Capital One mandates engineer‑customer touchpoints
SkimNews Take
Customer-back engineering, by empowering engineers to directly observe customer needs, transforms them into an internal research and development arm, identifying unmet needs and novel applications for AI.
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- McKinsey research finds organizations capture less than one-third of the value expected from digital investments.
- Capital One adopts a “customer‑back engineering” approach, requiring engineers to engage directly with customers through digital empathy sessions, embedded support, ride‑alongs and hackathons.
- Ashish Agrawal, managing vice president of business cards and payments tech at Capital One, says engineer‑customer interaction drives “sideways innovation” and boosts motivation.
- Engineers at Capital One are tasked each year with multiple customer touchpoints to surface friction and design solutions that improve the customer experience.
Why it matters: Capital One’s engineers and customers gain from faster, more relevant AI solutions, while firms that ignore customer‑back engineering risk missing up to two‑thirds of digital ROI, leading to wasted tech spend.
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