On today’s sponsored episode of Power House, Diego Sanchez sits down with Jesse Decker, the newly appointed Chief Customer Officer at Polly, for a conversation all about innovation and customer success strategies in mortgage tech.
Jesse shares her journey from consulting to leading customer experience at Polly, how new tech is sweeping the mortgage landscape, and how Polly is constantly innovating to meet the needs of their customer partners. They also talk about some exciting new developments happening in Polly’s roadmap and what it really means — and takes — to listen to customers.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The mortgage industry, as a whole, is on the brink of a technology shift.
Understanding customer needs is crucial for product development.
Polly's technology is highly configurable and innovative.
Artificial intelligence integration is a key focus for Polly's future.
Building partnerships with customers is essential for success.
Polly wants to transform the vendor-lender relationship model.
Related to this episode:
Connect with Jesse Decker on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-decker/
Follow Polly on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pollyex/
Connect with Polly's team at #MBASecondary25
https://hubs.la/Q02lmD380
Mortgage Tech Insights with Adam Carmel
https://www.housingwire.com/podcast/mortgage-tech-insights-with-adam-carmel/
Enjoy the episode!
The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire president Diego Sanchez every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Jesse shares her journey from consulting to leading customer experience at Polly, how new tech is sweeping the mortgage landscape, and how Polly is constantly innovating to meet the needs of their customer partners. They also talk about some exciting new developments happening in Polly’s roadmap and what it really means — and takes — to listen to customers.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The mortgage industry, as a whole, is on the brink of a technology shift.
Understanding customer needs is crucial for product development.
Polly's technology is highly configurable and innovative.
Artificial intelligence integration is a key focus for Polly's future.
Building partnerships with customers is essential for success.
Polly wants to transform the vendor-lender relationship model.
Related to this episode:
Connect with Jesse Decker on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-decker/
Follow Polly on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pollyex/
Connect with Polly's team at #MBASecondary25
https://hubs.la/Q02lmD380
Mortgage Tech Insights with Adam Carmel
https://www.housingwire.com/podcast/mortgage-tech-insights-with-adam-carmel/
Enjoy the episode!
The Power House podcast brings the biggest names in housing to answer hard-hitting questions about industry trends, operational and growth strategy, and leadership. Join HousingWire president Diego Sanchez every Thursday morning for candid conversations with industry leaders to learn how they’re differentiating themselves from the competition. Hosted and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We're in it to move this industry forward on behalf of borrowers, and working together, we'll get farther down that path.
00:13Welcome to Powerhouse, where I interview the biggest names in housing and ask them about their strategy for growth.
00:21My name is Diego Sanchez, president of HousingWire, and I'm joined today by a special guest, Jesse Decker, the new chief customer officer at Poly.
00:32Jesse, welcome to Powerhouse.
00:34Diego, thank you so much for having me.
00:36I've looked at a number of these podcasts and been following along, and I'm just stoked to be here.
00:42You've got quite an impressive list of folks.
00:43I hope I can measure up and have this be a fun convo.
00:47Yeah, this is going to be a great conversation.
00:48And by the way, congratulations on your new role.
00:52I think it's pretty fresh right now.
00:54Yeah, thank you.
00:55I am on, I don't know, maybe day two and a half, something like that.
00:58Day two and a half, so I'm catching you really, really fresh.
01:01What attracted you to this role, and which aspects of the role are you most excited about?
01:08Yeah, great question.
01:09I mean, you know, I fought long and hard about making the switch from my prior employer to this one, and there's a couple of key drivers for me.
01:17First and foremost, you know, as evidenced by a number of the other folks that have been on this podcast with you, we are really on the cusp of one of the biggest technology shifts that we've seen in this industry in a long time.
01:28It's been a long time coming.
01:30You know, I'm relatively new to the mortgage industry.
01:33I've been in mortgage now for less than 10 years, maybe somewhere around nine to 10 years.
01:37And I know there are folks that have been in this industry for their entire careers for quite a long time.
01:42But what has struck me is how deserving this industry is of better technology and how lacking it has been in terms of what's been available.
