What IDEO did for Bank of America

IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm, worked with Bank of America starting in the early 2000s to redesign how the bank approached customer problems. Rather than asking customers what features they wanted, IDEO sent teams into people's homes and branches to watch how they actually used banking services. This method — called design thinking — led Bank of America to create Keeping the Change, a program that rounds up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and saves the difference automatically.

The partnership showed that understanding real customer behavior, not just asking survey questions, could lead to products people actually wanted. Keeping the Change became one of the bank's most successful retail products because it solved a problem customers didn't know how to articulate: they wanted to save money without having to think about it.

IDEO's work with Bank of America also influenced how the bank designed its physical branches and digital interfaces. The firm helped the bank move away from a transaction-focused layout — where tellers sat behind glass — toward an open, advisory model where customers could have conversations about their financial goals.

Key Takeaways

  • IDEO used observation-based research, watching customers in their homes and branches, rather than relying on surveys or focus groups alone.
  • The Keeping the Change program, which automatically rounds up purchases and saves the difference, came directly from this research and became a major revenue driver for the bank.
  • IDEO's design thinking approach helped Bank of America shift from a transaction-focused branch model to one centered on customer relationships and financial information.
  • The partnership demonstrated that understanding how customers actually behave, not what they say they want, leads to more successful product design.

How IDEO's research method worked

IDEO researchers didn't start by asking Bank of America what problems to solve. Instead, they spent time in customers' homes, watching how people managed money, paid bills, and thought about saving. They also observed customers in bank branches and ATMs. This approach, called ethnographic research, revealed patterns that traditional market research missed.

One key finding: many customers wanted to save but found it difficult to set aside money intentionally. They had good intentions but no automatic mechanism. This insight led directly to Keeping the Change, which removed the friction from saving by making it happen without the customer having to do anything after the initial sign-up.

The research also showed that customers felt intimidated by traditional bank branch layouts. The physical design — tellers behind barriers, separate offices for managers — made people feel like they were interrupting someone's work if they asked questions. IDEO recommended opening up the space and training staff to initiate conversations rather than wait for customers to approach them.

The Keeping the Change program and its impact

Keeping the Change launched in 2005 and became Bank of America's fastest-growing product at the time. The program automatically rounds up every debit card purchase to the nearest dollar and deposits the difference into a savings account. A $3.50 coffee purchase becomes a $4 charge, and the 50 cents goes to savings.

The program worked because it solved a behavioral problem, not a technical one. Customers didn't need a new savings account type or a complex interface — they needed a reason to save that didn't require willpower. By making saving automatic and invisible, IDEO's design removed the decision-making step that usually stops people from saving.

The product generated significant revenue for Bank of America through account fees and increased customer engagement. More importantly, it showed that design thinking could translate into measurable business results. The program attracted millions of customers and remained popular for years, proving that user-centered design wasn't just good for customers — it was good for the bank's bottom line.

How design thinking changed Bank of America's approach

Before IDEO, Bank of America, like most large banks, developed products based on what executives thought customers needed or what competitors were offering. The bank would build a feature, launch it, and measure success by adoption rates. If adoption was low, the bank would add more features or run marketing campaigns.

IDEO introduced a different process: start with observation, identify the real problem, prototype solutions quickly, and test them with actual users before full launch. This meant Bank of America began asking "Why do customers do this?" instead of "What features should we build?"

This shift affected not just product development but also how the bank trained employees and designed physical spaces. Branch managers learned to think about the customer journey — what happens when someone walks in, what questions they have, what decisions they need to make — rather than just processing transactions efficiently.

The limits of the IDEO partnership

While Keeping the Change was a major success, not every IDEO recommendation became a lasting product. Some branch redesigns were rolled back or modified because they didn't fit Bank of America's existing operations or because customer behavior didn't match the design assumptions. Design thinking is a tool for understanding problems, but it doesn't may provide every solution will work at scale in a large organization.

Bank of America also faced the challenge of explore design thinking across thousands of branches and millions of customers. What works in a prototype or a single location doesn't always translate when you're managing a national operation with legacy systems, regulatory requirements, and diverse customer bases.

The partnership also highlighted a tension in banking: customers want personalized, relationship-based service, but banks operate on efficiency and standardization. IDEO's designs sometimes required more staff time or more flexible processes than the bank's cost structure could support long-term.

What other banks learned from Bank of America and IDEO

The success of Keeping the Change and the broader IDEO partnership influenced how other financial institutions approached innovation. Banks began investing in design research teams, user testing, and prototyping rather than relying solely on product managers and engineers to decide what to build.

The partnership also showed that design thinking could work in heavily regulated industries. Banking has strict compliance requirements, but IDEO's approach didn't conflict with those — it actually made it easier to design products that customers understood and used correctly.

Many banks now use similar observation-based research methods when developing mobile apps, branch layouts, and customer service processes. The IDEO-Bank of America work became a case study in business schools and design programs, demonstrating that large, traditional organizations could innovate by changing how they understood their customers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Keeping the Change still available?

Keeping the Change was discontinued for new customers in 2013, though Bank of America maintained it for existing customers for several years. The program was eventually phased out as mobile banking and digital savings tools became more common. However, the product remains a landmark example of design thinking applied to banking.

Did IDEO work with Bank of America on mobile banking?

IDEO's primary work with Bank of America focused on the early 2000s, before mobile banking became dominant. The firm's influence on the bank's approach to design and customer research continued, but most documented case studies center on the branch redesign and Keeping the Change.

How much did Bank of America pay IDEO?

The specific contract amounts were not publicly disclosed. Large consulting engagements with firms like IDEO typically cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, depending on scope and duration, but Bank of America did not release exact figures for this partnership.

Can other companies use the same design thinking approach?

Yes. Design thinking — observing real behavior, identifying root problems, prototyping solutions, and testing with users — is a method any organization can use. It works best when leadership commits to acting on what research reveals, even if it contradicts existing assumptions about customers.

What happened to IDEO after the Bank of America project?

IDEO continued growing as a design consulting firm and worked with many other large organizations across industries. The Bank of America project became one of their most famous case studies, but the firm has applied similar methods to healthcare, education, technology, and government work.