As technology is reshaping all industries on a dime – particularly AI, credit unions face the dual challenge of embracing innovation while staying true to their member-centric mission. Future-proofing your credit union. We recently sat down with Brett Wooden, a seasoned software strategist at Buildable, to delve into these critical questions and uncover the secret sauce for credit union innovation.
Brett, who has a unique background spanning marketing, business development and IT, emphasizes that the most crucial ingredient for credit union innovation isn’t always the latest flashy tech. Instead, he points to the often-overlooked internal focus. “Get your data organized, get your structure organized, really focusing on the internal members, which are your employees,” Brett advises. He believes that addressing employee pain points and streamlining internal processes are foundational steps that often spark the most impactful innovations. This “human-centric design with your staff” can lead to solutions that genuinely enhance both employee efficiency and, consequently, member service. To see Brett in action, watch the video! Article continues below.
The conversation also touches upon the common pitfall of chasing “shiny new things” without a clear purpose. Brett highlights how Buildable, a company specializing in custom software solutions, helps credit unions move beyond off-the-shelf products to create tailored tools, including those leveraging large language models and AI. He stresses that such custom solutions don’t necessarily require a “champagne budget,” but can often be achieved with a “beer budget”.
Brett also shares fascinating anecdotes from his career, including how a geology class project led him down the path of web development and how observing hospital staff sparked ideas for improving member experience. He also discusses a current collaborative project with Room 39A, a CUSO of Community Financial Credit Union, focused on developing solutions for aging adults and the “sandwich generation.”
This interview offers a compelling look into the mind of a strategist who believes in practical, purpose-driven innovation. To hear more of Brett’s invaluable insights on fostering a culture of innovation, the power of internal focus, and surprising ways to approach technological integration within credit unions, watch the full interview below. You won’t want to miss his unique perspective on how credit unions can thrive in a rapidly evolving digital world.
Disclosure: Transcript below is automatically generated
Sarah Cooke
I think you have to accept it. Okay, alrighty. Hello and welcome everybody. I am Sarah Snell Cook your host of the Credit Union Connection. I’m here today with the man who’s been all over credit unions, literally everywhere. Brett Wooden, Software Strategist
at Buildable. Welcome.
Brett Wooden
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Sarah Cooke
So tell us what a software strategist does and what Buildable does.
Brett Wooden
That’s a great question. So Buildable, Buildable develops custom software solutions, and so specifically, we’ve been focusing a lot on large language models, AI consuming the data, providing output, and my role is really to help credit unions, kind of in this new era where a lot of the software they’re purchasing, you know, out of the box solutions, and looking more deeply into, kind of their membership, and how can they serve their members? And then how can they utilize software solutions and custom solutions to serve those members. And so it can, it can arrange from, you know, serving the underserved and creating something to help them, or as simple as you taking all of your policies and procedures and creating a tool for your staff to search things quickly within a large language model that seems super helpful, yeah, just educating. I think that’s the big thing, is educating. That’s I’ve always been that way, and I love to educate credit unions and kind of teach them that they don’t need that champagne budget. They can actually utilize a beer budget to create some of these things. Yeah, I was
Sarah Cooke
gonna say that, you know, creating custom software sounds expensive, and credit unions are credit unions are always
Brett Wooden
so much unconscious, yes, yeah, it can be. I mean, I think, yeah, it’s like anything. It’s like building a house, right? It could, you know, if you do want all the bells and whistles in the house and add a couple extra rooms, it could be expensive.
Sarah Cooke
So what do you feel like is the most important ingredient for credit union innovation right now.
Brett Wooden
Right now, I think I see a lot of in my conversations. I see a lot of folks that are still kind of focusing on the shiny, the shiny ball, like, oh, that solution. We need that. We need that. And I think the ingredient of success right now is focusing internally, focusing get your data organized, gets your structure organized, you know, really focusing on kind of the internal members, which are your employees. And I think we’re not seeing that enough right now. And I think that’s the secret ingredient, because a lot of my ideas come from the pain points inside the credit union. Like I love to run to those and and you see where inefficiencies, you see staff that are, I wish this was better, you know, focusing internally and doing kind of that human centric design with your staff, I think, is the key ingredient right now. Yeah, yeah. And you’re always going to have, you’re always going to have the vendor. That’s that’s sending in, and unfortunately, you know, I am a vendor, or I like to call strategic partner, but you’re always going to have them with the new shiny ideas. And so I think it’s important right now to get your shop in order and organized. Then part of your strategy is, then you can focus on what our members really want to use and utilize well.