01:51So, you know, I think as we've seen from a number of the acquisitions and the mergers that are happening in the space, a number of them driven in large part by interest in technology and the efficiencies that technology can provide,
02:04that we're really at a place where where there is awesome technology and modern tech that's able to be efficient and move at speed that provides, you know,
02:15lenders and their and the consumers at the end of the transaction with a better experience and more profitability.
02:21And so it was really important for me to continue to contribute to technology companies that are really moving the needle in this space,
02:29addressing the real problems that we've seen our customers have.
02:34And when they can address them, things are better for the consumers.
02:37So that was that was the main driver for me wanting to continue to contribute to that trajectory for this industry.
02:43And the second thing is just, you know, I mean, I'm running customer success.
02:47How technology companies engage with customers is really important to me.
02:52I think it is a key differentiator in terms of whether technology companies are successful, A,
02:57and B, the extent to which our customers can be the best versions of themselves as they go to market and seek to provide services to borrowers and to consumers.
03:07This company, Polly, has been doing an awesome job on that front.
03:11I'm just excited to join the team and help and help move the ball down the field.
03:14So, yeah, Polly has been acquiring customers at a pretty good clip over the past couple of years.
03:22How does your background tie into this role of not just being the chief customer officer for Polly,
03:30but it's an expanding customer base right now?
03:34Yeah, sure.
03:35So just a little bit by way of background, which may be less interesting to some folks,
03:39but so I'll go over it relatively quickly.
03:41I spent the early parts of my career in consulting, doing mostly technology transformation and strategy work related to technology,
03:50working for public sector, private sector, some nonprofits,
03:54but really around the intersection of how can companies move from where they are today to where they want to be
03:59and make sure that they have the right tech stack and the right tech approaches in place to enable that growth.
04:04So I did this from the other side of the table for many, many years,
04:08helping my clients choose providers and then manage those providers to get the most out of them and the most out of that relationship.
04:15And now for the last nine to 10 years, I've been on the other side of the table, this side of the table as a provider,
04:21leading the teams that are doing their best to make sure that as vendors and as vendor partners,
04:28we provide the services that our customers were super excited about during the sales process and then need to see the value post-sale that they thought that they were getting.
04:38So, you know, having been on the other side of the table,
04:42I'm well aware of what it looks like to be a high quality provider of services and what it looks like to not be one of those.
04:49And, you know, my goal here and what I've done for the last number of iterations and my career is build the teams and the underlying processes,
05:01which are not the sexy parts of building a technology company,
05:05but putting the teams in place that enable us to deliver successfully for our customers and meet their needs and objectives.
05:11And, you know, it's not always an easy role.
05:16It's not always easy and fun conversations,
05:18but my role and my team's role is really to make sure that our customers' voices are heard
05:24and amplified within the company, within Polly in this instance,
05:28so that we can continue to roll out the products and features that are going to best move the needle for our customers.
05:33Why do you think this customer base, this expanding customer base,
05:41is choosing policy over some of the other legacy systems out there?
05:47Yeah, I think, you know, I started to say this a little bit in the beginning of this podcast.
05:53There has not been a lot of options for buyers in the space, right?
05:58This is true on the origination side, certainly true on the servicing side.
06:01There's a lot of legacy tech in this industry, technology that in many cases works pretty well,
06:08designed for a time when there wasn't the same level of regulatory, you know, requirements,
06:16and the pace of innovation was not as fast as it needs to be now.
06:20So I think you're seeing a lot of interest in Polly from the market simply because it's a highly configurable product.
06:26It's really easy to meet your business needs and configure your workflow compared to some of our competitors.
06:34And, you know, frankly, this is what the industry needs, right?
06:36I've always been one to, I think it's, you know, it's interesting to compare yourself to your competitors,
06:42but what's more interesting is to think about what it is your customers need to be successful
06:45and what their business strategy looks like and the extent to which your product enables them to get there.
06:51So I think we've, you know, we've experienced significant growth at Polly.
06:54And if you look at the pipe, which is one of the things I asked about when I was interviewing here
06:59and having the initial conversations, you know, we are innovating very quickly, right?
