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Banking Analytics
Regulated environments where trust, compliance, and operational resilience are non-negotiable.
FIS
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MicroStrategy
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Inside this journey
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Pre-Discovery
Align the room on outcomes, decision process, and constraints before deeper discovery.
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Stakeholder Alignment
Confirm CFO, CRO, and CIO decision criteria, timeline (90-day pilot requirement), and acceptance signals for data connectors and regulatory validation.
Alignment Questions
Start Here: Who’s in the Room and Why This Matters
- Which people or roles will actively participate in discovery and the 90-day pilot?
- Who holds the budget authority and final vendor approval for this project?
- Who will be the single point of accountability for day-to-day pilot decisions?
- How would you describe the current emotional tone about this initiative internally (calm, urgent, defensive, skeptical)?
- Tell us, in a sentence, what the board asked you to deliver and the timeline they set.
If We Keep Doing Nothing, What Breaks Next?
- How often does a stale or reconciled report create an actual downstream problem (bad decision, audit finding, examiner question)?
- Give a recent example of when a manually compiled report led to embarrassment, a corrective action, or a near-miss with regulators.
- How concerned are you that current manual HMDA compilation could result in an examiner finding or consent order?
- What are the measurable costs of the current process (analyst hours per month, overtime, external consultants)?
- How long has your team tolerated manual spreadsheet reconciliations and one-off extracts?
- How does this recurring work affect morale or retention among analysts?
What Would Real-Time Reporting Actually Change for Your Bank?
- Which decisions would you change immediately if you had reliable real-time loan concentration views?
- What does 'real-time' mean for you in practice—seconds, minutes, hourly, or end-of-day?
- Which specific KPIs must improve to justify this investment (accuracy, report latency, regulator confidence, analyst time savings)?
- If a 90-day pilot delivers a working dashboard, what would you expect to see on day 90 to call it a success?
- How would improved HMDA consistency change your current exam conversations or disclosures?
What’s Actually Hidden In Your Data — Where the Real Problems Live
- Which core system(s) and ancillary feeds will we need to connect for the pilot?
- Are daily core extracts already available, or do extracts need to be created? If extracts exist, what format and cadence?
- Estimate the percent of records with known data quality issues (missing collateral code, stale balances, inconsistent borrower IDs).
- Describe the most common failure mode that causes stale or inconsistent reports (examples: delayed core cut, manual mapping errors, multiple versions of truth).
- Who currently owns data cleansing and mapping work, and what tools do they use?
- How quickly can you provide a sample extract (one month of historical data) for an initial connector build?
Proving It Quickly: Is 90 Days Realistic for You?
- You indicated a 90‑day pilot is required — which of these are non-negotiable pilot outcomes?
- What are the absolute deal-breakers that would make you decline post-pilot conversion to production?
- What historical horizon must be loaded for the pilot to be meaningful (12 months, 24 months, 36 months)?
- What acceptance signals will the CRO and CIO each look for at pilot close (specific examples from both roles)?
- Do you require a sandbox/test environment or can we use masked production extracts for the pilot?
Who Will Fight For This Inside Your Bank (Stakeholders & Blockers)?
- Who is the executive sponsor who will remove roadblocks if governance or compliance questions arise?
- Which groups are most likely to push back or delay the pilot (security, vendor management, core vendor, line leadership)?
- How many analyst or IT hours per week can your team realistically commit to the pilot?
- What historical or cultural reasons make those blockers resistant (past bad experiences with vendors, long procurement cycles, staffing shortages)?
- What outcomes or incentives would motivate internal leaders to prioritize this project?
How Will We Know the Numbers Are Trusted?
- Which reconciliation checks must match existing reports to consider outputs trusted (field-level HMDA, aggregate CRE concentration, borrower-level balances)?
- What tolerance for variance vs. your existing reports is acceptable during pilot validation (e.g., within 0.5%, 1%, 2%)?
- What peer or industry benchmarks should the pilot compare against to increase confidence?
- How would you like anomalies surfaced in the pilot—automated alerts, daily exception reports, or collaborative review sessions?
- Describe your formal sign-off workflow for accepting a new analytics output or regulatory report.
Contract & Commit: What Commercial and Governance Terms Matter Most?
- Which commercial terms are highest priority to resolve before pilot (pilot pricing, production pricing, data handling, liability, termination)?
- What SLA expectations do you have for connector development and support response times?
- What governance steps are required for regulator-facing sign-off and who must be on that approval chain?
- Are core-processor referrals or introductions part of your procurement preference?
- What escalation path should we expect if a regulatory or data issue emerges during pilot (who to call, within what timeframe)?
Next Steps: What Immediate Commitments Unlock Progress?
- Which datasets or documents can you commit to share within 7 days to start connector work (sample extracts, data dictionaries, HMDA mappings)?
- What is the earliest realistic week to kick off the pilot once contracting and onboarding are complete?
- What are the top three risks to starting in that time window (resource availability, legal/vendor mgmt, core vendor cooperation)?
