Financial Partners' New Training Playbook

How Michael Cooney's L&D team turned manual role plays into a scalable, measurable training engine with Posh Simulator and Knowledge Assistant

Michael Cooney came to Financial Partners Credit Union from larger organizations, and the smaller scale was a feature, not a bug.

"I've worked for large companies before the CU space. When I came here, it was refreshing because it's smaller. We can do a lot of 1:1, hands-on work."

But hands-on has a ceiling. New hire onboarding leaned on hours of manual role plays, and once a cohort graduated into their roles, staying close to them got hard. A human trainer brings empathy and flexibility, but as Michael puts it, a human also tends to "throw the easy ball." There was no way to make practice consistent, realistic, or trackable at scale.

That gap is what Posh Simulator and Knowledge Assistant were brought in to close.

The problem with practice that doesn't scale

Financial Partners didn't have a dedicated role play position. Instead, role plays were one of those things that quietly ate hours across the team.

At the same time, the credit union faced the reality every regulated institution knows well: dozens of policies and procedures, and frontline staff expected to recall the right one in the heat of a live member call.

The bigger picture was growth. Net membership, NPS, and the ability to cross-sell and build deeper member relationships were the metrics that mattered, and Michael knew you can't realistically build relationship skills with two humans in a classroom.

"This adds an element of rigor and quantitative analysis about how conversations are actually going. It makes it more real."

For Michael, it always comes back to the member. "The biggest challenge our workforce has in staying prepared across channels is really serving the member, because that's what's at the heart of our organization. With Posh, it's giving us the ability to be very efficient in some of the things that take the most time, so that puts us in a position to help the member even more."

The payoff he names simply: "With Posh, our teams can finally focus more on member connection."

A partnership built on solving problems, not selling products

Financial Partners already ran Posh Digital and Voice when Michael came aboard. Knowledge Assistant was the next addition, brought in to solve a documentation and organization problem the team had been wrestling with. Posh Answers followed in 2024, and Posh Simulator in 2026, building out a connected stack across the member journey, from self-service to live support to employee enablement.

"It's clear the Posh team is not trying to push or sell. You're trying to help us solve a problem. You learn what we're trying to solve. When we bring a dream, it hits the roadmap right away."

From idea to 5x enrollment lift

The team built a repeatable model for putting Simulator to work: start with a real business problem, then design practice around it.

The first target was SMS enrollment, getting members to agree to text message verification. The team strategized on the right approach and built a 15-minute e-learning module covering the why, the functionality, and the experience. Then they built the scenarios.

They pulled contact center reps off the floor for 30 minutes of sim practice. The result: "We saw enrollment go up 5x the two weeks prior to training."

The Knowledge Assistant works alongside Simulator here, giving reps instant, in-the-moment access to the policies and procedures that practice prepares them to apply. Practice builds the muscle; KA makes sure the right answer is always within reach on the live call.

Confidence you can watch happen

Michael describes a new hire class with a mix of experienced and brand-new reps. They turned Posh Simulator into a playground, a low-stakes, game-like space to try, fail, and reset.

"In a matter of an hour after doing sims, the newest hire got up to 90% accuracy by the third try. It helps build confidence really quickly."

That safety to fail is the heart of it. As Michael said in his testimonial, everyone remembers the nerves of their first member interaction, and Posh provides a space to get the jitters out before it counts.

"It's really helped us have that opening night principle when we're bringing people into the real environment."

The downstream effect on ramp time is dramatic.

"Employees who used to wait weeks or months before getting on the phone are now taking calls within days, thanks to Simulator and KA."

What he didn't expect was how AI would change the human side of the work. "Bringing AI into the mix has only brought more confidence and more dedicated support in human interactions, in a way that brings excitement and a lot of potential. It's helping our employees see that they can really take their level of service to the next level."

The compounding effect across the organization is exactly what Michael was after: "Posh makes our organization scalable."

What's next: branches, outbound, and the hard conversations

Financial Partners is scaling beyond the contact center. Branches are next, along with outbound calling campaigns where reps can practice consultative, cross-sell conversations before they ever dial.

The team is also turning Simulator toward the moments that matter most: difficult conversations and NPS-defining interactions.

Across learning, knowledge, and live support, Michael sees one connected system rather than separate tools.

"Posh has helped us think about learning, knowledge, and live support as a collective entity. It's all interconnected, and you have to have all three if you want to be effective."

Advice for anyone considering Posh

Michael doesn't grade on a curve.

"I'm a tough customer, but this is one tool I think makes sense. It adds value. It's a real simple, low-effort way to add a ton of value without adding people or time. It can be a really efficient way to change the game in an industry that has the opportunity to keep evolving."