Rabobank
Laying the groundwork for the Next-Gen Rabobank App
The challenge
Rabobank’s consumer banking app had become a feature-heavy tool that no longer aligned with how users actually thought or what the business needed.
The bank was looking for more than UX fixes. It needed a new structure and a long-term vision to guide the app’s evolution.
As a large organisation, there were many layers of stakeholders to address and numerous teams to involve. This made collaboration, alignment, and a strong strategic approach critical to success.
My role
As Senior Design and later Lead Designer for the Consumer Area, I was responsible for the core app experience for Rabobank’s retail clients (structure, navigation and home screen).
I played a key role in rethinking and redesigning critical digital journeys, helping shift from a legacy product mindset to a more customer-focused, agile, and scalable approach.
Working closely with Product, Business, and Technology, I:
Audit and analyse the current experience to uncover key opportunities
Lead cross-functional workshops to map user pain points and align on solutions
Bridge business priorities with real user journeys
Translate fragmented ideas into a coherent vision for the future app experience
The approach
We approached the rethinking of Rabobank’s consumer app from the most basic level: the problems and goals. Such a big app can't be change from one day to other. This was a long term strategy.
There are more than 10 teams working on different areas of the app (payments, housing, investments, insurance, housing, services, etc). And all needed to be taken into account for the new concept.
The process was built to uncover real pain points, bring teams together, and shape a future vision that felt both intuitive and strategic.
Key steps in the process included:
Discovery & Research
Audited the existing app, ran internal interviews, and gathered insights from UX researchers and business teams.Journey Mapping & Opportunity Framing
Facilitated collaborative workshops to map user journeys, spot friction points, and identify areas of strategic value.Concept Definition
Defined a new structure and interaction model centered around financial empowerment, smoother service access, and contextual guidance.Stakeholder Alignment
Presented a clear design strategy using concept sketches, narratives, and future-state journeys to align decision-makers across departments.
This process helped shift the conversation from feature delivery to long-term user and business value. It laid the groundwork for a more scalable and meaningful banking experience.
Outcome and impact
Although I left the company before implementation began, the impact of the work carried forward, something I can clearly see today.
The foundations we set became a reference point for future iterations and helped guide the app’s evolution well beyond the initial phase.
What happened after my departure:
The design strategy seemed to became a blueprint for the Rabobank app’s current direction
Key features were implemented following the structure, hierarchy, and UX vision we co-created
Several product managers and designers continued building on the concepts we defined together
It’s rewarding to see how a strong strategic base and a collaborative process can leave a lasting mark, even after the original team moves on.