Projects
These case studies show how I work and some of the projects I've worked on.
Groupama is one of France’s oldest and largest mutual insurance and financial services groups, with roots going back over a century as a mutual organisation founded to serve agricultural and local communities. Today it operates across insurance, asset management, banking and service businesses in multiple European countries and beyond, serving millions of customers on the strength of its two major brands and a network of regional mutuals. Groupama’s financial services activities have included personal banking products, loans, savings and credit solutions — a broad portfolio that reflects the organisation’s scale and ambition within French retail finance.
Among its subsidiaries was Groupama Banque, a retail banking operation in France that, through a majority stake acquisition by Orange in 2016, became the foundation for Orange Bank — a fully digital, mobile-first banking service designed to compete in a rapidly evolving consumer finance landscape. Although the banking products themselves have since evolved under that new brand and ownership structure, the work we did at the time was situated in a moment when Groupama’s financial services business was actively innovating in digital channels and exploring modern platforms for customer engagement.
In late 2015, I was asked by Draw Group (now part of Oliver Wyman) to support development for this major French banking client - on a digital platform intended to streamline customer and account interactions.
It was unclear if the bank wanted to go ahead with the full project and so I was engaged on the condition that if they didn't, my service would also end. I had two weeks to win them around and did so by working very closly with the customer.
The client needed a tangible demonstration of progress and capability to justify the decision to commit the full development budget. Initially working alone with partial access to a designer, I was able to prove the viability of the project and overtime saw the group grow into a small team of six developers under my stewardship, we used Angular, Jasmine for automated testing, Highcharts for interactive visualisation, Bootstrap for responsive layout, and a lightweight Node.js API to glue the front end to backend services. By prioritising clear, incremental value and rapid iteration, we delivered a prototype ahead of schedule, one that met the client’s needs and decisively shifted the conversation from uncertainty to commitment.
I served as the sole, and eventually the lead developer on that effort, with an intense early focus on delivering a the two-week prototype to prove the viability of full development. Needless to say - the 2 weeks of software development (and ramp up time) working exclusivly on the project was not wasted, and it was recieved with great enthusiasm.
The successful prototype didn’t just satisfy a technical requirement — it transformed the engagement. What had started as a short evaluation turned into an opportunity to lead the full version of the platform. I engaged directly with Groupama’s senior leadership during delivery, translating between technical progress and business expectations in a way that built trust and confidence on both sides. The experience culminated in an invitation to La Défense in Paris to hand over the project to the client team and debrief the CTO — a rare and rewarding moment that underscored how quickly a well-executed prototype can redefine an engagement.
The feedback from that hand-off was overwhelmingly positive, with the client team expressing genuine enthusiasm for the work and the direction it enabled. What began as a ‘keep going if the prototype lands’ scenario evolved into a full leadership role and a strong professional relationship — a reminder that clarity, delivery and visible progress can be as important as technical depth in shaping outcomes.
Feedback from people I worked with within this organisation
Nathan Murados worked for 6 months on the development of a complex tool, which went from a prototype to a full tool linked to several back-office systems. Throughout the entire period, Nathan acted as one of the key members of a large team.
He was committed to doing the right yet pragmatic thing. As his development work is near to impeccable and given his approach to working independently whilst raising questions and concerns, I would describe him as an asset to any team, especially when aiming for an Agile approach.
