Avaloq, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, and BlackRock, through its Aladdin Wealth business, have formed a strategic partnership aimed at enhancing their investment technology solutions for wealth managers and private banks. As part of the strategic partnership, BlackRock is making a minority investment in Avaloq.
BlackRock and Avaloq unveil strategic partnership to provide integrated technology solutions, meeting evolving needs of wealth managers
Avaloq is implementing its core banking system at UnionBank, a digital trailblazer in the Philippines’ financial sector. The bank’s wealth management business serves the entire wealth spectrum, including business leaders, entrepreneurs and philanthropists across the Philippines.
UnionBank of the Philippines selects Avaloq to transform its wealth management platform
It’s been 2 months already since I’ve hit my 2-year mark in Avaloq. It’s been the best 2 years of my professional career by far — seeing the team in Manila grow from 7 to 13, supporting the promotion of 3 designers, hearing about how our visual designers have grown their skills towards UX design — all these just makes me grateful for being with a supportive team. I’m able to perform well with them and all their achievements are based on their hard work and are well-deserved. Props to the global product design team, especially in Manila!
This year is memorable because I got the chance to meet most people in the local teams that I work with. This became possible because it became relatively safer to meet each other face-to-face. During our team buildings, I felt like I was meeting up with old friends due to the fact that I already met with them frequently through video calls.
About me on one hand — how have I grown from the previous year? I thrive in my role as a line manager with our regular 1:1s that give us opportunity to touch base with each other, to have that constant support in regards to each individual’s work experience in Avaloq. In the recent months, HR had launched a better process for employee career growth and salary review — these topics, we openly discuss in our bilas. Being able to connect with designers on a more personal level is something that I find valuable in a line manager’s role.
On the other hand, I’ve also grown in my role as a DesignOps lead, focusing on capacity planning. Sure, there were bumps along this road (and will always have) and for each one, my manager was there to support me. Take for example when I first saw the annual budget spreadsheet, I must admit that I was intimidated by the complex facade of it. I put it off until I was forced to face it with less working time. Looking back, this was one of my lowlights. I struggled to communicate early and frequently with other leads. Consequently, with little time frame, I found it even more challenging to schedule meetings wherein most of them were available. Supposedly, as the glue that supports everyone together, my performance in this area was watery.
On the bright side, I was able to share these challenges with my manager and he helped me by listening and advising. I’m managing it better and proactively evangelizing DesignOps to the whole team, one step at a time. My lesson is to look for people who can help and ask for their help.
When the going gets tough with those two main roles, I ramp down in my individual contributor role — yes, I also help out in the mobile and web banking product teams. This opportunity keeps my product design chops well-oiled, so to speak. In a ramp down manner, I would be supporting the team on a high level — helping them make better decisions and communicate better with stakeholders.
Juggling three different roles sounds a lot, and it is. With better work management, I am able to take a step back, have a down time and think strategically.
Recruitment is a priority, not for replacements but for growth. What excites me is the fact that we’re looking for ways to support junior designers in the Manila team. I see the value in the unique kind of drive to learn and contribute that budding designers have — and that will be an awesome addition to our team.
Well-roundedness, is one. As you could have read, I’m moonlighting as a freelance designer since way back college. In this avenue comes various types of design work — from corporate identities, to websites, to apps, to yearbooks, and what have you. I’m also mentoring designers, especially those who are at the early start of their UX journeys. These endeavors are a symbiosis with my day job in which one enriches the other.
To cap it off, all of the things that I love doing prepares me for my dream to help, design-wise, in the digital delivery of public service in my home country, Philippines. I’m looking forward into the not-so-far future of a more efficient and more accessible online government services for Filipinos. Think GOV.UK design system for Philippines, as a start.
Stay strong, mga repapips! 👊
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I’ll probably be laying down my Reading List for a while because July is jam-packed with activities that will keep me occupied. For one, we are moving residences to one that has a relatively bigger space. For another, I’ve signed a deal with three various design projects (an app, a website, and a logo). My project management skills will ultimately be put into test, given that these go into the moonlight. On the other hand, at my day job, it’s excites me to think about opening up opportunities for junior designers to join Product Design Manila at Avaloq — my team and I just need to lay down the foundation to support this move by having key people ready to hand-hold them once they arrive. In any case, feel free to message me in LinkedIn (yes, you, the junior designer).
Awesome start of the 3rd quarter! 👊
Happy new year 2022! Hope you had a great and well-spent holiday with friends and families and with yourself, of course, and an overall awesome 2021. There are many things to be thankful about. 🙏
For the start of this year, it’s a good reminder to always take time to slow down, take a step back, and generally maintain a well-balanced work-lifestyle. It’s ok to take things slowly, one step at a time.
Look back and look forward to gain clarity on your professional goals, and how it would align with our organization’s. In the coming weeks, we’re hoping to make our individual roadmaps clearer, as well as what we would like to achieve for the whole design team.
