Enterprise UX

This article follows my personal journey as a User Experience Designer over three and a half years within a traditional American bank undergoing a merger and transformation. Through this narrative, I aim to convey the complexities I faced in navigating corporate networks, fostering innovation, and addressing customer needs while upholding the bank's core values. Four critical areas of focus—Commitment to the Whole, Innovation, Collaboration, and Exploration—will be explored, providing insights into my evolution from a Senior User Experience Designer to a User Experience Manager and eventually a Principal User Experience Designer.

Truist Digital Wealth - Experience Design

As I embarked on my role as a Senior User Experience Designer, I collaborated with my manager to build a talented team dedicated to establishing the client dashboard experience for Truist Wealth, a banking solution tailored to wealth clientele. Together, we integrated aggregation and vendor solutions into our workflow, applying design thinking and interaction design methodologies to address client needs. Over time, our team grew stronger, enabling us to deliver comprehensive experiences that aligned with our client's expectations.

Commitment to the Whole

Throughout my journey, my guiding principle was to deliver the "why" behind our work to the bank's leadership, ensuring they fully embraced our efforts and recognized the value we could provide to our clients. I forged numerous conversations and relationships, focused on supporting and empowering my colleagues, expanding their spheres of influence, and leveraging their unique skills and practices.

Innovation

I was presented with a remarkable opportunity to be one of the first individuals tasked with igniting the dormant Makerspace, transforming it into a visible and effective innovation hub that would connect with the overall innovation objectives of Truist. By embracing this role, I played a pivotal part in shaping the ITC Makerspace into a meaningful platform where STEAM practices and Design Thinking converged, fostering creativity and driving innovation across the organization.

Collaboration

Truist Design was structured into multiple departments, including Inclusive Design/Accessibility, Service Design, Design Systems, and Research. I actively pursued improved collaboration with these departments, extending beyond the boundaries of our usual sphere of influence during discovery and planning processes. By breaking down silos and fostering cross-functional collaboration, we were able to deliver exceptional experiences that transcended traditional banking boundaries.

Exploration

With the concept of Nomadic Design, I ventured beyond our immediate industry to uncover the intrinsic human values behind goals across diverse industries and cultures. These explorations took me to local communities, agriculture businesses, and communal spaces where individuals gathered to promote the common good. Through these journeys, I brought back fresh perspectives and outlooks that enriched the Truist organization as a whole.

Conclusion

My evolutionary journey as a User Experience Designer within a transforming bank necessitated a deep understanding of the complexities of corporate networks. Demonstrating unwavering Commitment to the Whole, fostering Innovation, embracing Collaboration, and embarking on Exploration, I contributed to the bank's transformation while ensuring customer needs were met. This personal narrative underscores the indispensable role of User Experience Design in shaping the future of banking, ultimately delivering exceptional experiences to our valued clients and customers.

In today's technology-driven era, insurance companies must adapt and modernize their infrastructure to stay ahead of growing competition. This article provides insights from a User Experience Architect's perspective on tackling the challenge of modernizing billing and payment processes within the insurance industry. The focus is addressing two billing systems: a legacy system hampered by outdated software and hardware and a modern system leveraging cloud computing and cutting-edge technology. By enhancing the billing and payment experience, the goal is to bring value to customers and reduce overhead for the insurance business.

Upon joining the project, the primary challenge was migrating to new systems and leveraging modern technology without negatively impacting the end customer experience. Several prominent issues emerged, including latency within back-end systems, isolated information networks between business segments, and a lack of understanding regarding the end-to-end billing and payment process.

Formulating the Approach:

The project team embarked on a six-month journey to address these challenges. The initial phase involved defining research needs, system journey mapping, and gaining a holistic understanding of the current state of the billing and payment ecosystem. The team comprised four UX Architects, a UX Business Analyst, and two UX Managers. Due to the project's sensitivity, collaboration with other Experience Design teams was limited. The team had a two-month runway to produce deliverables for presentation to the Experience and Technology Chair of the organization.

Methodologies and Tools:

The team employed various UX techniques and tools to capture and document findings effectively. These included empathy mapping, information architecture relationships, process mapping, scenario-driven systems, and user journeys. A significant contribution was made by implementing a Combo journo map, a visual representation of complex scenarios using actors, supporting actors, and systems aligned with billing cycles over a six-month policy. To ensure accurate data and content management, I developed a custom AppleScript/MAC app to import .json data into Sketch symbols. This enabled collaboration and real-time content updates across the team. The project also utilized a custom design system for consistent presentation materials.

Field Research and Observational Insights:

The team conducted field research and visited the main money and mailing processing center to gain firsthand insights into the billing and payment processes. This hands-on approach allowed for direct observation of the current systems in action, providing invaluable insights into the challenges faced by the organization. These observations and insights formed a crucial basis for developing concepts and potential solutions.

Deliverables and Impact:

As the six-month contract neared its end, the team compiled a comprehensive "moments of truth package." This package included leadership presentation slides, large-format journey maps illustrating systems, scenario-based user journeys, the design system's capabilities, and an AppleScript plugin for Sketch design software. The plugin, developed by the author of this article, streamlined the design process by automating repetitive tasks and enabling rapid iterations—this improved efficiency and workflow within the team.

Conclusion:

Modernizing billing and payment systems in the insurance industry presents complex challenges, especially when dealing with legacy systems and transitioning to modern technologies. By leveraging the expertise of User Experience Architects and employing a range of methodologies and tools, including field research and observational insights, it becomes possible to create a holistic understanding of the existing ecosystem and develop innovative solutions. The ultimate aim is to enhance customer value and reduce operational overhead, enabling insurance companies to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

As a Lead UX Designer at ServiceMaster, I had the privilege of spearheading the launch and development of the User Experience Department. This article showcases my key projects during my tenure, highlighting my contributions to creating easy-to-use, dynamic digital products and establishing a user-centered approach across various ServiceMaster brands.

Year One:

In my early years at ServiceMaster, I played a pivotal in the Moonshot Application project, Kepler (later renamed Agent Desktop). This project aimed to merge customer data into a centralized area for American Home Shield and Terminix, enabling the development of modern web-based applications. Through interviews and observations with call center agents, I gained insights into their needs and empathized with their challenges. This project served as a springboard for a more established Design Discovery and Design Thinking process, where I conducted user observations, interviews, and iterative mockups to address various business unit issues.

Year Two:

During this period, I led a team to support Merry Maids in building a new web app for their field sales representatives. Through observations and interviews, we gained empathy and insights into using paper forms and digital applications, laying the groundwork for creating a new and effective solution. Additionally, I embarked on designing a support site for the Franchise Services Group, collaborating with stakeholders and mapping personas to address the most requested questions and features.

ServiceMaster's Innovation Center started taking shape, and I contributed to developing Serv-A—a tool designed to capture real-time customer feedback. Leveraging Design Thinking principles and Material Design, we created a simple and intuitive application that provided valuable insights to drive strategies and data analysis.

Year Three:

In the final year of my tenure, I focused on providing UX and Interaction Design support for Terminix. As the company prepared to retire handheld devices used by service technicians, I led the development of a mobile application within a tight timeframe. By conducting interviews, field observations, and workshops with branch teams, I gained a deep understanding of their day-to-day tasks and the technologies they utilized, enabling me to enhance the overall user experience.

Conclusion:

As a Lead UX Designer at ServiceMaster, I established the User Experience Department and delivered impactful digital solutions. From spearheading the Moonshot Application project to designing user-centered applications for multiple brands, I constantly strived to improve the user experience and drive innovation. These experiences laid the foundation for my career growth and gave me invaluable skills to tackle complex design challenges.