- How would you prefer we communicate progress during the pilot—formal weekly status, shared Slack/Microsoft Teams channel, or ad-hoc emails?
- Who should be invited to the kickoff meeting (name and role), and who needs a separate executive-level briefing?
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Current State Mapping
Document existing data flows, manual spreadsheet reconciliations, core platform variants (FIS/Jack Henry/Fiserv), and failure modes that create stale or inconsistent reports.
Current State
Walk me through a report night
- Think of the last time your team produced a loan concentration report — tell me the sequence of steps from data pull to delivery.
- Approximately how many analyst hours per month go into producing those reports?
- Who on your team is directly responsible for pulling core extracts, reconciling spreadsheets, and signing off the final report? (select all that apply)
- Which tools or file types are central to your current process (e.g., specific spreadsheets, extract formats, middleware)? Select all that apply.
- Which single part of that workflow feels the most fragile or painful? Why did you pick that part?
Are you quietly accepting numbers you wouldn’t stake your career on?
- Have there been times when you pushed forward with a report even though you suspected the data was stale or inconsistent?
- Give a specific example where a stale or inconsistent report led to a near-miss, board question, or regulatory concern — what happened and who reacted?
- How often do you find reconciliation variances between your spreadsheet report and the core system or regulatory filings?
- When you discover inconsistencies, what are the immediate steps you take? How long does it take to reach clarity?
- How does this uncertainty feel for you and your leadership when the board or examiners ask for explanations?
Where in your data pipeline do things actually break?
- What are the top failure modes you see that create stale or inconsistent reports? (select all that apply)
- Which core platform(s) are you running today? (select primary and any secondary)
- Describe the typical cadence and format of the core extracts you receive (file type, fields included, delivery method).
- When a core vendor updates output formats, how quickly can your team adapt mappings and reconcile the differences?
- Tell us about a recent time a specific failure mode created an incorrect concentration or HMDA number — what root cause did you find and how long to resolve?
Who needs to be involved, and who tends to be absent when things go sideways?
- If we needed access to extracts, APIs, or an internal SME tomorrow, who would we ask first and who actually shows up in practice?
- Which organizational owner(s) control the keys required for a connector and pilot (select all that apply)?
- How many dedicated engineers or analysts could you realistically assign to a 90-day pilot (full or part time)?
- What internal approval or procurement gates would slow a pilot kickoff (e.g., legal, security, vendor contracts)?
- Share a recent example where lack of availability or ownership delayed a project — how long, and what was the impact?
If a real-time concentration signal existed today, what would it change for you?
- Which specific, measurable signals would convince the CFO/CRO that the solution is working? (select all that apply)
- What are your absolute acceptance criteria for the 90-day pilot (must-have checks, thresholds, and who must sign off)?
- Which stakeholder’s approval is the highest barrier to proceeding (select one)?
- How confident are you that those stakeholders will accept a pilot delivered with our banking-native model and your core extracts within 90 days?
- What minimum dataset would you need in the pilot to feel comfortable validating concentration and HMDA checks?
What would most likely derail a 90‑day pilot before it shows results?
- Which of these risks worry you most for a quick pilot? (select all that apply)
- Has your institution experienced a connector or integration project that missed deadlines? If so, what were the causes?
- How much time and budget would you be willing to allocate to remediation if we encounter unexpected data quality gaps during the pilot?
- What regulatory red lines (e.g., HMDA divergence, inconsistent CECL inputs) would force you to pause or escalate the pilot?
- If we found a systemic data issue that prevented accurate reporting, how would you prefer we handle communication and remediation?
Prove it to me — how will we validate success together?
- Which reconciliation checks do you need run to accept the pilot dashboard? (select all that apply)
- For HMDA consistency, which specific fields or aggregates are examiners likely to challenge in your institution?
- Do you require a documented SLA for connector development and remediation during the pilot? If yes, what maximum turnaround times are acceptable?
- Who needs to sign formal acceptance at the end of the pilot (select all required approvers)?
- After pilot acceptance, what handoff items or documentation will your team need to operate the solution in production?
What would make it painless to start — and what would make you walk away?
- Which communication rhythms and checkpoints would make your execs comfortable during a 90-day pilot? (select preferred cadence)
- Which sample extracts or artifacts can you share within two weeks to accelerate onboarding? (select all that apply)
- Are there compliance, legal, or vendor approvals we must complete before receiving extracts? If so, which ones and how long do they typically take?
- What training format would help your analysts adopt the pilot dashboard fastest?
- Who should we schedule as the 30-minute kickoff with to unblock the first two weeks (please name role and contact if possible)?
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Outcome Discovery
Define measurable success signals (real-time concentration metrics, HMDA consistency, pilot dashboard delivered in 90 days) and what must be true to accept the solution.
Discovery Questions
Starting Together: A Quick, Honest Snapshot
- Who will be the primary sponsor or signer for the 90‑day pilot from your side (title/role)?
