Inside Landmark’s playbook for co-creating a peer network with Alkami and Midwest FIs

Landmark Credit Union (Landmark) recently hosted the Midwest User Group, bringing together community banks and credit unions from across the region that rely on Alkami for digital banking and share a commitment to community-first finance. The gathering was a powerful demonstration of what’s possible when financial institutions treat one another as partners and peers; not competitors.

Led by Sara Blake, Digital Banking Product Manager at Landmark and an active member of the Midwest User Group, the event sparked candid conversations around shared challenges and wins in digital banking, Generation Z (Gen Z) engagement and business banking. Attendees left energized, with practical, ready-to-implement ideas they could take back to their teams and communities.

Why User Groups Matter Right Now

Financial institutions may operate in the same markets and sometimes serve overlapping populations, but they’re also serving similar communities, facing the same regulatory and technology pressures, and often using the same digital platforms and partners. Instead of focusing on where they compete, Landmark chose to emphasize where they align: a shared commitment to helping people and businesses thrive, and a shared investment in the Alkami platform as a foundation for digital banking.

As Sara Blake described Landmark’s philosophy, their role is to show up for other financial institutions—sharing what they’ve learned from their Alkami implementation, comparing digital banking strategies and adoption tactics, swapping channel, marketing, and experience best practices, and asking honest questions to help peers work through tough projects. The belief: when one institution improves, the entire financial ecosystem gets stronger.

A Trusted Peer Network for Real-World Problems

User groups turn that philosophy into practice. Instead of solving everything in isolation, they give teams a community to lean on, a safe space to compare notes on projects in flight, learn from peers who have already tested approaches you’re considering, and build relationships you can tap when the next challenge emerges.

For financial institution–led user groups like Landmark’s, Alkami shows up as a collaborative partner, both behind the scenes and in the room. Our teams help bring together institutions with similar profiles and goals, introduce cross‑client benchmarks and stories so ideas feel grounded rather than theoretical, join sessions to answer product and strategy questions, and capture feedback to inform our roadmap and future programs. When it adds value, we also present or facilitate sharing roadmap updates and digital engagement insights.

At the Midwest User Group hosted by Landmark, that spirit of collaboration showed up in concrete ways. With everyone anchored on the same Alkami Digital Banking Platform, conversations went straight to relevant, real‑world use cases and actionable ideas. Alkami shared strategic insights and cross‑client engagement approaches drawn from our broader client community, giving attendees a wider lens on what’s working today. Our team also partnered with Landmark on the details of planning the day, crafting and distributing invitations, highlighting key agenda topics, and sharing post‑event reflections so it was easy for attendees to stay connected with Landmark, Alkami, and one another.

Taken together, the day showed how a thoughtfully designed user group can turn shared challenges into shared insight and spark relationships and ideas that continue long after the event ends.

What Set Landmark’s Event Apart

Landmark was intentional about how they designed the day. From the outset, they defined success clearly:

That goal shaped the format—a tight, well‑paced agenda, sessions built around specific questions and outcomes, and topics that clearly justified a long drive for attendees across the Midwest. The structure kept the day focused, valuable, and respectful of everyone’s time.

Three Anchor Themes That Resonate With Every FI

Landmark organized the content around three big questions many institutions were already wrestling with.

1. What are top digital performers doing differently? To open, Landmark partnered with Alkami to share data‑driven insights from across the platform: what high‑performing financial institutions are doing to drive digital engagement, where less mature programs tend to get stuck, and practical levers teams can pull to move the needle. This gave attendees a view beyond their own four walls and concrete ideas they could adapt within their own Alkami environment and broader digital strategy.
2. How does Gen Z really want to manage money? Rather than rely on assumptions, Landmark went straight to the source. They partnered with Arrowhead High School’s entrepreneurship program to bring in a student panel and asked direct questions about how students think about managing money, using digital financial tools, and choosing and trusting financial institutions.The responses were eye‑opening.