In the meantime, this is what I could suggest: write down what you want to achieve or accomplish this 2022. Who do you want to be? Where do you want to go? Or even just the answer to where are you right now? Then let’s discuss those in our bilas.
Thanks to each of you for all your solid contributions to our projects and especially to each other in our team. 👏👏👏
Looking forward to more fruitful collaborations with you. 🙂
It was May last year when I virtually onboarded Avaloq. It was a time when most of us, office-goers, were adjusting to this “forced” setup of working from home. Consequently, everything needs to be done online. You had to double down on clear and proactive communication because the computer gets in the way of telepathy — kidding aside, the computer is all we have to communicate with other people.
Avaloq was a different environment compared to my previous experience at PayMaya. From serving local businesses via PayMaya Negosyo, the world opened up in front of my eyes because the fintech products that I am now working on cater to the global market. Of course, with that comes the fact that the workforce is also distributed globally. So in one way, my incumbent colleagues are already used to fully-online communication. And I was in a hangover of missing in-person interactions.
In a span of a year, Avaloq supported a continuous growth in my knowledge and skills. When I say “Avaloq” I mean the people that I work with, directly and indirectly. The HR, for example, is supportive in helping me know the ins and outs of recruitment and onboarding. The same way for the design team itself, because we are expanding to support the growing needs of the business, it pushes me to step-up and help other team members grow in their roles, as well. Indeed, scalability is a frontier that I am excited exploring.
I find myself being constantly challenged to learn how to do my job better — whether it is about navigating a process, finding the best way to communicate with someone, or learning new skills. Working with people coming from different cultural backgrounds and varying professional experiences will always be challenging but with its benefits, too — first, I am reminded that there’s a wealth of knowledge from everyone if I keep my understanding open, and second, I feel like having a Swiss Army knife of communication approaches depending on who I collaborate with. Being always on the edge of my seat is a great thing for growth.
It boils down to trust. With leaders trusting their teams in being responsible professionals, autonomy ensues. This is why even in a remote setup we are thriving. The collaborative environment empowers us to hone our design craft. My approach to design comes from my own perspective and it benefits the project to uncover many different angles via design reviews — this is where my colleagues’ level of support really helps.
Since May of last year, we’ve onboarded 5 designers in Manila, 2 in Zürich, and established a team of 5 in Berlin. Also from that month, Avaloq marked its first Philippine partnership with BPI and I’m proud to be part of its project team. From taking care of its employees during this pandemic to the acquisition by NEC, it was one heck of a ride. I’m grateful for being part of Avaloq’s continuous growth.
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You might be in the same crossroads like I was last year. When I mentioned how the world opened up in front of my eyes when I joined Avaloq, I hope you would also find yourself in a journey that lets you discover new things that you’re capable of.
All new joiners at Avaloq are suggested to share a video introduction a week before their first day — this was mine.
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Recently, we had an event in Avaloq called Open Mic Session. It was a small event for Avaloq Manila (Philippines) and Pune (India), along with the executive board. It had two topic categories which was voted for by employees. The first category was official company business and the second one were topics submitted by anyone who wished to share anything — a hobby, an advocacy, project accomplishments, or anything under the sun, really.
One of the three employee topics that was voted in was mine. It was all about my learnings and realizations in the ten months that I’ve been with Avaloq. It was timely to sit down and introspect how I’ve been in these past months — from being torn about transitioning into a different organization during the pandemic to being fulfilled that I’ve struck while the iron is hot. It was equally timely to share it with my colleagues, as well.
Here’s a transcript of my presentation:
Hello to my colleagues in Manila, Philippines (esp. to the UX design team), Pune, India, and Zurich Switzerland. And of course, to others who are in different locations. Thank you to all those who voted for my topic.
My name is Dys. I’m with Johann in the design team. I do UX design for web and mobile banking, as well as managing the design team here in Manila.
I joined Avaloq in May last year. So, I’m fairly new. In the 10 months that I’ve been here, there are many things that help me adapt in this new environment. Let me have the honor of sharing with you 10 things that I’ve learned & continuously realizing while working in Avaloq.
Around March last year, I made a leap of faith when I accepted Avaloq’s offer. It was at the start of lockdowns and the pandemic, after all. Apart from being scared, I was excited because every aspect was a step up from my previous career. Fast forward to now, the level up experience is true — there are many new things that I face and these challenges keep me learning & growing.
Avaloq’s response to the pandemic gives me confidence that despite being in this challenging times, we are in a stable and growing organization.
With a level of autonomy, we take ownership of our work. We are empowered to contribute and influence the direction of projects.
We have tools and processes in place that create a safe environment for us to listen and to be heard. We have an engaging feedback platform and my managers are open to listening and coaching.