Sarah Cooke
And if your member, or if your employee, is so dang frustrated with whatever process that takes 50 steps that should take 10, yeah, you’re not going to provide good member service period. Yeah, and you’ve been in that spot before, because you’ve been in inside the credit union too. Oh
Brett Wooden
yeah, yeah. I think the big one, i The person that can solve this, and I there might be a solution, but I have yet to hurt the average account opening is what six screens, six different systems you have to use, because you got to use your account opening. You know, you got to use your debit card. East, like all of them, have separate systems, and I just remember a lot of kind of my follow up was like, there was steps missed, or a lot of that member friction was oops, I forgot to order the debit card, or I forgot to sign them up for online and mobile banking. Or there’s so much a focus there that I think that they’re missing that future conversation of, you know, how are you planning for emergencies? How are you planning for retirement? You know, all like, you can’t have those conversations when you’re worried about, you know, did I do all these little steps and open the screen and what was my password for these and, you know, it’s just, it’s kind of a like, it is like, yeah, it is very fascinating, like, you know, and that’s one of the things I remember, at one of the credit unions I worked at, we had an amazing she was 17 years Symitar programmer. And the thing I loved about her is she wouldn’t just write the code. So if you were, like. Hey, we’re gonna do, like, one of the projects we did was, oh, it’s like, what is it called? It’s like, instant issue of not checks, but when someone comes in and wants to do a loan at a dealership, you give them, like, a blank check, essentially a check, yes, yes, yeah. And so what she did, instead of just creating, basically, like we need this. She went and actually sat with the users that the member service reps and watched, how do you do it currently? What do you and I think that stuff is needed, because I think that a lot of times we’re just trying to check the box and move forward, but at the end of the day, the user is kind of like that. There they have, I will say, MSRs, tellers, they have created some amazing processes to try and simplify what they do day to day that we don’t even know they do. Right? Yeah, I’m sure, yeah. So yeah,
Sarah Cooke
no, and they need help with that. I mean, I would think you know we were talking AI earlier. AI is something that could absolutely help with that for a while there, you know, credit unions were talking about AI, like, we need AI, but to know to what end, right, what was the what was the purpose? Now we, you know, we’ve become a bit more educated about it and starting to actually implement it for solutions, rather than, you know, just to have it the shiny new thing,
Brett Wooden
right? Yeah, cuz, and it’s easy, I will say, like, it is, I mean, just like being in kind of the C level roles of credit unions, it’s so easy to get sucked into it too, because there’s kind of this, like, you want to be the credit union that’s on the cutting edge you want to it’s, it’s I, that’s how I felt that way sometimes where you’re like, you kind of get addicted to what we’ve got, this product we offer our members and and now it’s kind of interesting being kind of outside of that, and replaying the tape. You’re like, gosh, I should have looked at the web analytics and see, you know, do enough members visit our site for us to put up a chat box? Chat bot or have like these fit, you know, even like, there’s some simplistic ones that I’ve seen where, like, you spend, like, hundreds of 1000s of dollars on this amazing, fancy website, but you miss little things like putting the login on the homepage because, for security reasons, you want to have it linked to another page. Well, everybody just bookmarks that page and then never goes to your site at all. They’re just going directly online thinking, you know, but you’re so focused on this amazing site and experience that you just miss little, you know, and nobody’s looking at it, yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s kind of a fun little like thing to be like, you know, because my wife and I were both now on the outside, can I consulting and things, and it’s fun to see, like, when we were in it, the little things that we might have missed, and now kind of having that outside perspective of go, Oh, wow. Like, this is where, if we were to go back, this is what would we would tweak, tweak a little bit.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah. And you brought up Corlinda, your wife. I’m gonna bring her up, too. Now, you two have worked together at times. How was that? Because my husband and I work together also. How’s that go for