07:04We release relatively quickly, especially for, you know, some large technology companies release major releases a few times a year.
07:13We are releasing much, much, much more frequently than that.
07:16And we're releasing features, right?
07:18Core features more frequently than that.
07:20So, you know, we're innovating very quickly.
07:23We're purposely building in innovative and automated workflows that allow customers, our customers,
07:30our buyers to use the tool and configure it to meet their strategic objectives and the way that they want to use the tool.
07:37There's also, you know, an AI is a bit of an overused word and an underused word.
07:43You know, people, sometimes you feel like, I feel like they're sprinkling AI on top of their technology or putting it on like a condiment.
07:49We're really building it into the platform and have been.
07:52And it's, you know, it's just critical.
07:54It's the thing that's going to set us apart from a success standpoint.
08:00And by extension, our customers as well.
08:03So sometimes technology companies, it seems like they're innovating for innovation's sake,
08:10as opposed to responding to actual customer needs.
08:14How, in your role, are you going to ensure that product development and engineering at Poly
08:22are building things that are what your customers need as opposed to, you know, building for engineers' sake?
08:30Yeah, totally fair question.
08:32Sometimes there's a, to put it back to you, sometimes there's a desire to build cool things, right?
08:38And, you know, the market will figure out how cool it is and we'll buy it.
08:41That doesn't make any sense from a building a company perspective.
08:44You know, our customers know their business better than we do for sure, right?
08:49We need to understand their business.
08:50We understand how to build technology together in partnership.
08:53If we are listening to our customers and deeply listening, right?
08:57Not just one ear listening while we're trying to figure out how to build the next thing.
09:00If we are deeply listening to our customers, we will roll out features and capabilities and products that they find value in.
09:08So a key part of my role, I mean, this is customer success 101,
09:13is bring the voice of the customer into the decision-making process about the product roadmap, right?
09:18There's a variety of ways that we can do that.
09:21We need to bring all voices from the customer into that roadmap decision-making process.
09:27So executives may have one view from our customer base.
09:30Executives have one view.
09:31The folks that are the operators on the ground working in the tool, manufacturing loans, will have a different view.
09:38And it's really important to listen to both and understand how our tools are used to further their business process.
09:48You know, that dialogue also needs to be proactive, not just reactive, right?
09:54I've definitely seen technology companies where, you know, you just wait until the customer tells you what they want,
09:59and then you go build the thing.
10:00And that doesn't work either, right?
10:02It's really the key to this as a partnership and the customer centricity aspect of all that we do will make us successful, is my view.
10:11Now, Jesse, you've been in roles like this before where you've been leading customer success, client success at a mortgage technology company.
10:20How do you think Polly's approach to customer relationships is different from the traditional vendor-lender relationship?
10:31Yeah, that's a great question.
10:33I mean, it's radically different, right?
10:36Gone are the days of lenders choosing a vendor and just pounding on them to deliver and having to pound on them to deliver.
10:45Our approach is really one of partnership.
10:47We are changing how lenders interact with their tech vendors.
10:50We're asking our partners from our customer standpoint to hold us accountable, to push us further, right, to work together to transform the space.
11:01You know, it's really easy, I think, for technology companies to have great ideas that customers may or may not think are as great.
11:08And sometimes it's entirely true that customers have ideas about technology that are maybe not realistic, right?
11:15But together, we bring different viewpoints to solve the same problem, right, or to meet the same goal, which is to have our customers be as effective and efficient as possible.
11:29And that sense of customer centricity hasn't always been, has and always will be a core part of Polly's culture.
11:36It's one of the things that attracted me to the company, frankly.
11:38And, you know, I'm really looking forward to ongoing customer conversations where together we are, you know, moving the ball down the field and pushing the needle in terms of what we really can accomplish together.
11:51So, I'm sure you asked about the product roadmap as you were, it sounds like they were interviewing you, but you were also interviewing them a little bit, which is the right way to do it from my perspective.
12:04What are you excited about in Polly's product roadmap over the next year or so?
12:11Yeah, that's a great question.
12:12So, I'm only on day two and a half, and I'm sure this will become, I will be illuminated.
