In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer speaks with Jennifer Jenkins, Head of CX Design at Scotiabank. Jennifer shares her deep expertise in service and systems thinking, offering a fresh lens on organizational silos, cross-functional collaboration, and the evolving practice of journey management. With roots in workplace design and a strong belief in in-situ research, she provides a unique perspective on how to elevate both customer and employee experiences.

The conversation delves into topics such as rethinking silos as structures, aligning organizational design with customer experience, the necessity of qualitative research in a digital world, and designing with sustainability in mind. Jennifer advocates for systems that are not only more efficient but more human, urging companies to expand their awareness, reframe assumptions, and design responsibly for scale.

Guest Bio

Jennifer Jenkins is the Head of CX Design at Scotiabank, where she leads strategy and design across complex systems in a large, legacy financial organization. With a background spanning service design, workplace strategy, and systems thinking, Jennifer brings a multidisciplinary approach to shaping impactful customer experiences. She is particularly known for championing cross-functional pods, emphasizing qualitative research, and promoting sustainable design choices in digital contexts.

Takeaways

• Silos can be reframed as necessary structures; the goal is to connect them, not eliminate them.
• Service design often breaks down when organizational design doesn't align with the intended customer experience.
• Journey pods at Scotiabank are cross-functional, aligning CX strategy with product development early in the process.
• Pods engage in both qualitative and quantitative research, using methods from anthropology to unmoderated online testing.
• Trust within an organization reflects externally: high employee trust correlates with high customer trust.
• Designing journeys as nonlinear, multidirectional experiences is more accurate than traditional linear models.
• Qualitative, in-situ research captures insights missed in digital-only environments – context truly matters.
• Journey-centric org models must remain hybrid to account for structural and process realities.
• Designing for sustainability includes decisions like avoiding unnecessary animations or heavy media.
• Employees often lack the tools and knowledge to act sustainably – education and awareness are key.
• Sustainability in digital design must consider both content and energy use, and requires collaboration with engineering.
• Small design decisions, when scaled across millions of users, can have a massive environmental impact.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and welcome

01:12 Jennifer Jenkins’ background and role at Scotiabank

02:00 Rethinking organizational silos

04:00 Why silos persist in legacy organizations

09:00 Aligning org structure with service delivery

10:00 Designing effective journey pods

13:00 Balancing quant and qual in CX research

14:00 Making CX insights actionable

16:30 Nonlinear journey design and its challenges

21:00 Viability of journey-centric org design

23:00 The overlooked role of employee experience

27:00 Measuring intangible experiences

29:00 The value of in-situ research

32:00 AI's limitations in understanding human nuance

35:00 Real-world insights from observational research

38:00 Journey friction and user trust

39:00 Designing CX with sustainability in mind

44:00 Empowering teams with knowledge and skills

48:00 Closing thoughts and where to find Jennifer

LinkedIn

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