The Village Bank

About the Project

In 2004, The Village Bank's commercial lending department was having trouble keeping track of commercial loan applications, their status, and the documentation required to close the loans. The lack of a central repository for this information was causing significant confusion and making it harder for the team to do their jobs effectively. The Senior Vice President of Lending asked me to help build a system to bring order to the chaos. Over the next two years, I developed Microsoft Access databases for both the commercial and residential lending departments, software that the bank used to close over 700 loans, representing more than $200 million in business.

The Challenge

The lending team needed more than just a database. They needed a tool that fit seamlessly into their daily workflow. Commercial loans involve complex documentation requirements, multiple stakeholders, and constant status changes. Without a central system, loan officers were wasting time hunting for information, applications were slipping through the cracks, and the team couldn't easily prioritize their pipeline. Any solution would need to handle this complexity while being intuitive enough that busy bankers would actually want to use it.

My Approach

I was still an intern when the SVP approached me, with only weeks left before returning to school. I pitched her on hiring me as a consultant and brought in my brother, who had just completed his Computer Science degree in Panama, to help build a prototype. Throughout the summer of 2004, we developed the "Commercial Pipeline" database, and I held weekly meetings at the bank to demo our progress and gather feedback.

When I returned that fall to roll out the software, I hit my first major obstacle: people weren't using it. The database had all the features they'd requested, but they reported that navigating it felt clunky and unnatural. So I spent several weeks watching how the lending team actually worked. I tried to understand in what order they needed the information, which tasks they repeated most often, and how they discussed loans in their daily conversations. Then I completely redesigned the interface around their workflow rather than around database logic.

That shift made all the difference. Once the software matched how they thought about their work, adoption happened quickly. The Commercial Pipeline became essential to their process, and I spent the next year and a half refining it while developing a parallel system for residential lending.

The Results

My databases processed over $200 million worth of business for The Village Bank and became integral to how the lending departments operated. But the bigger lesson was about the gap between building something that works and building something people will actually use. This project taught me that successful software development isn't just about technical execution; it's about observation, iteration, and being willing to throw out your first approach when the people using it tell you it doesn't fit their reality.