12:19I will continue to learn more about what it is we're doing.
12:21The team will illuminate me.
12:24From what I've been able to see, we have a ridiculously innovative and game-changing roadmap.
12:29In the product and pricing engine space, we're building new features at an unbelievable pace.
12:34Everything we do is focused on delivering an experience for loan officers and for capital markets folks.
12:40That is, it helps them increase their profitability, helps them be more automated.
12:46The extent to which we're building AI into the roadmap is, and delivering on AI capabilities is really amazing.
12:53There's also a new product coming to market in the fall that I can't say much about, but that was definitely, you know, I had a, oh, wow moment during the process.
13:03You know, this is the kind of energy and the kind of forward-thinking focus on delivery that I can get super excited about, and it's why I ultimately, you know, made the call to come here.
13:18So you're joining the team of executives that is helping to run Poly, and an important part of being in an environment like Poly, which is still, you know, very much in that startup phase, growing out of that startup phase, but you've got to grow.
13:38So what are Poly's growth priorities for the next 12 to 24 months?
13:45The way I think about this is that you've got to build a strong foundation for growth, which means our customers need to be successful.
13:52They need to be happy using our platform.
13:54They need to be finding value in it.
13:56All of the excitement that they had in the sales cycle needs to have transitioned to them actually realizing the value that they expected to receive.
14:04We figure out if we're hitting that in that mark by having some deep conversations and deep listenings with our customers, but they've got to be happy.
14:12They've got to be referenceable.
14:13They've got to be willing to talk with their peers at the various industry events and say, you know, hey, you know, we switched over to Poly,
14:20and, man, that tool has got so much flexibility and so much automation built in and so much AI that we're really finding significant value in it.
14:27That enables us to then, you know, offer up some additional capabilities and products that we offer.
14:34But we are, you know, we are building out of a roadmap that is very, very innovative,
14:39that we are developing in concert with our customers, in partnership with our customers.
14:45Our next-gen pricing engine is amazing.
14:47We've got new features coming out at an unbelievable pace, right?
14:50Gone are the days of, you know, only one or two major releases a year.
14:54We're able to release new capabilities much more quickly.
14:57And I think that is a pace of change that the industry and our customers should expect.
15:03And frankly, they should expect from all their vendors and not let antiquated technology stand in the way of them having those higher expectations.
15:10Everything that we do at Poly is focused on delivering increased profitability, giving the loan officer an awesome experience,
15:19and putting in place the automation that reduces costs for our customers.
15:24We've got a lot of AI capabilities coming out.
15:27And as I mentioned earlier, a new product coming in the fall that I'm really excited about.
15:31You know, these are transformational changes, right?
15:35And I can't share more than that right now.
15:39But I'm looking forward to having lots of fun conversations about all that's coming.
15:44Quick follow-up on AI, artificial intelligence.
15:48I've seen some of the work that Poly is doing in this area, and I imagine you have as well.
15:56What are you most excited about when it comes to integrating AI into the product as opposed to what you said before, you know, kind of sprinkling it on top?
16:06Yeah, I think when you build with AI as a core foundational piece of the thing that you're building,
16:13you make different choices about how to structure the user experience, right?
16:18And how you think the users of your product are going to be using it on a day-to-day basis.
16:24And that's what I see us doing at Poly.
16:27You know, I will say this, and this is behind the scenes and maybe not as sexy for everyone.
16:32I even look at how we can use AI internally to improve our operations, right?
16:36So that when a customer comes to us with a question about a configuration item or how the workflow works,
16:43that we're able to give those answers as quickly as we possibly can because we're using similar AI tooling internally to drive that customer experience and that customer service, right?
16:55So to me, it's both sides of the coin, right?
16:57It's what we put into the product to make available to our customers.
17:00And then what we also use internally to get the responsiveness there and give our customers what they really need.
17:09So this has been a great conversation, but we're going to get the chance to talk again in just a couple of weeks.
17:17And they're kind of throwing you right in at Poly.
17:21You've talked a lot about listening to the customer, being an advocate for the customer inside of Poly.
17:30How are you going to do that over the next couple of months?