- How urgent is this for the bank right now—did the board/timing create a hard 90‑day requirement or is there flexibility?
- Roughly how many analyst hours per month are currently spent pulling core extracts, reconciling HMDA, and assembling loan concentration reports?
- What emotion best describes the team’s current feeling about this work (pick one and tell us why in the next question)?
- In one short paragraph, tell us why you picked that emotion and one concrete example that illustrates it (e.g., a recent missed reconciliation or examiner comment).
If Regulators Find an Issue Tonight—What Happens?
- How would a regulator or examiner reacting to HMDA inconsistencies change your priorities—would it trigger immediate remediation, board reporting, or other actions?
- Have you ever received an examiner comment, consent order, or formal finding related to data/report consistency in the last 3 years? If yes, how long ago and what was required to resolve it?
- What would be the reputational, operational, or financial impact (estimate or qualitative) if your loan concentration or HMDA reporting was found materially inconsistent?
- Who on your team would be responsible for responding to a regulatory question about pilot outputs, and how quickly could they assemble evidence?
- How long have you been tolerating the current manual reconciliation process before taking action to change it?
Show Me the Data That Keeps Breaking
- Which source systems and core variant deliver the majority of loan and borrower data we’ll need for concentration and HMDA checks?
- Which parts of your current data flow produce the most stale or inconsistent results (pick the top two)?
- Tell us about a recent example where a reconciliation failed or produced surprising results—what went wrong and how long did it take to detect and fix?
- How frequently are core extracts produced and how accessible are sample extracts for a pilot (daily, weekly, monthly)?
- Are there known data quality gaps (missing collateral codes, partial HMDA fields, inaccurate borrower addresses) that will need remediation before a reliable pilot?
- How long have those particular data issues been present, and what attempts (if any) have been made to fix them?
What Would Signing Off on Day 90 Actually Look Like?
- If you stepped into the room on Day 90 and accepted the pilot, what three concrete outputs would you point to as proof (e.g., real‑time concentration table, HMDA reconciliation report, audit log)?
- Which measurable thresholds must be met for you to consider the pilot successful (select all that apply)?
- For the HMDA consistency metric you selected, what minimum percentage would the regulator and your CRO need to see to feel comfortable?
- What specific views or drilldowns on the pilot dashboard are mandatory for your CFO vs your CRO vs your CIO (list each role and their must-have reports)?
- How will you evidence traceability from a dashboard number back to the source extract during acceptance (preferred formats: reconciliation workbook, audit log, lineage diagram)?
The Non‑Negotiables: What Must Be True Before You Ever Sign?
- What are the absolute deal‑breakers that would make you decline the solution even if the dashboard looks right (e.g., missing connector to your core, inadequate security, lack of audit trails)?
- Which of the following technical or compliance controls do you require before pilot data can be loaded into an external platform?
- How sensitive is the bank to vendor access to PII/SSNs—do we need tokenization, partial masking, or full unmasked data for validation?
- What SLA or turnaround time do you insist on for connector development and fixes during the pilot?
- If acceptance requires remediation after the pilot, what governance do you expect for issue prioritization and funding for production rollout?
Decision-Making: Who Signs, Who Reviews, and How Fast?
- Who are the formal approvers for pilot acceptance across finance, risk, and IT (list names/roles), and who has veto power?
- What is the expected review cycle length for a pilot deliverable (how many business days does finance, risk, and IT each take to review)?
- Do you require an external auditor or internal audit to validate the pilot output before sign‑off?
- What artifacts must be delivered for approval (select all that apply)?
- If approval timelines slip, what escalation path do you prefer (contact list, weekly steering calls, executive escalation)?
Technical Roadblocks: Where Projects Stall and How We Avoid It
- If a connector to your core (FIS/Jack Henry/Fiserv) cannot be built in time, what fallback is acceptable for completing the 90‑day pilot?
- What internal IT constraints are likely to slow access (change windows, security approvals, network segmentation, vendor access policies)?
- Do you have a non‑production environment or sample extracts we can use immediately for mapping and connector testing?
- How many internal engineering or analyst FTEs can be assigned to support connector builds and mapping during the 90‑day pilot?
- If we hit a blocker, who on your side will own day‑to‑day coordination to clear it, and how quickly can they act?
How Will You Know the Numbers Are Trustworthy?
- What reconciliation cadence will satisfy you that the dashboard is accurate (one‑time verification, daily checks, weekly reconciliation, continuous monitoring)?
- Which comparative signals matter most for trust (peer benchmarks, historical internal reports, GL balances, regulator submissions)?
- What percentage of loan records must match end‑to‑end (source → transformed → dashboard) before you consider the pilot validated?
- Describe one scenario that would undermine your confidence even if metrics look good (e.g., repeated connector failures, lack of lineage, unexplained adjustments).
- Would an independent sample audit (third‑party) increase your confidence, and if so, who would you want to perform it?
From Pilot to Production: Avoiding Rework and Surprise Costs
- What conditions need to be met to roll the pilot into production without redoing mapping or connector work?
