we talked to them directly, we uncovered something deeper.
People weren't just rate shopping, they were detached from their banks. To them one savings account felt the same as the next. Unless the rate changed, there was no real reason to stay.
What we heard again and again was that people were spreading their savings across multiple accounts or doing mental math within one account to keep track of different goals.
This part over here was for their wedding. That part over there was their emergency fund. In this other account, we were saving for our kids' education.
So, the deeper problem wasn't just about competitive rates, it was about clarity, control and emotional connection. People desired to feel organized, purposeful and more in touch with their money, but their accounts weren't helping them do that.
This kind of shift from the top of the iceberg to what's really underneath the surface only comes from direct listening. It took the team from a business problem to a human one.
The next step in our process is our ideation, which is hands down my favorite part of the process. It's where we get to turn all our insights into real ideas.
Once we understand the human need, we shift into solution mode and we do it together. We don't ideate in isolation. We host large cross-functional workshops, and we invite people from across the business to join people from marketing ops, product legal and risk compliance.
It helps us to generate ideas. Everyone brings their own unique lens, and because we've grounded them in the research they're building from a place of empathy, not from assumption.
Coming out of a single ideation session, we can have up to 500 ideas and then we test those ideas with consumers.
On the left of the screen, you'll see one of the earliest articulations of Savings Buckets just as simple two to three sentence concept meant to convey to consumers the value prop of the idea. Something this short and simple can be generated quickly just to get consumers feedback as quickly as possible.
We then analyze the data that comes back and we use it to iterate and begin to increase infidelity. We may jump from a concept card to mock landing pages or even a storyboard.
The point here is how quickly can you get something in front of consumers to get their feedback continuously, regardless of if it's perfectly polished or the highest fidelity.
The image on the right shows the highest fidelity prototype we tested for Savings Buckets.
The goal isn't to prove an idea, it's to learn from the real reactions so that we can shape something that really meets people's needs. Our job isn't ever to prove ideas because if the idea isn't great and it ends up being really costly to the business.
Our process ends usually somewhere between three and six months later with a consumer validated product out of this project.
An award-winning product has created a tool for customers to organize their money in a way that felt intuitive. Not only was the organizational aspect of savings addressed, the emotional aspect was too.
Consumers are now attached to their accounts. Their accounts offer them more than a rate. They offer them a place to store their money for all the things that matter to them, like their weddings, their children's education or even those Beyonce tickets they've had their eye on.
This product changed the game for savings accounts, and it was a win-win for both customers and the business. And because we validated the concept along the way with real people and in real-time, we launched with confidence.
The impact speaks for itself.
Today, one in three Ally savings, customers use buckets. Over 6 million buckets have been created. People who use the feature save nearly twice as much, and they're more likely to stay with us and explore other products.
Now, that you've seen how our team works through a challenge from insight to outcome, let's shift gears.
I want to spend the rest of our time talking about how you can apply the same mindset and approach to your own work. Whether you're on a big team or a team of one, whether you're deeply embedded in product or supporting brand, these principles still hold.
You don't need a formal innovation team to do this work. You just need the right mindset right tools and ultimately a willingness to lead with empathy and curiosity.
Alright, number one, democratization. This topic is one I know that's often debated in the research world, but I think regardless of where you stand on the topic, democratizing your research to some extent can help in many ways.
First and foremost, it gets stakeholders more included, invested and closer to the voice of the customer. It gets them empathizing directly with the people they want to learn from.
If you're not set up in a way that you can have people from outside your research team conducting interviews, other ways of democratizing research include inviting your stakeholders to a session to brainstorm a discussion guide. Invite them to listen in on interviews or even consider hosting a listening workshop at the end of data collection in which you play highlights, and have a conversation. The point here is the researcher is leading the conversation, sort of facilitating an all hands on deck approach to the session.
Host debrief sessions after interviews where designers get a chance to debrief what they've just heard with you. There are many ways to democratize the research process that ultimately will help others to empathize with the audience.
They're also trying to understand next, adopting a bias to action mindset. We've all seen research get delayed by perfection or buried under decks. A bias to action helps us to avoid that. It means that we're constantly learning, testing and iterating. We're not waiting until everything is perfect to move forward in our work.
That looks like starting with concept cards, building rough prototypes and validating just enough to keep the momentum going. It helps us to stay focused on the progress over perfection. And when research is in motion, it's getting traction, it stays alive, and it's not just the final report.
If you want to build a bias to action into your team, try framing early with research outputs as starting points, not conclusions. Put rough ideas in front of people even if it feels early. This small shift can unlock collaboration and faster learning.
Challenge your stakeholders to think bigger. Don't just take the business challenge they come to you with and react to it.
On our team, we like to start really broad because the business challenge may be over here and we completely miss the human problem way over here. Our role as researchers isn't just to answer the brief, it's to push it further. Sometimes that means asking, ‘Are we solving the right problem?’
Take the Savings Buckets project, for example. The original question on the table was, ‘How can we change the rate and not lose customers?’
Through research, we uncovered a deeper opportunity. Customers felt emotionally detached from their bank and we're juggling multiple accounts just to stay organized. That insight reframed our entire approach and ultimately led to a solution that strengthened connection rather than just tweaking a number.
When you get a research request, rephrase it into a “how might we” question that focuses on the human needs you're hearing. Share that reframed question back to your stakeholders. This is a simple move that can open the door to better conversations and better outcomes with your stakeholders.
Number four, act on your insights. This is key. If I were to take a job in a more traditional research role, again, this is one that I would absolutely bring with me to the table.
I can remember the days of my work really ending at the readout. I would pass off the insights and they would disappear into the abyss to hopefully be brought up in strategy meetings that I wasn't a part of.
Ideating on your insights is so powerful, even if it's just within team ideation, where you come together as researchers and ideate on your key takeaways so that you can provide meaningful recommendations and action items. But ideally, it's a session that includes a few key stakeholders, maybe before the readout where you're ideating together around the insights.
You don't need to have all the answers, just create a space to ask, ‘What could we do with what we know now?’
Finally, number five, creative insight delivery.
On our team, we present insights in creative ways. We've lowered the stakes of a demo just to be a chance to showcase where we are in the project. Sometimes that looks like printed out landing pages and literally writing our findings on a whiteboard next to those landing pages.
It gets stakeholders involved and out of another meeting where they're looking at PowerPoint slides, it gets them engaged and thinking creatively.
To wrap it all up, these are the four things that I hope you'll walk away with.
Get everyone involved in research. It builds shared empathy, and makes insights easier to act on.
Focus on solving consumer problems, not just business asks. That's where your relevance and your real value comes from.
Ideate based on your insights, generate ideas to spark action. It'll get the conversation going with your stakeholders and shake up how insights are delivered because a story that sticks is one that leads to action.
And you don't need a formal innovation team to do any of this. You just need empathy, curiosity and a willingness to work a little differently.
We've come full circle. I started this talk by saying that if you take nothing else away, take this, be curious and be empathetic
Now you've seen what that actually looks like in practice from the way we listen to the way we ideate, test and deliver, whether you're on an innovation team or not. Those two traits, curiosity and empathy will help you to navigate complexity, inspire better ideas and create work that truly resonates with the people you're designing for. So, be a little bit more like the octopus.
Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I hope you're leaving with a few ideas that you can bring back to your team, even if it's just that reminder to be curious, empathetic and not afraid to try something a little scrappy.
Appreciate your time. Thank you all.