Brett Wooden
y’all, it’s, it’s, I will say that the main we grew up in households where our so like, for Linda’s mom was a an attorney, and then her dad was the paralegal for her mom. And then my dad has owned businesses like movie theaters and taverns and and my mom has always worked with my dad, so it’s kind of like, what we know, right? That’s where it’s been, like, exciting as we kind of are, like, working back together again like but I will say we’ve had it has been interesting. We had one. I can’t remember when we were first. We’re working together at our first like credit union. Someone found out, and they wrote an article called credit union love, and it was like about
Sarah Cooke
my previous publication. I remember doing stuff like that, yeah,
Brett Wooden
yeah. And, and, so what had happened, though, as the CEO, like, shut it down immediately, you know, they she was like, That is not, you know, but it kind of was like, you know, I don’t know. I we feed off of each other for ideas and, and I think I’m not, like, even our daughter, like, worked at a credit union over the summer as a in a call center, and it’s hilarious. Like, she she’ll come home, and she was like, saying, I can’t believe the member called in and they, they said I didn’t call them about their debit card. And I called him, left a message, and I emailed them, and they were getting mad at me. And I was like, you know, welcome to retail buddy. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s fun because, like, well, and we even we actually met, I don’t know if she told you, like we she was a teller at Wells Fargo Bank, and I was doing, my dad owned businesses, so I was in between classes at Portland. State was doing deposits, and she was the teller. Yeah. And then that night, we went out. Well, I went out dancing with friends back when dance clubs were fun, like, and I saw her there, and that’s I asked her out at a date. And so we essentially met in a teller window. That’s the Yeah. So ever since then, we’ve worked together like we were both bankers at Wells and working at Wells Fargo. And then we went to a credit union in the northwest and worked together. And so it’s kind of always been, like, it’s our pattern, I guess, yeah,
Sarah Cooke
yeah, exactly. So what are you working on right now?
Brett Wooden
Yeah. So, we’ve got a partnership with Room 39 A, which is the Community Financial Credit Union CUSO. It’s a launch pad. It’s a collaborative for credit unions to get together and essentially create ideas research and then Buildable. We help them take that research and collaboration and create prototypes and solutions from all that research. And so that’s so we’re working on right now a kind of a research on the aging, aging adults, and being in that sandwich generation where you’ve got you’re looking out for your kids, and then you’re also looking out for your parents. And so we’re trying to create a solution or something to help kind of navigate that caregiver of caring for parents as well as, you know, caring for your kids kind of in that middle spot. So they’ve done some amazing research within room 39 A and so now we’re taking that research and going through a discovery process with their team. So yeah, that’s one.
Sarah Cooke
I love to hear that credit unions are being innovative that way. It’s great, because collaboration is the only way we’re gonna, we’re gonna, oh, without a doubt, yeah, dark side,
Brett Wooden
yeah. And there’s some, like, power, you know, it’s, it’s amazing, like, the I feel like, every time I get on the phone there, they bring on these individuals that are like, Oh my gosh. Like, you’re, we were in, I three together, or, you know, they just are, like, just really amazing people like to collaborate with and create ideas and and you constantly, I feel like I’m constantly, like, after I got off the calls, like, is this real? Is this like our, you know, are really people have like this collaborate, and they do. That’s what I love, the space. It’s like, there is a, there is kind of a heart behind what we’re trying to do. So behind,
Sarah Cooke
yeah, so you started out in marketing and business development, other, you know, being a teller, but you were also a marketing and business development I went through your resume today, or you’re like, nice. So how do you get from there to software.
