Bank-fintech partnerships start with a need to reduce friction.

That was one of the big takeaways from a panel I joined last week at Q2 Connect with Chris Hewitt of Valley First Credit Union and Janine Specht of Kearny Bank.

What made the conversation valuable was its practicality. I learned a lot from my fellow panelists, who shared what they’ve learned from building real partnership strategies.

A few points that stuck with me:

*Start with the problem. Where’s time being lost? Where are customers dropping off? What manual work could be automated?

*Define success before the demo. “We need AI” is not a problem statement.

*Assign ownership. If no one owns the initiative, it’s just a demo.

*Pilot tightly. Small scope, short timeline, clear go/no-go gates.

*Measure adoption. Weekly active users, feature utilization and task completion rates matter as much as financial performance.

*Scale only after proof. The best institutions treat each launch as a template, not a one-off.

A fintech integration that marketing can’t explain and branch staff can’t optimize is expensive wall art.

More on this in today’s Bank Slate.