When I joined Avaloq, the team were there to help me onboard quickly. Until now, whenever I would need help from them, they are engaged and supportive.
Meetings, virtual or otherwise, are our opportunities to contribute to plans and our voices to be heard. And also bilas (or bilaterals) — it really helps in alignments and being on the same page with people.
Rarely that we, alone, got it all figured out. That’s why when we work together, we gain different perspectives of the same thing. And that makes solving problems faster.
Whatever happens, it’s our perspective that we have control of. As long as we learn from experiences, it’s all good.
A little help from my teammate, my manager who’s coaching me. Acknowledgement of these things helps me pay it forward to others as well.
And for the most important thing…
That’s what my manager actually said during my 1st week at Avaloq.
Especially during these challenging times, looking at the brighter side of things surely helps.
Thank you everyone! Stay safe and healthy.
The presentation was only 5 minutes long and I had fun sharing it from this side of the world. If any, it was a message of inspiration to make good sense of different situations that we maybe in.
In 2 months, I’ll be celebrating my first year with Avaloq and it’s a new chapter for me. I’ll find out what’s next!
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The first time I’ve been at Avaloq’s office at Philam Life building was during my second interview. I was impressed by the interior design of the pantry. There by the couch were some company brochures in the style of a newspaper. I took one home to familiarize myself with the new company that I was planning to join.
Fast forward to almost a year, I was back to this office to get a Macbook device which was an official issue for UX designers.
While waiting, I hang out by the pantry and had some coffee. There were wine bottles and glasses on the wall but only as decor (they were empty, I checked).
Outside, during lunch, it was a typical workday — only that everyone’s wearing face shields and masks. There were many people lining up at Dunkin’ at Paseo Center. I went to Yellow Cab for a grub.
I was oblivious to the fact that some companies have their employees back on site until I went to the office myself. This was also evident on the road, by the number of vehicles going somewhere. Life goes on, indeed, with the pandemic still as dangerous as it started — we just managed to become familiar of how to stay safe in the outside world. I hope complacency in being careful does not get the best of anyone.
It was a Friday — a celebratory day wherein just last year when my officemates / friends would go out for dinner and some drinks, and sometimes the office turned on its party mode. Now, I had to rush home to avoid the heavy traffic in EDSA.
What permanently changed, we’ll only know as we’re putting old normal things one by one into the new normal.
[ntt_percept page=”avaloq-open-positions”]Last month, I’ve wrapped-up with the 4th part of a talk that I’ve shared with the UX design team: Documenting your work as a designer. This topic tackles the other side of design work (and any work, in general), which is documenting your experiences and learnings from projects.
The talk goes from abstract concepts towards concrete steps in starting a portfolio curation. What each of us actually produced were our top 3 highlights of last year.
This week at Avaloq, I officially re-wore my hiring manager cap for the UX design team, as we’ve officially published our open positions. I spent the latter part of the week reviewing applicants and determining who among them are candidates.
Appreciate all of you, designers (and you, one industrial designer, and also you, one visual merchandiser), for submitting your applications. Recruitment is still in its initial phases, so keep ’em coming!
So, what goes on in the process of having an application go from an applicant to candidate status? Let’s go over the surface of the skimming level of the recruitment process.
The goal of skimming is to prepare a group of applications for evaluation and deliberation. At this point, the objective aspect of it is the presence of two things: the résumé and portfolio — one cannot do without the other in order to have a balanced basis for moving forward with an application.
The objective-subjective part, on the other hand, is determining if the résumé and portfolio’s relevance and quality fit the bill. The criteria is essential to the objectivity of the process and in itself is subjective as well because it is based on our organization’s culture, team’s mandate, and my professional approach as a hiring manager, among others.
This is not a black and white approach either because even without a portfolio, if an application fits the criteria, it is put on hold pending completion of the tandem (résumé and portfolio).
At this early stage, the relevance of the résumé and portfolio pertains to the position being applied for (or with other available design positions).
Bear in the mind that the recruitment is specific to the UX design team. Needless to say, a basic expectation is to be impressed by résumés and portfolios that are themselves designed — both information architecturally and visually.
Once an application fit the criteria, it gets a candidate status. Candidates are evaluated and deliberated along with others in the same category (e.g., associate category is separate from senior category). Skimming, true to the word itself, is a quick and reliable activity; still, a thorough process ensues in the next level — starting again with the candidate’s résumé and portfolio.
I know, the title says, Of cover letters because that idea inspired me to write this article (although it is mostly about skimming). Cover letter, it is cherry on top — when it is intended for the specific position being applied for (in contrast with a generic one). In my experience, a particular application with a specific cover letter is like hearing the person introduce themselves — in which, I would gladly listen.
A cover letter is not part of our requirements or criteria, though. An important note is that a strong application is holistic in its approach in propositions (i.e., job applications) and that includes a specific cover letter, a well-designed resume, and a cohesive portfolio.
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