Brett Wooden
I think I’ve always been like, I’ll give an example. So when I was going to Portland, state we had I was taking a geology class. So study of rocks or what I you know, this will tell you what kind of student I was, unfortunately, but I literally went into my professor. I’m like, listen, I can’t, I just can’t take tests. And you have a 200 question, you know, two Scantrons that I’ve got to fill out, multiple choice. I go, I’m horrible at this. Is there anything I can do other than this test? And he’s like, Well, why don’t you think about that and come back to me. And so what I did was I was like, well, at the time, like, we were just like, roommate, my roommates, we were just starting getting into, like, web development design. And so I pitched an idea to him. I was like, how would I design a department page for you that says all the places you can go to in Oregon to find the specific rocks and stuff that we studied. And so he’s like, Sure, so that’s literally what I did. I built the webpage for Portland State and submitted it, and I got an A in the class, and didn’t have to take the test. And then the friend group that I had kind of grew from Portland State. We had a side hustle, so we were always building things as I was working, you know, as business development and marketing, I was always kind of like, I would go work in their office, you know, after work, creating ideas and that. And so then that kind of blossomed into, I got a role at a credit union in Houston, where I was marketing and overseeing it. And it’s funny because, like, I don’t know, I’m the type of person that’s like, oh, yeah, I could do that. That shouldn’t be that hard. And I tell you, it was extremely hard, like, not having that background in it, and, you know, having doing upgrades on your core server and all that. Like, there was a lot of late nights and but I think I learned a lot from that too, but then I also learned bringing marketing and it together, you could create some amazing things, because you had marketing that was like, this is the demographic and the folks we want to go after we don’t know how. And then it would go, well, we can create this program for you in this report. And there was just. So much collab. There was more collaboration in that well, so that kind of fast forward of, that’s how I got into where I’m at now, like, I’ve just had this intrigue of, I love, I love, I love watching people collaborate, but I also love hearing their challenges at work and trying to get people together and say, How can we solve this and make things easier for you? Because, like, a lot of your time is spent at work, like you shouldn’t, you know, and then the members, you know, the members too. It’s like, I one of the things I was when I was working at the Providence credit union, I spent like, four hours just sitting in the lobby of a hospital and watching nurses and doctors get off their shift. Because I was like, How can we help these? You know, these are our members, like, how can you help them? And it was so fascinating. All of them did the same exact thing. They would go walk to the Starbucks that Starbucks was in the hospital, right? They would order something, and then they would go sit down by themselves, no phone, and they would just, like, it was almost like they would just decompress, like, exhausted. And so that was kind of our, some of our stuff we developed for that was like, Hey, don’t put them through a phone tree when they’re calling you to get a solution. Go right to a person, those kind of things, because the last thing they want to do is they, they’re exhausted. They sit on a phone for 5, 10, minutes, one for yes. So that’s, that’s kind of what I really, you know, like, that’s and that’s really how I got into I just was always fascinated with just how things are done, and how can I help fix things and and then finding talent, like, I love people that are smarter than I am, that is such a fun you know, it can be intimidating sometimes, but at the same time, It’s like, you don’t grow unless you’re uncomfortable. So that’s I love to get on calls where I’m like, oh gosh, they’re talking about things. Don’t ask me anything, please.
Sarah Cooke
I know nothing, yeah, but
Brett Wooden
it is like, and that’s really, I feel like I’m definitely growing now, because there are some really intelligent humans that I’m working with. So cool.
Sarah Cooke
That’s always good, yeah, always challenging yourself. And so, like, I’m just gonna bring up that you mentioned building things behind you. There happens. Oh,
Speaker 2
yeah, a couple of LEGO sets. Yes, yeah. And you wrote for
Sarah Cooke
us not long ago about Lego and how it connects with credit unions. Talk a little bit about that, how that helps you,
Brett Wooden
yeah? So I there’s a community that I belong to, within the Lego community, that you submit ideas. They have challenges. I’ve yet to have anything get selected, but it still is like, like, all these creations. So that’s my city. I’ve got kind of to my right. I have all of my old Legos, 80s sets, and there’s something like, if you’re in a block, it’s just stopping. And like, building, and I like to build my old stuff, because I have a lot of old kits and things. And it kind of brings me back to, like, when I was younger, because you are more innovative when you’re younger. There was, I think, George Houghheimer once made a comment that you go into a kindergarten class and say, How many of you are artists? They all raise their hand, right? But then as you get older, that number starts to drop, because people don’t refer to themselves. And that’s that’s why I love building Legos so much, is it gets my mind back into that problem solving creative like, it’s not, you know, it’s, I don’t know it’s, it’s like, I guess, like puzzle building too. But I love seeing the community on Instagram of that people that build their own stuff. I mean, it is insane. They literally are taking something they thought, building out a graphic design booklet of how to build it, and then building it. And, I mean, it’s, I mean, to think like that intelligence level, like I it just, I mean, I and, but it’s very similar to software development, where someone comes to you and goes, I have this idea, and you’re like, Okay, how can we, you know, you start through this process to get their idea.