Many students expressed real skepticism about chatbots and phone interactions, unsure whether they were ever speaking to a real person. When they had questions about money, they went to their parents first. If that didn’t resolve things, their next choice was to visit a branch—not use chat or the phone. They placed enormous weight on being treated kindly and sincerely in person. Even in high school, several were already talking about investing and retirement and worrying about their long‑term future.

For Landmark, this challenged the stereotype of Gen Z as wanting everything to be purely digital and instant. It sparked new internal conversations about how to balance digital convenience with human connection, support parents as financial guides, and design outreach and education that truly meets Gen Z where they are, including digital tools that are transparent, easy to use, and clearly backed by real people.

3. How do you get business banking off the ground? Recognizing that many FIs are still figuring out small business and commercial banking, Landmark hosted a dedicated breakout on business banking and treasury management. They walked through how Landmark structured its own approach—how they prioritized segments and offerings, how digital banking capabilities support relationship teams, and the lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid. For many attendees, this answered a critical need: where to start, how to structure offerings, and what to watch out for along the way.

Voices that connected on a human level

Content mattered, but so did how the day felt. Landmark intentionally layered in a keynote from Andy Janer focused on leadership, overcoming challenges, and the idea of always leading with love, alongside an explicit acknowledgement that many digital banking and product leaders are influential leaders by impact—even if their titles don’t say “executive.”

That mix of tactical content and human‑centered inspiration kept the event engaging and grounded. Attendees could see themselves not just as project owners, but as community leaders shaping the future of digital banking in their region.

Outcomes That Reached Beyond the Event

By the end of the day, Landmark’s original goal had clearly been met. Attendees were actively engaging—especially during the Gen Z panel and the business banking breakout—asking thoughtful, specific questions and comparing notes on how they might apply what they’d heard. FIs that had traveled several hours shared that the agenda had more than justified the trip.

In the days that followed, LinkedIn posts and personal messages highlighted favorite sessions and thanked Landmark for opening their doors. Landmark also deepened its partnership with Arrowhead High School, continuing to draw on student perspectives and even exploring future panels with older Gen Z interns.

Sara summed up the impact in a single word: community. The user group didn’t just deliver content; it strengthened the network of FIs and partners across the region.

A Simple Playbook for Co‑Hosting Your Own User Group with Alkami

Landmark’s Midwest User Group is a template other institutions can adapt—bringing peers together, with Alkami supporting where it adds the most value. In practice, Alkami supports by sharing context from across the platform, answering digital product and strategy questions, and helping teams turn ideas from the room into practical next steps.

Use this playbook as a starting point for your next user group:

1. Start with your own real questions, then bring them to Alkami

Begin by looking inward:

• What three to four topics are you wrestling with right now?
• Where would external perspectives be most valuable—Gen Z, small business, digital adoption, fraud and security?
• What decisions do you want to move forward in the next 6–12 months?

Use those questions as the spine of your agenda, then loop in Alkami early. Your Customer Success and Sales teams can:

• Co‑create or refine your topic list based on your FI’s goals and what they’re seeing across the platform
• Prioritize questions that map to Alkami capabilities (e.g., engagement tools, data & analytics, marketing automation, fraud tools)
• Highlight benchmarks, insights, and product capabilities that make the sessions more concrete and actionable

Whether you’re starting from a blank page or a rough outline, getting clear on your priorities often surfaces the same questions your peers are asking—and Alkami can help turn those priorities into sessions that feel relevant, aligned to the roadmap, and ready to act on.

2. Build a structured, outcome‑driven agenda

Replace vague topics with specific, action‑oriented sessions (for example, “How we’re preparing for Gen Z’s wealth transfer,” not just “Gen Z trends”).

For each session, define what “success” looks like:

• A framework you can bring back to your team
• A set of best practices and watch‑outs from other FIs
• A short list of experiments to try in your Alkami‑powered experiences

Share the agenda early so attendees can clearly see the value of attending.

