Create strategic opportunities
Payment assistance strategy
Strategy, Journey Map, Cross-Functional Leadership, Relationship Management, E2E Product Design
Amid the financial chaos of COVID, I seized the opportunity to rebuild brand trust through empathetic, human-centered payment assistance.
Role
Principal Product Designer
Team
Business partners, Business analyst, Digital strategy, User research, Product designers, Engineering, Content strategy
Design problem
A rushed COVID mortgage deferral application process resulted in loss of trust in Wells Fargo.
Business goals
Rebuild the Wells Fargo brand & reputation
Build retention & loyalty
Reduce credit losses and operating costs
Results
Program was chosen by the Wells Fargo board as one of three strategic initiatives
The top usability issues solved
Full journey concept, proven to rebuild brand trust
We began with a rushed COVID deferral process, which led to a poorly designed experience.
I used research to design & pitch a user-friendly program that would rebuild brand trust.
“Sunny is able to balance the demands of the project with creative insight and thoughtful apporaches to UX solutions with stunning results. She is a standout member of the Product Design team and exemplifies the type of leadership that qualifies her as top talent in the industry.”
Here are some of the approaches I used.
1
Conducted exploratory research
Collaborating with a researcher, we explored how distress affected decision-making around people’s finances. We gathered feedback from the existing COVID program and synthesized existing research to identify these key insights:
customers were strategic about their finances when in distress,
empathetic treatment increased reciprocity towards the bank, and
avoiding a debt spiral early increases the chance of success.
2
Created product narrative
Data showed that helping customers make payments early during hardship reduced their likelihood of entering the debt cycle. Finding the synergy between business and customer objectives, I guided the team to write the customer problem statement, develop principles and establish the direction.
3
Mapped the customer journey to expand business case
Unfortunately, my product partner left the company and I took the reins. We needed to expand the business case to get approval for a team. To do this, I drove the following:
deepened partner relationships to keep a pulse on strategic initiatives and known gaps,
completed landscape and SWOT analysis,
identified natural disasters as a high-impact use case after exploring the associated P&L,
facilitated customer journey mapping workshops with product and design to identify KPIs based on business needs, customer needs and known pain points, and
engaged product strategy partner to build the detailed business case.
4
Crafted Jobs-to-be-done
As an individual contributor, I crafted the Jobs-to-be-done. Using company priorities, technical limitations and LOB feedback I worked with the team to prioritize the Jobs-to-be-done.
5
Iteratively tested wireframes with newly established team
After securing a team of two designers, one content strategist, and a business analyst we ran a design sprint to develop our initial concept. Using a narrative-based approach based on the Jobs-to-be-done, the team sketched possible solutions. Collaborating with the researcher, we designed a program to iteratively test the designs and nomenclature. Our objective was to create a user-centric experience that generated positive customer sentiment. The research generated these insights:
engagement at the account level drove early access to the program,
transparent pros and cons built trust,
an ‘approval’ gate aligned with the customer’s mental model and provided a necessary ‘cooling-off’ period, and
the label ‘Financial Relief’ evoked a positive emotional response.
Wireframes for testing
6
Created executive pitch with research-backed concepts
Based on the findings, the team developed a pitch featuring a Financial Relief Center, Conversational UI, and Tracking tools. We incorporated customer feedback from research, validating that our approach could rebuild trust in the brand. Through collaboration with leadership, we secured executive funding for the program.