Sarah Cooke
I’m working it like, oh, I have an idea. Just do something.
Brett Wooden
I’ve been incorporating. It’s really fun. You know? What’s funny is I incorporated. We did a event, a little thing in Madison, where we got together with a couple of our friends in Madison and just started ideating on some things, but we did a Lego where I brought in just a bunch of random Lego pieces and said, Hey, we’re just going to get our mind and creative space. You’re going to have 20 minutes to just build something. And the one person afterwards came over and grabbed me, and she said I observed two things that I thought was so interesting, as everybody was smiling while they were doing it, and then I couldn’t remember the last time I had built Legos without an instruction manual, right? Like it was, it was such a, like, it was really a cool and so that’s, that’s kind of why I do it, is it’s like, it gets your mind in this different frame. Frame, frame of, and that’s where I, like, we kind of mentioned, like, to kind of correlate that back to credit unions. I think more of that needs to happen. I think it’s like, when was the last time that they know, if you’re a C suite, that you actually had a conversation with a member or someone at the front line that’s, you know, trying to make it through a payday, you know, through the members coming in and all that stuff. I think that stuff helps so much in just putting things in perspective.
Sarah Cooke
And that’s the storytelling element, too. Like, yes, collect all that information. That’s your story, right there. Yeah, never get next.
Brett Wooden
Yes. It’s so true. Like, you know, and even Yeah, it’s like, it’s like, there was a credit union that I’m doing some work with in Nashville, and they’re a post office credit union, and they celebrated their 100th anniversary. No, no, no one picked that up. No one like, it’s, it’s amazing. Like, I was so shocked. Like, I was like, I go, I am told, I go, you should write a press release. This is, like, you’ve, like, like, some of the stuff that they had that they were showing off at their 100th anniversary. Like, that stuff is amazing. That stuff needs to get, you know, the things they do that’s, I mean, and the credit unions would not be taxed if, you know, more of this stuff was
Sarah Cooke
shared, and, you know, yes, yes. I mean, they just do it every day. So I think it becomes everyday work. It’s not yes, yeah, the life saving, marriage saving, you know, whatever say, Yeah, life changing stuff that they actually it is. On the other end, it’s not just alone, yeah,
Brett Wooden
yeah, yeah. Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, I was just gonna say, like, one of the things I you never see on social media from credit unions is like, when someone pays off their home, well, you know what I mean, or pays off their car. Like, these are things you should share. Like, those are like, life changing things absolutely
Sarah Cooke
or you encourage that member to get a gap, GAP Insurance. Yeah, it’s not just about selling the things. You’re not just talking things. You’re trying to protect people. Yes, yeah. So we’ve talked about a lot of deep stuff today. Yeah, yes, very much. I’m gonna let you have the final word. What would you like to leave our credit executive audience with,
Brett Wooden
you know, first off, like I commend all of them working in the field right now, it’s not, it’s a very difficult time for credit unions, but, but remember, like the founders of the credit union, you know, a lot of credits were started during difficult times as well. And so an innovation comes out during these difficult times. And just, you know, things changing and ever evolving. So I just commend all of them to keep doing the hard work and, you know, keep the credit unions living on. You know, it’s so important right now. There’s just, there’s a lot relying on, yeah, there’s a lot relying on it. So it’s not just, you know, it’s employees, it’s it’s vendors, it’s, you know, air, all this ecosystem around it that’s so important. So, yes,
Sarah Cooke
Absolutely. 100% thank you so much. Appreciate your time today. Brett,
Brett Wooden
Yeah, thank you.