- Who will own ongoing maintenance of connectors and the data model after production (bank team, vendor, or shared model)?
- What commercial approvals are needed for production (budget sign‑off, procurement, legal), and how long do those typically take at your bank?
- Which production SLA metrics matter most (connector uptime, refresh latency, support response time)?
- If additional funding is required to reach production quality, who signs off and what approval processes are typical?
Readiness & Fastest Path: What Must Happen This Week
- Assuming we can meet your 90‑day target, what is the single fastest action you can take this week to unblock progress?
- Please confirm which sample artifacts you can provide immediately to start mapping (select all that apply):
- What is your preferred kickoff week if we can secure approvals and sample data within 7–10 days?
- Who should be included on a 30‑minute technical kickoff (names/roles), and who should receive executive status updates?
- Are there any vendor engagement rules we should know now (approved vendor list, insurance limits, legal terms that must be included)?
Final Confidence Check: Your Red Lines and Green Lights
- What are the top three red lines that would stop this pilot from moving forward (data privacy, inability to build connector, budget, executive buy‑in)?
- What are the three green‑light signals you want to see in week 4 of the pilot that will make you relaxed about hitting day 90?
- On a scale from 1–10, how confident are you today that the 90‑day pilot is achievable? Please explain the number briefly.
- Is there any additional context, concern, or internal political factor we haven’t asked about that would meaningfully affect acceptance criteria?
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Solution Experience
Validate how our banking-native data model and pre-built analytics deliver real-time concentration reporting using the customer’s core extracts and a sample workflow for the 90-day pilot.
Experience Meetings
- Pre-Experience Alignment (Required Prework)
- Diagnosis — Current State Walkthrough with Customer Data
- Proof — Live Mapping, Ingestion, and Real-Time Concentration Demo
- Validation & Acceptance Criteria — Reconciliation and Sign-Off
- Pilot Runbook & Go/No-Go Checkpoint
- Document the formal sign-off process and dates for the 90-day pilot checkpoint.
- Seller to prepare mapping templates for the live mapping session based on observed extract structures.
- Live Ingestion & Field Mapping
- Demonstrate mapping from the customer's core extracts into the platform's model with agreed transformations.
- Show real-time concentration metrics updating from customer data and tie each proof step directly to the stated future state.
- Collect explicit customer confirmations or corrections at each validation prompt.
- Seller to deliver a mapping workbook showing each source field and transformation for customer sign-off.
- Customer to confirm that the live concentration values reflect their expectations or document discrepancies to resolve.
- Agree test credentials and schedule sandbox connector build for full pilot.
- Side-by-Side Reconciliation
- Agree concrete numeric acceptance thresholds for concentration and HMDA reconciliation for the pilot.
- Assign owners for any mapping or data fixes required to meet acceptance criteria.
- Objectives & Rules of Engagement
- Customer to run and provide latest authoritative report used as the acceptance baseline.
- Seller to produce a reconciliation report detailing variances and recommended fixes within agreed SLA.
- Both parties to sign and timestamp the acceptance criteria document to govern pilot validation.
- Agree clear go/no-go criteria and checkpoint dates to avoid ambiguity mid-pilot.
- Schedule the pilot kickoff and ensure required resources are committed.
- Pilot Runbook Presentation
- Finalize and mutually agree the 90-day pilot runbook with named owners and SLAs.
- Both parties to sign the pilot runbook and confirm resource commitments for the kick-off date.
- Seller to confirm connector delivery SLA timeline and provide a delivery milestone calendar.
- Customer to assign the pilot owner who will execute acceptance tests during the checkpoints.
- A single, customer-agreed current-state sentence to drive the experience.
- Explicit, quantified consequence metrics to anchor urgency.
- One-sentence future-state outcome the proof must demonstrate.
- Receipt commitment for required sample extracts, credentials, and owner contacts prior to the live proof.
- Customer to deliver anonymized sample core extracts and a recent manual concentration report within X business days.
- Assign a single point of contact for data delivery and for decisions during the live proof.
- Schedule the Live Mapping & Proof session with required participants (CRO/CIO/analytics lead) within calendar window.
- Sample Extract Review
- Agree the exact data gaps and failure modes to be addressed by the pilot.
- Validate the time/cost/regulatory consequences that make the pilot urgent.
- Confirm which specific reports and reconciliations the pilot must match or replace.
- Customer to annotate and return a copy of the manual process with timestamps and owner names for each reconciliation step.
- Identify and flag any missing fields or extracts required for HMDA reconciliation and concentration metrics.
