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In a world awash in consumer data, credit unions (CUs) have a unique opportunity. While selling this data to third parties is an often permissible and largely profitable endeavor, CUs have the option of using it another way: harnessing it to design, develop and release new product offerings tailored to members’ needs. Some CUs are already doing this. 
Glawson explained that UNIFY had been looking into developing a cryptocurrency-related product for a while. The company decided, however, that before developing a product based on crypto’s general hype alone, it should see if its members’ data offered any clues on how best to proceed. It did.
UNIFY’s Data-Driven Approach to Product Development
“By leveraging information from a number of different sources — [such as] debit card transactions, [automated clearing house]-linked accounts via online and other sources — we were able to see that our members were engaged in crypto and [moving money to] institutions like crypto.com or Coinbase,” Glawson said. “And so that really helped inform the decision that this is something that our members are interested in.”
Having analyzed its data over the course of four to eight weeks, UNIFY knew that its members were specifically interested in bitcoin. Based on this insight, the CU set out to develop a product to enable its members to get involved in crypto. UNIFY partnered with NYDIG, a FinTech focused on crypto solutions, to provide customization and integration functionality. By October 2021, UNIFY went live with its product, becoming the first CU to allow its members to buy and sell crypto through a website and mobile app.
Using Data Effectively and Responsibly
When asked what the barriers are to designing new products based on consumer data, Glawson first stressed the importance of responsibly handling the data.
“We really view it as our responsibility to safely manage our members’ data,” he said. “And so we have to ensure that we give proper care whenever researching, gathering, normalizing or grouping data so that we have all the information we need to make those informed decisions and don’t have data that we don’t actually need.”
Glawson explained that UNIFY typically harnesses data in a way that does not necessarily entail the use of personal identifying pieces of information. In a process known as anonymizing or sanitizing data, UNIFY can group segments of members by geographic region, type of account relationship data and other anonymous data points to gather the necessary insights into consumer behavior without compromising the privacy of individual members.
The next big challenge in the effective use of data revolves around technology difficulties. Glawson noted that there are often resource constraints — either internally or with vendor resources — and timeline difficulties related to educating both consumers and employees about the new product.
Finally, Glawson noted that CUs need the right process in place to be able to use data effectively. Companies need to know what data they have access to, where it is located internally, how best to interpret this data and whether different departments are using the same criteria for data collection.
“Oftentimes, institutions don’t know where that data is or how to access it,” he explained. “So understanding that data map would be a huge piece of advice. Second, we believe very much in data democratization. No single person owns data, whether it’s from our core banking system or whether it’s from our marketing system — ultimately, it’s the organization’s data.”
He cautioned that companies still need a person or department to take the lead on data. These people must take responsibility for managing the data and ensuring that the organization has a shared understanding of definitions.
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