Designing for Need - by Derek Corcoran (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Most CX advice assumes your job is to make customers feel something.

But in the world of banking, the goal is very different: help customers finish something.

Designing for Need introduces a sharp framework for modern financial services: separate WANT-to-do experiences from NEED-to-do ones-and stop borrowing playbooks from entertainment brands to solve task-based problems.

With an engineer's eye for friction and a strategist's sense for prioritization, author and financial CX expert Derek Corcoran connects behavior, process, and digital design into a single practical mandate: reduce effort, accelerate completion, and build trust through clarity.

Here, you'll learn a language leaders can align on, a way to diagnose where "delight" is backfiring, and principles that translate directly into simpler journeys-without relying on gimmicks, jargon, or performative CX.

If you want a CX strategy your organization can actually execute-one that turns complexity into clarity and helps customers get in, get done, and get on with life-start here.

Review Quotes

"The banks hemorrhaging customers to fintechs aren't losing on rates-they're losing on effort."

- Ron Shevlin, Chief Research Officer at Cornerstone Advisors, Author and Forbes Contributor

"A sharp, overdue reset: stop designing banking like entertainment-design it for completion in the age of AI. Designing for Need presents clear evidence that as technology improves, what we call 'CX' is morphing. AI is likely to push design even further by shifting the focus away from traditional apps and interfaces toward conversational, contextual, and personalized interactions. This is the wake-up call we need to evolve how we deliver services at AI speed."

- Brett King, Bestselling Author of the Bank x.0 series and host of Breaking Banks podcast

"A practical CX framework for banking: clarity over delight, outcomes over ornament. Banks frequently struggle to provide excellent customer experiences, and it's costing them. Designing for Need provides a clear path forward: distinguish the things you need to do from the things you want to do, then design for speed, clarity, and confidence. It's a grounded, practical read for anyone building or evaluating customer experiences in financial services."

- Greg Palmer, Host, Keynote Speaker, and VP, Finovate, and Director of Fintech Strategy at Informa Festivals

"A clear, modern lens on building trust by making banking easier. Designing for Need reframes banking CX around something more important than engagement: trust, clarity, and getting the job done. Corcoran offers a clean framework and real-world patterns for designing experiences that customers will actually choose-and stay with."

- Jeffery Kendall, CEO, Nymbus