- Data Lineage & Transformation Proof
- Discrepancy Triage & Root Cause
- Current State — One Sentence
- Roles, SLAs & Connector Commitments
- Manual Workflow Recreation
- Go/No-Go Criteria & Checkpoint Dates
- Consequence — Quantify Impact
- Real-Time Concentration Calculation
- Define Acceptance Signals & Tolerances
- Failure Mode Identification
- Regulatory & Audit Exposure
- HMDA Consistency Check Demo
- Sign-off Process & Timeline
- Risk Register & Contingencies
- Future State — One Sentence
- Validation Checkpoint
- Data & Access Checklist
- 90-Day Pilot Workflow Walkthrough
- Escalation & Remediation Plan
- Kick-off Logistics & Immediate Next Steps
- Customer Validation Prompts
- Prework & Logistics
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Solution Scope
Define connectors, data sources, modules (loan concentration, HMDA reconciliation, CECL), responsibilities, and acceptance criteria for the pilot and production rollout.
Scope Configuration
- Deploy FIS production connector
- Deploy Jack Henry production connector
- Deploy Fiserv production connector
- Ingest Encompass LOS feed
- Stream digital banking clickstreams
- Activate real-time loan update streaming
- Load and reconcile historical core data
- Configure unified banking data model
- Deploy Loan Concentration Pilot Dashboard (90-day)
- Deploy CECL reserve modeling dashboard
- Automate HMDA extraction and mapping
- Activate BSA/AML alert tuning dashboard
- Deploy CRA geocoding and map analytics
- Enable self-service analyst dashboards and permissions
- Train analysts and line managers on dashboards
Scope Questions
Deploy FIS production connector
- Which FIS core product and version do you run (exact name and version)?
- What extraction method is available for your FIS instance?
- Which data domains are required from FIS for pilot (select all that apply)?
- Do you have a secure onboarding contact and technical credentials (SFTP account, API keys, VPN) available for connector build?
- Are there known data quality or schema customizations in your FIS extracts we should anticipate (e.g., custom fields, modified codes)? Describe.
Deploy Jack Henry production connector
- Which Jack Henry core product and release (Symitar, SilverLake, etc.) and any third-party modules in use?
- How are Jack Henry extracts delivered today?
- Which tables or report extracts will we need for the pilot (loan master, payment history, collateral, customer demographics)?
- Do you require connector development to comply with internal change-control or vendor (Jack Henry) approval processes?
- Are there SLAs or maintenance windows that will constrain nightly/real-time syncs with Jack Henry?
Deploy Fiserv production connector
- Which Fiserv core product and deployment model do you use (on-prem/cloud) and what version?
- What is the preferred delivery mechanism for Fiserv data (file drop, API, message queue)?
- Which Fiserv domains are required for the pilot (loans, payments, customer, collateral, transactions)?
- Do you currently have a vendor-managed integration or in-house pipeline for Fiserv extracts?
- Are there compliance or encryption requirements (FIPS, TLS versions, key rotation) specific to your Fiserv connection?
Ingest Encompass LOS feed
- Do you use Encompass as your LOS for commercial or consumer mortgages (or both)?
- What Encompass feed format is available (API, XML/JSON export, flat files)?
- Which loan-level fields from Encompass must map into the pilot (property address, collateral code, LTV, origination date, servicer ID)?
- Do you require near-real-time LOS updates or is daily batch sufficient for the 90-day pilot?
- Are there PII/PHI handling or redaction rules on LOS data we need to apply before ingestion?
Stream digital banking clickstreams
- Which digital banking platform(s) produce the clickstream events (vendor names)?
- What event types are required for analytics (login, transactions, money movement, channel usage, device fingerprint)?
- What expected event volume should the streaming pipeline handle (events/day)?
- What latency target do you expect for clickstream visibility (seconds, minutes, hours)?
- Are there data retention or privacy policies (GDPR-like, opt-outs) affecting clickstream storage or use?
Activate real-time loan update streaming
- Does the core support real-time update events for loans (origination, paydown, charge-off) natively?
- Which loan lifecycle events must be streamed for the pilot (origination, payment, modification, default, payoff)?
- What is the required end-to-end latency for loan updates (e.g., under 1 minute, under 5 minutes)?
- Do you have operational monitoring/alerting requirements for missed or delayed streaming events?
- Who owns stewardship and reconciliation for streamed loan events (team or role)?
Load and reconcile historical core data
- How many months/years of historical data are required for the pilot and for production modeling?
- Which historic domains are in scope (loan ledger, transaction history, customer demographics, collateral snapshots)?
- Are historical extracts available as full snapshots or incremental deltas, and what file formats are provided?
- What reconciliation tolerances are acceptable for pilot sign-off (e.g., balance variance thresholds, record count matching)?
- Are there known historical data gaps or migrations (core conversion dates) we should plan for? Describe.
Configure unified banking data model
- Do you require custom attributes or code mappings (local collateral codes, custom product IDs) beyond our canonical model?
- Which canonical keys should be used to join domains (account ID, customer ID, loan contract number)?
- Are there existing master data management or entity resolution rules we must preserve?
- What validation rules must be enforced on ingest (required fields, data type checks, code set validation)?
- Who will approve final field mappings and canonical model changes for production cutover?