17:33What's your plan for listening to the customer and learning about the customer base at Poly?
17:38Yeah, I mean, the easy answer is literally talk to every single customer that we have and more than once, right?
17:45I firmly believe that building strong and deep relationships on the individual level and company to company is what will make us successful and us successful with our customers and vice versa.
17:58You know, I told the team here before I joined that I am a firm believer in really understanding the lay of the land before making ridiculously bold moves, right?
18:10There's a lot that Poly has done well that's led to its success to date.
18:14There's a lot that, you know, obviously in technology, there's always places to improve.
18:20I think I've said that, right?
18:22But, you know, really it's just talking to customers and listening, probably listening more than talking and really digging in with our teams and understanding our day-to-day operations, where there are efficiencies that we can gain, right?
18:36Where there are opportunities for us to better communicate to and with our customers.
18:40It's a two-way street.
18:42So I know I answered that question very operationally.
18:45But to me, having a solid underlying operation is what enables you to achieve your long-term strategic goals.
18:52One of the things that always stands out to me when I talk to executives at Poly is they talk about customers or clients as partners as opposed to customers or clients.
19:10What do you think about that as somebody who has run client success teams in the past?
19:14Yeah, it's a good question.
19:16I mean, you know, sometimes these terms are thrown around and they're overused and they're broad enough that you can ascribe any sorts of qualities to them that you want.
19:25But, you know, for me, one of the pieces that I dug in pretty deep during our early conversations with Poly is, you know, okay, what does it mean to be a true partner to your customer?
19:34And what it means is really listening, really, really engaging and contributing to the raising of the game, the collective game, right?
19:45So the bar, the bar needs to be higher.
19:48When our customers have high, you know, air quotes, high expectations of us, that's great, right?
19:54We should have high expectations of ourselves.
19:55And together, we will articulate what that innovation needs to look like and what the future needs to look like.
20:04You know, like I have said earlier, I think from our respective seats, right, in the technology provider seat and in the lender, you know, loan manufacturing, mortgage loan manufacturing seat, we know a lot about the different parts of the business.
20:18And together, we can really be very successful.
20:21We can really be very successful together.
20:23And that's a true partnership, right?
20:25We're not just in it to grow as a company.
20:28Our customers are not just in it, you know, for their own bottom line.
20:32We're in it to move this industry forward on behalf of borrowers and working together, we'll get farther down that path.
20:38We've got MBA secondary coming up in a very short amount of time.
20:44How are you preparing your team and yourself for a pretty important conference coming up?
20:54Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
20:55Well, we're excited to be at MBA secondary.
20:58I'm stoked to sit down with you and see you in person and not be in little boxes on a screen.
21:03You know, we are hot and heavy in terms of prep for MBA secondary, right?
21:08We've got an awesome function.
21:09We've got a number of meetings set up.
21:11I personally, as I have said a couple times, I'm on day two, right?
21:15So key for me is just really understanding our product set, our customers, what their concerns are, what's working really well for them, what their business needs are.
21:25I expect to meet as many customers and talk to as many customers as I possibly can in the lead up to MBA.
21:33You know, one thing that has I found to be true in every role that I've had is the extent to which relationships really matter.
21:40When you have a strong relationship, either one-on-one or between two organizations, your ability to speak honestly with each other and share what's going well and what needs improvement, it really opens up.
21:54And so my goal is to build as many relationships as possible as I can with our customers.
21:57And at the same time, understand what our teammates, my teammates on the ground at Poly are doing, right?
22:02What kind of help they need.
22:04I look at leadership as an unblocker, right?
22:07I'm an unblocker.
22:08I'm here to like, you know, put my shoulder in and help push the boulder up the hill if that's what's required.
22:12But really, it's about moving blockages out of the way and helping us be successful.
22:18I love that.
22:19And I think we'll end it there.
22:20And, again, I'll get to talk to you again in just a couple of weeks and ask you how the unblocking is going.
22:29Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
22:30And hopefully I will have made a ton of progress between now and then.
22:32All right.
22:33Thanks so much, Jessie.
22:34Thanks, Diego.
22:34Take care.