Take another not-so-random walk with me, this time as my colleague Peter Wannemacher and I explore what makes USAA a standout performer in our Mobile Banking Benchmark assessment. As we did before when exploring The Home Depot’s success in our “The Forrester Retail Wave: US Mobile Web, Q4 2017” report, we invited executives from USAA to join us for a Q&A. In this recording, you’ll hear from two of those executives, Shauna Brown and Christy Rogers, who tell us not just what they’re doing at USAA but why and how they’re doing it. Among the many things I learned from them was something you’ll hear them refer to as “commander’s intent,” which seems a way that all organizations could balance the top-down goals of the leadership with the bottom-up experience and readiness-for-agility that Brown and Rogers describe exists at USAA. (See a related report for Forrester clients with the same audio and some additional Forrester commentary in our “How USAA Sets The Benchmark For Differentiation In Mobile Banking” report.)

First, a word on what USAA accomplished: In our most recent US Mobile Banking Benchmark, we evaluated the retail mobile banking services of six US banks as part of our global analysis of 40 banks. Our thorough analysis of mobile banking applications and mobile web experiences revealed that while the majority meet basic functionality and usability criteria, the entire category suffers from a lack of differentiation. The exception is USAA, which stands out among the big US players by prioritizing a member-focused experience and delivering this via innovation in multiple mobile touchpoints.

Now, to the audio: Give it a listen and see what else you can learn from the USAA case study. And if you have some thoughts about whether this format has been useful to you, let us know. I’m at @jmcquivey on Twitter; just send me a note to let me know if you want more of this kind of behind-the-scenes look into the companies that show up as top-ranked in our research.