Bridging the gap between corporate structures and user experience.
Northeast Bank operated as two businesses under one name. A Maine-based community bank with a small branch footprint and a national commercial lending platform with an outsized presence in the industry. Each side of the organization had its own story, its own customer journey and its own set of digital tools. As the bank entered a period of aggressive growth, leadership recognized that the fragmented brand and disconnected digital experience were slowing momentum. The challenge wasn’t simply updating a visual identity. It was aligning a complex organization around a shared narrative, building a modern digital ecosystem and creating a unified experience that supported both everyday consumers and high-value commercial clients.
Role
Strategic advisor
Creative director
Product design lead
Scope
Brand & design system
Operations design
Software UX/UI
Web design & dev
I served as a long-term partner embedded alongside marketing, IT, product, operations and senior leadership. My role crossed brand strategy, UX design and systems thinking. I led the design and unification of customer journeys for both sides of the business, facilitated prioritization across competing strategic initiatives and orchestrated the adoption of a modern digital suite that could scale nationally. As digital strategy matured, my focus expanded into organizational alignment and ongoing execution that tied brand, technology and marketing into a cohesive system.
The engagement began with a deep assessment of how the bank presented itself — what it said, how it looked and how customers experienced it across digital touchpoints. From that foundation I developed a narrative that connected the bank’s local heritage to its national lending expertise, creating a brand story that could speak credibly to both audiences.
This narrative became the backbone of the digital transformation. Working across teams, we evaluated and implemented a suite of platforms that included Jack Henry, Drupal Aquia and complementary tools to meet the needs of commercial lending, retail banking and internal operations. We mapped and redesigned the end-to-end journeys for prospects, customers and brokers, ensuring that no matter where someone entered the system they experienced the same visual language, the appropriate messaging and a elevated level of clarity.
As these systems came online I worked with leadership to create a structured prioritization model that balanced enterprise goals with divisional needs. Technology, marketing and product initiatives were planned and executed within a single roadmap, giving teams a shared direction and eliminating the fragmentation that had previously slowed progress. What followed was a period of rapid growth, supported by a digital experience that could finally keep up with the bank’s national ambitions.
The unified brand and redesigned digital ecosystem provided a clear identity for Northeast Bank at a time when clarity mattered most. Customers encountered a consistent experience across every channel, internal teams gained alignment around priorities and leadership had a digital foundation capable of supporting nationwide scale.
The results were reflected in the market. As the brand and digital transformation took hold, the bank entered one of the most significant growth periods in its history, contributing to a 323% increase in stock valuation from launch to date. The multi-year partnership not only delivered a modern user experience across business lines, it helped reposition the bank as a confident national player built on a cohesive story, a unified system and a digital presence strong enough to support continued expansion.
© 2026 Pete Duncan