Deploy Loan Concentration Pilot Dashboard (90-day)
- Which concentration views are primary for the pilot (CRE by collateral code, industry, borrower, geography)?
- What acceptance signals define a successful 90-day pilot (pilot dashboard delivered, reconciliation tolerances, regulatory consistency)?
- Which user groups need access to the pilot dashboard (CFO, CRO, Credit Analysts, Board members)?
- Do you require drill-to-transaction capability from dashboard metrics during pilot reviews?
- Are there specific peer-benchmark or threshold comparisons to include in the pilot (percent of portfolio >X, top 10 exposures)?
Deploy CECL reserve modeling dashboard
- Which CECL modeling approach are you currently using or expecting to use (Vintage, Discounted cash flow, PD/LGD)?
- What historical loss window and macroeconomic scenarios must be included for pilot modeling?
- Which inputs will be provided from your side (charge-off history, prepayment rates, macro overlays)?
- Do auditors or model validators need access to the CECL dashboard and underlying assumptions during pilot?
- What acceptance criteria will you use to validate CECL outputs against your existing models (variance thresholds, reconciled totals)?
Automate HMDA extraction and mapping
- Do you originate HMDA-reportable loans today and which years of historical HMDA data are available?
- Which fields must be mapped/validated for HMDA (property address, race, ethnicity, loan purpose, action taken)?
- Are there discrepancies between your current HMDA reports and core extracts we should prioritize reconciling?
- What tolerance or reconciliation rules will satisfy regulatory acceptance of HMDA extraction for pilot (record-level match, variance thresholds)?
- Who is the internal owner for HMDA sign-off and regulatory contact for validation/escrow?
Activate BSA/AML alert tuning dashboard
- Which alert types and sources must feed the tuning dashboard (transaction monitoring, OFAC, CTR/SAR metadata)?
- Do you want historical alert volumes and disposition rates included for tuning analysis?
- What tuning actions are allowed from the dashboard (rule threshold change, false-positive tagging, whitelisting)?
- Are there compliance review cycles or committee approvals required before tuning changes go into production?
- What KPIs will define success for the tuning pilot (reduced false positives, improved detection rate)?
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Mutual Commit
Confirm commercial terms, pilot deliverables, timeline, SLA for connector development, and governance for regulatory sign-off and escalation.
Agreement Modules
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Commercial Terms & Pricing
- Pilot Deliverable Acceptance
- Connector Development SLA
- Platform Service Level Agreement (SLA)
- Data Access & Integration Agreement
- Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
- Regulatory Governance & Escalation Protocol
- Roles & Responsibilities (RACI) Matrix
- Change Order & Scope Management
- Termination & Transition Plan
- Confidentiality & Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
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Deployment
Operationalize rollout with readiness checks, enablement, and outcome validation.
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Pre-Deployment Readiness
Verify access, sample extracts, historical data availability, data quality gaps, and owner assignments needed to meet the 90-day pilot delivery.
Readiness Questions
Quick Introductions — Who’s in the Room?
- Which people from your team will actively participate in the 90-day pilot?
- Who is the final decision owner for pilot acceptance and budget?
- How firm is the 90-day pilot deadline tied to board/exam requirements?
- Briefly describe one past pilot or vendor integration that felt successful or failed—what made it that way?
If We Have To Hit 90 Days, What Will Most Likely Break?
- Which single issue do you think is most likely to derail a 90-day pilot at your bank?
- Which source systems have historically caused the longest delays when integrating with vendors?
- How long does your organization typically take to approve external vendor technical access?
- Describe a recent integration delay: what happened, who was involved, and how was it resolved?
- How willing would you be to accept temporary workarounds (masked data, scoped DB replica) to meet the pilot deadline?
Where Your Data Lives — and How Messy It Feels
- How confident are you that your core extracts capture the fields needed for real-time concentration and HMDA reconciliation?
- Which core and ledger platforms are in scope for the pilot?
- Which additional upstream feeds should be included (pick all that apply)?
- What extract formats do you currently provide or can provide for a vendor (select all that apply)?
- Are sample extracts available now? If yes, summarize scope (tables, date range, sample size) or state constraints.
The Access Roadblocks That Stop Projects Cold
- Tell us about the worst access bottleneck you've had with an external partner and how long it took to unblock.
- Which secure access methods can your environment support for connector development?
- Which team approves external vendor access in your organization?
- Are vendor security questionnaires, pen-tests, or SOC reports required before access? If yes, what is the expected timeline to complete them?
- Do you anticipate any network or firewall changes will be needed to enable data extracts? If so, briefly describe.
How Good Is the Historical Story Your Data Tells?
- If an examiner asked your historical loan concentration and HMDA reports to stand up in court, how confident would you be in their defensibility?
- How much historical data is accessible for the pilot?
- Are HMDA-related fields consistently captured across historical records?
- Which common gaps exist in your data that we should know about (select all that apply)?
- Share a concrete example where a historical data gap created operational or regulatory pain.
Who Will Own Each Piece When It Gets Real?
