I’d originally applied for the Marketing graduate programme. While I was doing my economics degree, I was working for a consultancy firm taking care of the sales and marketing side of things so this seemed to make sense. However, the programme was full so technology was suggested as an alternative and I’ve not looked back since. I completed my fourth rotation in Digital Banking and decided to stay here in a permanent role. I’ve already completed three; the first involved working in a Business Analysis role on the Track it program. This was followed by some time in the Barclaycard Chief of staff team and then Pingit.

Work in progress

I’ve been in digital for 10 months now. I started out working on Launchpad, an experimentation platform involving real Barclays customers to get their feedback on new ideas. I found this particularly useful as I could interact directly with customers and understand their needs. The graduate programme has been a great way to start my career. I’ve been given lots of responsibility from day one which has meant taking ownership of a variety projects. This is a great way to learn as it really enables you to engage with every aspect of what’s going on.

One product I managed was a calendar feature, giving customers a visual way to see their scheduled outgoing payments. This was to enable customers to have a better way to plan financially. We wanted to concentrate on ways of improving the customer experience in a particular channel. The variety this entailed was incredible; I worked with designers and developers to define the product journey – and when it went live, I was also responsible for its performance. It was my job to act as the customer’s proxy in every area of design, as well as overseeing the development process and product review. The great thing about Launchpad is that we are constantly improving our features based on customer feedback – so I am now working on calendar version 2, to incorporate the requests and suggestions we’ve had from our customer base.

My knowledge base is growing all the time. One of the most useful training activities was on agile frameworks. Working within the scrum framework enables us to flex and adapt our approach more easily. I’ve also learned a great deal of technical skills from colleagues. They are a mine of information and always happy to share what they know.

What happens next?

One of the best things about working here is the resources you have to make things happen. We’re a big business so we can afford to invest in experimenting with new ideas and propositions for our customers. That said, we still benefit from working with start-up companies, so that we can offer our customers a diverse experience, incorporating best-in-class solutions from our FinTech partners

For me personally – I know I like product management and I’m sure there’s still more scope to grow. Digital banking is where I’d like to stay, because it’s constantly changing, meaning that we as a business have to constantly innovate to meet our customers’ growing list of demands. That makes for a really dynamic and interesting working environment.