Declan Brennan Top-Executive
Over 14 years of experience in the banking industry. Currently working in Digital Transformation, enhancing digital & AI experiences.
Industry:
Medicine and Biology
Headquarters:
Manchester, England
Title:
Digital & AI Product Lead | Colleague Experience
Company:
NatWest Group
Company Industry:
Banking
Company Website:
natwestgroup.com
Company Linkedin:
linkedin.com/company/natwest-group
Company Size:
10001+
Current Job Duration:
9 mos
Country:
United Kingdom
Work Experience:
Title: NatWest Group
Company: Natwest Group
Company URL: https://www.linkedin.com/company/natwest-group/
Industry: Banking
Company Size: 10001+
Location: None
Country: None
Employment Type: None
Start At: 04-2025
Ends At: Present
Description: Leading the strategy, implementation and optimisation of Workday (SaaS) features/solutions to improve & enhance colleague journeys.
Identifying & leveraging AI/ML/GenAI capabilities to drive innovation & transform the colleague experience.
Key liaison between our Colleague Journey teams & Workday to help NatWest Group maximise the value of our Workday investment.
Driving the bank-wide simplification agenda across multiple projects for Group COO function.
Supporting the management of additional People/HR systems, platforms & processes (internal & third-party)., UI/UX lead for our virtual assistant Cora.
Leading a team of Experience Managers, Business Analysts & UX Designers across multiple squads responsible for the ‘look & feel’ of Cora (across 6 brands) and platform used for ~10m customer conversations each year.
Enhancing the user experience by delivering new innovative features, improving functionality and championing digital accessibility.
Additional responsibility of data transformation and third-party supplier management., Product Owner within the AI Digitisation Delivery team.
Leading projects & cross-functional teams to digitise customer journeys and integrate new technology & APIs into Cora, our award winning virtual assistant.
Also part of the NatWest Group Talent Academy, a cohort of future focused leaders and area experts across the bank with high potential., Supporting the strategy, development and scale-up of Cora, our AI powered digital assistant.
As part of the AI Data & Optimisation team, taking on roles of Product Owner & Scrum Master to lead the Cora Engage with the Bank Scrum team to use data and collaborate with customer business areas / product teams to identify opportunities to build new journeys into Cora and to prioritise programme backlog.
Also leading the AI chatbot Adoption & PR strategy, working closely with internal and external marcoms teams to build, design and promote creative content across multiple channels., Working as part of the Digital Help, Support & Conversational Design team to enhance our customer facing AI chatbot Cora.
Using Jira, LeanKit, Confluence, IBM Watson Assistant and IBM Cognos to create user stories, manage backlog, analyse conversations, undertake journey optimisation, complete UX redesigns and implement data-driven improvements.
Additional responsibility as content manager for c50 webpages within the Help & Support sections of our websites and online library of c1,500 customer facing FAQs for NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank NI, Ulster Bank ROI, NW International & Isle of Man Bank., Responsible for setting up digital strategies across frontline teams in the UK, ROI & India.
Using customer data, employee insights and working with key stakeholders to drive mobile and digital adoption performance across NatWest, RBS & Ulster Bank.
During this period NatWest Mobile App was #1 in the market for mobile penetration., Capturing and analysing insights from ~12m annual calls to identify opportunities to influence digital banking roadmaps, accelerate customer migration and reduce telephony call volumes.
Managing the Retail Banking email marketing tool platform. Using Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and Adobe Analytics to create, design, analyse and optimise over 1,200 email templates across 6 brands with annual use of over 2 million emails., Using the Determined to Lead framework to coach, inspire and motivate up to 20 Personal Bankers and 1 Deputy Team Manager to take ownership, follow up and provide outstanding customer service to ~8,500 incoming customer calls each week.
Overseeing complaint resolution processes, monitoring call trends and driving continuous improvement initiatives.
Qualified Sports Coach for Business., Leading up to 12 Customer Service Advisors to serve ~5,000 incoming customer calls each week.
Managing and driving performance against key objectives, whilst making sure that key regulatory, operational and control processes are adhered to.
Accredited interviewer, supporting recruitment, staff retention and talent development across the contact centre., First point of escalation for advisors for a range of customer and process queries, whilst promoting a culture of first point of contact resolution for Personal and Business Banking customers.
Project implementation across multi-site contact centres., Delivering quality interactions with customers at first point of contact for both RBS and NatWest customers.
Pro-active lead generation to help customers save or make money through a range of products and services.
Leading inductions for new starters, delivering L&D training material, providing regular support and observational feedback via coaching and skill building to ensure staff are clear, capable and motivated in role.
Education:
School: Tottington High School
Degree: null, null
Activities: None
Headline:
Digital & AI Product Lead | Senior Product Manager | Digital Transformation | NatWest Group