- Who will be the primary owner for establishing and approving connector access?
- Who will own data mapping and business-rule translation (field definitions, collateral mapping)?
- Who will own validation and reconciliation (run checks, sign-offs vs. existing reports)?
- Who will own analyst training and handover for production use after the pilot?
- Who is the named escalation contact for regulatory or executive escalations during the pilot?
What Acceptance Looks Like — And What Would Make You Say Yes
- What is the single most important acceptance requirement for the CFO to approve pilot success?
- Which of these criteria are must-haves for pilot acceptance? (select all that apply)
- For HMDA consistency, which variance threshold would be acceptable for pilot acceptance?
- Who will perform the formal acceptance test and sign the acceptance record?
- List any legal, board, or regulator approvals required before we can move from pilot to production.
Hidden Costs, Technical Debt, and the Assumptions We’re Betting On
- Which integration assumption, if wrong, would cause the largest delay or cost overrun?
- Does your environment include customized or heavily patched versions of the core that may require special mapping?
- Will we need significant transformation logic beyond straightforward field mapping (for example, reclassifying collateral codes)?
- Estimate the internal FTE effort you can commit to the pilot in hours per week (combined across teams).
- Are there legacy scripts, spreadsheets, or tooling we should avoid or integrate carefully? If yes, name them and why.
A Realistic Timeline — Milestones, Owners, and the Hard Deadlines
- Which milestone is absolutely non-negotiable during the 90 days (pick one)?
- Are there blackout or restricted periods in the next 90 days (audits, fiscal close, regulator visits, holidays) we must avoid?
- What cadence for status updates would work best to keep stakeholders aligned?
- What escalation path and contact hierarchy do you want for critical blockers (who gets pinged at each escalation level)?
- Are there external deadlines (exam dates, board meetings) we should target as milestone anchors? If yes, list dates.
Final Check — Are We Setting This Up to Win?
- On a scale from 0 to 10, how confident are you that this team can meet the 90-day pilot objective?
- What is the single biggest unresolved risk that would reduce your confidence right now?
- Which immediate action should we take in the next 72 hours to reduce risk (select one)?
- Who should be invited to the deployment kickoff and why (list names/roles and expected contribution)?
- Would you like us to deliver a pre-deployment readiness checklist and timeline for sign-off before the kickoff?
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Deployment Enablement
Schedule connector builds, data loads, mapping tasks, analyst training, and milestones with clear owners and escalation paths.
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Validation Checklist
Run reconciliation, regulatory consistency checks (HMDA), peer-benchmark validation, and formal acceptance of the pilot dashboard against defined success signals.
Validation Questions
Setting the Table: One‑Minute Snapshot
- Who is completing this discovery on behalf of your organization?
- Which core system(s) and lenders’ systems are in scope for the pilot?
- Do you have a firm 90‑day pilot deadline tied to the board/exam requirement?
- Who must explicitly sign acceptance to declare the pilot 'complete' (select all who apply)?
- Briefly summarize any prior pilots or connector projects you’ve run (what worked, what stalled).
What If Your Numbers Don’t Line Up?
- If your month‑end concentration report were demonstrably wrong next week, what immediate consequence would concern you most?
- How often do your teams run reconciliation processes today?
- Approximately how many analyst hours per month are spent on manual data merges and reconciliations?
- Which reports or metrics commonly fail to reconcile reliably today?
- Tell us about a recent reconciliation failure: what happened, how was it discovered, and what was the impact?
Are Regulators Going To Like This?
- If an examiner compared your HMDA/CRE numbers to our pilot and found a gap, would that trigger a formal finding?
- Have you had HMDA, fair‑lending, or CRA findings in the past three exams?
- Which HMDA fields or reconciliation touchpoints are most sensitive for your compliance team?
- What variance vs legacy filings would you consider acceptable during pilot validation?
- Who on your team owns regulator engagement and exam responses (name and role)?
Where Is the Real Data Friction?
- What hidden quirks in your data do you suspect are silently breaking reports today?
- Which extract formats can you provide for the pilot?
- How much historical data can you provide for validation (approx months)?
- How frequently do key fields (collateral code, property address, borrower ID) appear missing or inconsistent?
- Please list any known extract quirks, field mappings, or transformation rules we must honor (free text).
Could We Prove This In 90 Days—or Are We Dreaming?
- If a 90‑day pilot fails, what single obstacle do you believe would most likely be to blame?
- Which dependencies must be completed in the first two weeks for a 90‑day outcome to remain realistic?
- What SLA do you require for connector development and critical fixes during the pilot?
- Which of these success signals must be present in the pilot dashboard on day 90?
- What are the minimum KPIs or numbers we must meet to call the pilot a success (please be specific)?
Who Signs Off When It’s Done?
- Who will be required to sign formal acceptance and what will each signer require to be comfortable?
- Which artifacts do signers require as part of acceptance?
- How long does your typical internal approval cycle take after deliverables are submitted?
- If formal sign‑off is delayed, what fallback approach do you prefer?
