One of my favorite experiences working at a large bank was sitting in on calls in the call center for a morning. It blew my mind.

Our systems were terribly unhelpful in handling the average call. I was embarrassed to note the vast difference between the systems we gave our call center versus what we gave our customers. Also their needs were pretty much the same (obvious in retrospect). The customer-facing system had continuously been measured and improved for user experience and delight. The systems our call center used looked like a wasteland of retro tech. Agents were hopping between systems and copy-pasting sensitive customer data. For one simple customer query I saw an agent hop between 4 systems and 5 pages.

I left with my tail between my legs and a wealth of insights that continue to have an impact several years later.