Filene Research Institute

In this episode, Cortney Arnold and Kaeshier Fernandez explore leadership and talent development among digitally native, future credit union leaders. Their conversation highlights the importance of creating space for digitally fluent team members, balancing authenticity with professional expectations, and leaning into generational differences as an organizational asset. They also examine how the p...

Today, Dr. Amy Hillman reframes succession planning as a core component of strategic execution, not a one-time governance task. She walks through how boards should think about their own skills and composition, why “trust but verify” depends on having the right experience in the room, and how tools like attribute matrices, RACI frameworks, and CEO bench-strength reviews support long-term execution....

In this episode of the Filene Fill-In, Filene CEO Mark Meyer and Executive Vice President Christie Kimbell reflect on what they heard from credit union leaders in 2025 and what those signals suggest about the road ahead. They unpack the realities of leadership right now, including challenges around pace, courage, and alignment and how these issues are connected to Filene’s 2026 theme, Remarkable....

In this Design for Digital Takeover episode of The Filene Fill-In, host Jerry Kane sits down with generational researcher and storyteller Kim Lear to explore how each generation’s unique experiences shape their approach to money, work, and trust. From baby boomers to Gen Z, they unpack how life stage, culture, and technology intersect to drive values and financial behavior. Kim shares insights fro...

In this Design for Digital Takeover of the Filene Fill-In, host Jerry Kane talks with Sumeet Grover, EVP and Chief Strategic Growth and Digital Officer at University Federal Credit Union (UFCU), about leading digital transformation in a member-centric organization. Sumeet shares how breaking silos, rethinking the operating model, and embedding digital as a business discipline—not just a project—ar...

In this special Design for Digital Takeover episode of The Filene Fill-In, Jerry Kane sits down with Boston College professor and Me, Myself, and AI co-host Sam Ransbotham to unpack the truth behind the AI hype cycle. From fraud detection and generative tools to agentic AI and the future of work, they explore where artificial intelligence is really creating value and where it’s still catching up t...

You know their names, ages, incomes and balances…but does that tell you who your members are? Does it tell you their motivations? How about actionable insights for helping meet their needs in the way that works best for them? It's no surprise that people with similar demographics can exhibit vastly different consumer behaviors... But a couple of strategy and marketing leaders in today’s episode be...

"One transition I’m really interested in is the transition from incarceration to entry back into society. The criminal legal system has an enormous impact on peoples’ lives but it’s one that financial institutions don’t seem to think much about." We have a special discussion for our listeners today as we hand over the reigns to our Filene Fellow for the Center of Excellence for Consumer Financial...

Today’s episode is very special – we have a guest on that is well known in the financial world from a national media stage -- and we are unpacking everything about a new, highly valuable Filene member benefit offered through a new partnership between Filene and HerMoney. Jean Chatzky is a former financial editor of NBC’s TODAY Show, bestselling author, award-winning personal finance journalist and...

Sarah Lietz, Chief Experience Officer, MDC and Christie Kimbell, Chief Product Officer, Filene Research Institute provide insights and updates on what is happening in the most innovative pockets of the credit union and financial services space today and how growth-minded leaders can take advantage of innovative ideas to gain a new POV in 2023. In this episode, we dig into their decades of explorat...

Today’s conversation is about Financial Well Being… well actually to be more specific, financial well being for all. For a substantial portion of households, day-to-day financial struggles remain profound in the face of persistent financial fragility and inequity. According to the Financial Health Network’s U.S. Financial Health Pulse, 2 out of 3 Americans are not financially healthy and stark dis...

Today’s conversation is about innovation. I know, right. Innovation this, innovation that, everyone is saying the word innovation so much, it's like the center square on a corporate jargon bingo card. But here’s the thing: Jeffrey Robinson, Fellow for Filene’s Center of Excellence for Innovation and Incubation tells credit unions “If we don’t innovate, we die.” So, if it’s here to stay, and we do...

Let’s take a trip back in time to big.bright.minds 2021 where we ran into a very enthusiastic supporter of the Filene i3 program – Randy Stolp. Now, Randy promised he had a very unique and interesting story about how he came to be part of i3 and he definitely delivered. But before we get to that…let’s look back in time again, this time if we look ALL the way back in history, we see the organizatio...

Today’s conversation is one you’ve likely thought about before if you work in the credit union industry -- we’re talking about credit unions and cryptocurrencies. The purpose of this conversation is to enlighten our credit union listeners to what they need to know about the current state of digital assets and cryptocurrencies, what risks and opportunities exist, what credit unions are doing now, a...

1 in 5 credit union members report that they would be willing to leave their credit union for a bank if innovation was not a priority. If you’re a regular listener of this podcast, you know that we often bring our research fellows on so that you have a chance to hear directly from them, get to know a little more about the work they are doing and learn about the focus of the research centers they l...

Last fall, Filene launched a new research center to focus on the power of credit unions’ social and community impact — not only to explore the way that this type of work being done by credit unions, if strategically maximized, partnered and amplified, has potential to significantly and positively transform entire communities, but also to explore the way that, through putting a focus on making tran...

Data is an amazing thing. It tells us who we are and what we do. And while predicting the choices, preferences and behaviors of one person is nearly impossible, predicting this for many people is a lot easier through the power of data analysis. Once-hidden patterns are revealed, structure emerges, and our data becomes our vision into the future. If you were told that 4 out of every 10 members will...

So much has turned uncertain about our world this year – one thing that helps in times of uncertainty is to stay focused in the realm of what we can control. And while we can’t control the future, there is a trick that does give us a bit of control over the shape the future will be in. When we act in good faith to the question of “How can I become a good ancestor?” we start to behave in a way that...

We’ve witnessed how much of our societal and economic infrastructure has failed--or is brought to the precipice of failure--with any amount of stress put on it over the last handful of months. Smart organizations right now are looking for ways to infuse innovation into their very DNA: their organizational culture – and create solutions to the most pressing needs of their customers, while energizin...

In this episode, we introduce you to our newest Filene Fellow for the Center of Excellence for Consumer Financial Lives in Transition. Dr. Lisa Servon is the Kevin and Erica Penn Presidential Professor and Chair of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. The Center for Consumer Financial Lives in Transition studies the changing financial lives...

This episode brings you insights from Filene Fellow Huggy Rao, professor of organizational behavior and human resources at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Huggy will make you see the link between what you do and the way you do it, and your performance outcomes. Huggy isn’t your typical professor, you will be well entertained by his colorful language and metaphors throughout. Get inspired b...

In a public health crisis, timely, reliable and trustworthy information is critical to safeguarding people’s health and well-being. Unfortunately, the widespread adoption of digital media and information technologies today has made it easier and faster to produce, disseminate, and be exposed to false or manipulated content, from simple misinformation to conspiracy theories to hate speech. Our rese...

On January 13, 2020, Filene officially launched our new Center of Excellence for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, led by Dr. Quinetta Roberson of Villanova University. Hear directly from Quinetta in this episode about the work she will be doing, why she feels this research – specifically looking at the interactions between the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion separately and together --...

How can credit unions in the 21st century deliver the best member experience? At the start of each year, Filene takes a moment’s pause to reflect and speak to our local credit union community to share the latest insights from our research and incubation, and examine the changes we see on the horizon. This year, we share our newest and emerging research on member experience, service excellence and...

For this first episode in 2020 of our podcast, I asked Filene’s entire research team to reflect back and pick what they saw as the most essential research insight from our 2019 library. Then I asked each to give a preview of one report they are excited about sharing with you all in the year ahead. The team shared insights about the importance of your employee’s financial well-being; smart strategi...