Alkami can help shape and tighten the agenda by:

• Co‑designing session objectives and titles so they clearly connect to Alkami use cases
• Fine‑tuning descriptions so it’s obvious what attendees will learn or decide
• Identifying where demos, data, or client stories will add weight and specificity
• Co‑presenting or facilitating where digital strategy and technology intersect

The result is a day that flows logically from strategy to execution and feels like a working session with Alkami experts and peers, centered on your shared digital goals.

3. Curate the right mix of voices

The best user groups bring together perspectives in and around your FI, balancing your internal leaders, community voices, and technology partners like Alkami.

• Platform / technology partners (like Alkami) can bring cross‑client data and patterns (digital engagement benchmarks, adoption trends, fraud patterns), share platform best practices and lessons learned from other institutions, and co‑present on roadmap, channel strategy, and configuration decisions. They help connect ideas in the room to what’s actually possible in the Alkami platform.
• Community partners (schools, universities, nonprofit organizations, business groups) provide voices from the segments you’re trying to reach—such as Gen Z or small business owners—grounding conversations in real‑world perspectives, not just reports.
• Internal leaders at your FI can emcee and frame why the day matters for your strategy and community, connect the event to your culture and mission, and reinforce how your partnership with Alkami is a lever for delivering on those goals.

Alkami’s role here is intentional: a co‑host, content contributor, and facilitator, helping you turn outside perspectives into digital strategies and configurations you can implement.

4. Make it worth the trip

When people travel for an event, they need to know it will be worth their time.

Be clear in your invitation about:

• Who the event is for (roles and functional areas: digital, operations, marketing, IT, CX, product, etc.)
• What they’ll learn or decide (for example, “Leave with three concrete experiments to increase adoption of mobile deposits”)
• Why now (what’s changing in the market, in digital banking, or in your region)

Build in intentional networking moments: a casual gathering the night before, unstructured time at lunch or after key sessions, and small‑group breakouts where Alkami and FI leaders can problem‑solve together.

Alkami can help amplify and validate the event by:

• Sharing invitations with relevant Alkami clients in your region (where appropriate), signaling this is part of a broader community
• Highlighting your user group within the Alkami Community to increase visibility and perceived value
• Providing follow‑up channels (e.g., Community threads, webinars, office hours) to keep momentum going
• Bringing product and strategy leaders when it adds value

This keeps the focus on value while still allowing organic conversations to happen.

5. Measure success by takeaways and new connections

After the event, measure success by more than just attendance. Ask yourself:

• Did each FI leave with at least one concrete idea they can act on, often tied to how they configure or market on the platform?
• Did attendees leave feeling more comfortable reaching out to you and your teams—and to each other—for peer support?
• Did the day reinforce that your FI, and Alkami, are committed to collaboration and community, not just competition?

From Alkami’s perspective, a successful user group also looks like:

• Clear follow‑up actions tied to platform usage, experiments, or roadmap alignment
• Stronger multi‑threaded relationships between Alkami and leaders across your FI
• New stories, data points, and patterns that can be shared (anonymized where needed) back into the broader Alkami Community

If the answer is yes, your user group has done its job—and you’ve strengthened both your regional network and your connection into the broader Alkami Community.

The Opportunity in Front of You

Landmark’s Midwest User Group shows what’s possible when financial institutions turn shared challenges into shared learning and connection. A user group isn’t just another event on the calendar; it can become part of how your institution learns, collaborates, and serves your community.

If your teams are already talking about digital banking strategy, Gen Z engagement, or business banking growth, you don’t have to keep those conversations inside your four walls. With the right partners and structure, a user group becomes a way to grow together—alongside your peers, your technology partners, and the communities you all serve.

Call to action

• Talk with your Alkami Client Success or account team about co‑hosting a regional user group or plugging into an existing one.
• Use the Alkami Community to find existing groups, share topics you care about, and stay connected before and after in‑person meetups.
• Engage in the Alkami Community to continue the conversation, share your learnings, and connect with peers who are on the same journey.