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62 UNCOVERING DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH How will you refine talent during this tough 2022-23 mortgage cycle? By: Wendy Lee Feature As the mortgage industry goes through this sharp tightening cycle in 2022-23, we must look deeper than shock-and-awe headlines about headcount reductions and lender/bank strain. Our industry will still fund around $2 trillion in new loans this year, and there is still $12 trillion in outstanding mortgage balances. So we're still serving millions of consumers every day, and doing so when they need it most. is is critical work being done by seasoned pros who care deeply about the consumers we all serve. And as M&A activity ramps up, lenders, servicers, and fintechs can and will make smart deals to shore up talent and tech stacks. ese dealmakers look at "Who's getting laid off now?" headlines as opportunistic moments to answer questions like: "How can we refine talent to advance our strategy?" Based on my experi- ence in multiple market cycles, I have some ideas about where that conversation should go. GOT TALENT? TWO APPROACHES TO DEVELOPING HUMANS IN THIS MARKET Mortgage-industry insiders might say this sector is too nuanced for outsiders, but new peo- ple are always needed to drive innovation, and here's why—from two different angles. First, we should remain open to the tech-disruption narrative that says outsiders bring fresh perspectives. It's easy to question the relevance of, say, a retail e-commerce tech pro coming into mortgage. However, they've participated in com- plete innovation cycles in their world that we haven't fully seen yet in ours. Retail innovation happened faster (and actually set the tone) for consumers who now expect to manage their entire lives from a smartphone. We haven't come as far in originations and servicing because innovation took longer to take root in our highly regulated world. But from where I sit at Sagent, where we're now leading consumer-first modernization in servicing, our industry needs tech talent that has already led a few rounds of consumer-first innovation. It's also a net win for us to bring in these seasoned technologists, train them on mortgage technical issues, and mold them into the fintech professionals we need. Which is where the second approach comes in: we must do the same thing with early-career talent.