The People Problem | ABA Podcast

KlariVis CEO and founder Kim Snyder recently joined Tim Punnell, VP of Partner Network and Member Engagement at the American Bankers Association, on the ABA podcast to discuss one of the most persistent challenges in community banking: why data transformation stalls — and what it takes to make it stick.

Drawing on more than 25 years of banking experience, including a decade as a community bank CFO, Kim made the case that while technology is the visible barrier, the harder obstacle is cultural. She identified three human factors that consistently undermine data-driven decision-making: silo-first mindsets, where departments treat data as proprietary rather than shared; relationship banking bias, where gut instinct overrides full-relationship visibility; and risk-driven paralysis, where institutions lock data down so tightly it becomes functionally inaccessible.

Kim also challenged how banks approach data strategy, arguing that most go sideways by designing for the people building reports rather than the people acting on them. Effective transformation requires democratizing data access across the organization — making insights intuitive, frictionless, and embedded into daily workflows rather than delivered through quarterly reports after the fact. She cautioned against over-customization, which drains momentum and often drives teams back to spreadsheets before a solution ever gains traction.

Critically, Kim emphasized that leadership must set the tone. When executives visibly use data to ask better questions, challenge assumptions, and coach in real time, the culture follows — not through mandates, but through consistent action.

The results, she noted, are measurable: banks that break through these barriers are achieving up to 50 basis points in loan yield improvement and 40 basis points on interest margin. The differentiator isn’t a better dashboard — it’s people using data differently.