Most banks and fintechs build their ICP once, then treat it like scripture. Product builds to it. Marketing writes to it. Sales pitches to it. Everyone assumes it's still true.

It's probably not.

Markets move. Buyer behavior shifts. What mattered to your customers in 2024 doesn't drive decisions today. But look at your positioning, your messaging, your product roadmap. You're still selling to the same "ideal" customer you defined years ago.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: if your ICP hasn't changed, you're not tracking your market. You're protecting your assumptions.

The best fintech growth teams don't set their ICP and move on. They treat it like a living system that needs constant pressure testing.

A product leader wrote recently on Mind the Product about redefining their ICP five times in four years. Revenue doubled after each redefinition.

They started the way everyone does. Studied the competition, mirrored their personas, built to match. Their ICP was sales leaders because that's who buys CRM software. They spent a year building features for that audience.

Usage data told a different story. Only 10-20% of those features got traction. The actual users weren't sales leaders. They were product owners and automation managers who wanted to build their own system, not adopt someone else's.

That insight changed everything. The team stopped chasing feature parity and started building for configurability. For the people who actually showed up.

Each time they revisited the ICP, they found a new growth lever. A different buyer constellation. A shift in what drove value. Sometimes it was flexibility. Then security. Then speed. The goal wasn't getting it "right." It was keeping it current.

That's the same challenge facing banks and fintechs now. When you treat ICP as static, you optimize for ghosts. When you treat it as dynamic, you stay in contact with reality.

Stop treating your ICP like brand guidelines. Treat it like market intelligence.

Reassess every six months. Don't wait for planning season. Sit down with product, sales, and customer experience. Ask what's actually happening in deals right now. You'll find behavior patterns that weren't there last quarter.

Map the buying committee, not the buyer. Especially in business banking and B2B fintech, six or more people touch a decision. Your ICP needs to account for who influences, who blocks, and who signs. If you're only targeting the end user, you're missing the system.

Define by pressure, not profile. Forget industry and company size for a minute. Your ideal customer right now might be whoever's feeling the most acute pressure to change. To automate. To prove compliance. To move faster than their board thinks possible. That pressure is more predictive than any demographic.

Keep your ICP visible and working, not filed and forgotten. Update it when the evidence tells you to, not when the calendar says it's time.

Your ICP only works if you're willing to break it.

The second you stop questioning who your product is actually for, your growth curve flattens. Every successful fintech and forward-thinking bank has this in common: they stay synced with a customer who's always moving.

It's not about finding the perfect "ideal" customer. It's about letting your next customer show you what ideal actually looks like right now.

At BrandThnk, we help financial institutions and fintechs build growth strategies that adapt to real customer behavior, not outdated personas. If your ICP hasn't evolved in six months, let's talk before your competition figures out what you're missing.

—Allison

www.brandthnk.co