- Please name the primary escalation contact and their role in governance escalations (free text).
How Will You Know You Trust It?
- If analysts don't trust the pilot outputs, how quickly will they revert to spreadsheets and manual processes?
- What validation steps would make analysts comfortable with the new dashboard?
- How often should automated reconciliations run during the pilot to build confidence?
- What variance threshold vs legacy reports would cause analysts to lose confidence?
- Describe your current human process for resolving reconciliation exceptions and who makes the final call (free text).
When Things Go Wrong, Who Fixes It?
- If a connector fails on a Friday afternoon, who will be responsible for immediate remediation and escalation?
- Which incident severity levels do you use and which require immediate vendor action?
- What maximum response time do you require for Sev 1 and Sev 2 issues?
- What is your preferred incident communication channel during the pilot?
- Do you require a rollback plan so legacy reports are available while issues are resolved?
Show Me the Moments That Prove This Worked
- If you received three undeniable proof points on day 90, which would force an executive to sign a production contract? (select up to three)
- Do you require a formal handoff package (runbook, mappings, training recordings) at pilot close?
- Would you prefer a joint regulator walk‑through during the pilot or after production?
- How should we capture lessons learned and a production roadmap?
- Which ongoing support model do you prefer after pilot acceptance?
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Success
Confirm outcomes, document lessons, and maintain a shared channel for issues, enhancements, and ongoing regulatory needs.
Success Reviews
- Pilot Acceptance & Outcomes Review
- Lessons Learned & Continuous Improvement Retrospective
- Regulatory & Audit Handoff
- Operational Support & Enhancement Governance
- Transition to Production & Roadmap Review
Issues & Enhancements
- Commit to an enhancement prioritization and release process that balances regulatory urgency and bank impact.
- Schedule follow-up checkpoints to review progress on top 3 high-impact improvements.
- Regulatory Findings Recap
- Confirm a complete, regulator-ready evidence package and timeline for delivery.
- Establish clear internal sign-off authorities and the vendor’s role during examinations.
- Agree on procedures for version control, historical reconciliation records, and retention for audits.
- Assemble and deliver the Regulator Evidence Binder to compliance and CRO for sign-off.
- Document and publish the examiner engagement playbook including vendor participation guidelines.
- Implement versioning and archival procedures for reconciliation reports and source mappings.
- Support Model Overview
- Agree on an operational support model with documented SLAs and escalation routes.
- Establish a shared communication channel and weekly triage governance to handle issues and enhancement requests.
- Welcome & Objectives
- Create the shared channel and invite core team members with defined channel rules and hours of coverage.
- Publish the SLA and escalation matrix and obtain sign-off from vendor and bank ops leads.
- Populate the enhancement backlog and schedule the first prioritization triage session.
- Production Readiness Checklist
- Lock a production cutover date with an agreed checklist and owner commitments.
- Ensure monitoring, alerting, and runbooks are in place to detect and respond to production issues.
- Confirm training completion criteria and schedule for operational users and compliance reviewers.
- Finalize and distribute the Production Cutover Runbook with assigned owners and backout plan.
- Deploy monitoring dashboards and automated alerts for critical reconciliation and connector health signals.
- Schedule and deliver role-based training sessions and publish recorded materials and runbooks.
- Obtain explicit stakeholder decision on pilot acceptance (accept / conditional accept / reject).
- Validate that defined success signals were met or identify concrete shortfalls with owners and timelines.
- Agree the immediate remediation plan and next milestone for production readiness or rework.
- Publish formal Pilot Acceptance document signed by CFO/CRO/CIO or capture conditional acceptance criteria.
- Open tracker for any data-validation defects with severity, owner, and ETA for resolution.
- Deliver regulator-ready summary package (reconciliations, methodology, data lineage) for compliance review.
- Timeline Recap and Facts
- Produce a documented lessons-learned artifact with root causes and recommended fixes.
- Create a prioritized improvement backlog with owners and target dates.
- Ensure clarity on who will implement changes and how progress will be reported.
- Draft and circulate a Lessons Learned report including root-cause analysis and proposed fixes.
- Create prioritized backlog items in the project tracker with owners and estimated effort.
- Cutover Timeline and Responsibilities
- Service Level Agreements & Escalation Paths
- Technical Retrospective
- One‑Sentence Current State
- Evidence & Documentation Package
- Shared Communication Channel & Cadence
- Success Signals vs Results
- Governance & Sign-Off Flow
- Process & Organization Retrospective
- Monitoring & Alerting Plan
- Data Validation Summary
- Examiner Engagement Plan
- Enhancement Backlog Process
- Training & Knowledge Transfer
- Customer Impact & Consequence Review
- Ongoing Audit Support and Versioning
- Acceptance Decision & Sign-Off
- Prioritization Workshop
- Monitoring, Alerts & Reporting
- 90/180 Day Roadmap & Review Cadence
- Assign Owners & Timelines
- Immediate Next Steps