Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria : BBVA shares its knowledge about service design with the academic world

Service design is a strategic element in BBVA's approach to understanding and satisfying customers' needs at a time of great challenges for the banking industry. This year, a member of BBVA´s design team will give classes at two Spanish academic institutions, to share his knowledge with future professionals.

Creating opportunities, attending to peoples' needs and solving their problems are some of the basic principles that guide the work of BBVA's designers. Within the company, they use design as a driver to accelerate innovation and to offer users new and better ways of interacting with their money.

But outside the bank, BBVA's designers also have an important function in publicizing the role this discipline plays in the banking sector, and in training and attracting new talent. To this end, Andrés Botero, Global Design Lead at BBVA, this year will share his knowledge and know-how at two Spanish academic institutions.

One of them is the innovation training school h2i Institute, headquartered in Madrid, which is dedicated to 'increasing the business community's awareness of the importance of innovation methodologies.' In this context, Botero will offer classes in Business Design during the months of January and May, when he will teach students how to 'keep in mind the business aspects when designing a service.'

In February, Botero has been invited to speak about the relevance of design to the user experience, at the Uxerschool, which specializes in this and other methodologies such as service design and 'design thinking.' Botero will use the occasion to tell students how design has become an increasingly important discipline in the banking industry and why working in this sector can be an exciting challenge for designers.

We want to create spaces where designers can think about new ideas and work without restrictions'

Worldwide, BBVA employs some 250 designers and has plans to raise that number. 'We want to create spaces where designers can think about new ideas and work without restrictions, on projects they believe will have a great impact on the world, ' explained Rob Brown, BBVA's head of Marketing, Design and Responsible Business, during the Service Design Global Conference held in Madrid in 2017. The speed at which projects pass from the hands of designers to those of customers, as well as the context of stimulation and creative freedom that characterizes Brown's team, are some of the elements that make a bank like BBVA and attractive environment for young designers.

Working in the area of education is a reciprocal learning opportunity for BBVA. Apart from sharing its own experience, the bank acquires valuable knowledge about trends, needs and the ways of thinking of professionals in training. It is also a great opportunity for BBVA to make contact with the next generation of young designers, something that is of great importance for an area of the bank that is in continual expansion and always seeking to recruit new talent.

BBVA was the principal sponsor of the Service Design Global Conference, one of the most important events for the international design community. Organized by the Service Design Network (SDN), last November's event brought together more than 700 experts, including designers, academics and presenters from all over the world. The principal international design schools were represented at the event, including the Istituto Europeo di Design and the Savannah College of Art and Design.