WHO & WHY

We were approached by a large financial service provider to help improve the experience of customers who contact the bank looking for better mortgage terms.

This bank's mortgage advisors had to interact with over 10 different internal applications to be able to effectively do their work. The constant switching between applications caused an increase in human error, unnecessary complexity and much slower processes. With this project, the bank wanted to lessen complexity, increase overall efficiency and improve customer retention metrics.

We were approached by a large financial service provider to help improve the experience of customers who call the bank looking for better mortgage terms.

Currently, this bank's mortgage advisors have to interact with over 10 different internal applications do be able to effectively do their work. This constant switching between applications can cause a user's work to be more error prone, complex and extremely slow. With this project, the bank wants to lessen complexity, increase overall efficiency and improve customer retention metrics.

My role was product designer and I worked within a multi-disciplinary team consisting of a product manager and four engineers. Included on our team was a client product manager and owner.

My role was product designer and I worked within a multi-disciplinary team consisting of a product manager and four engineers. Included on our team was a client product manager and owner. We eventually had client engineers join our project very late in the engagement and the original product owner rolled off and a new hire was brought in to replace them.

My work was to drive the overall design process.

Setting up and conducting interviews with users and stakeholders
Driving the process through facilitating research and design workshops
Educating the client team in human centered design principles
Designing the prototype and establishing regular cadence for user testing

Setting up and conducting interviews with users and stakeholders
Driving the process through facilitating research and design workshops
Educating the client team in human centered design principles
Designing the prototype and establishing regular cadence for user testing

UNPACKING THE PROBLEM

At Pivotal we followed the double diamond approach for the discovery and framing of a problem. To begin understanding the space we set up interviews with all the users associated with the process when a customer called.

At Pivotal we follow the double diamond approach for the discovery and framing of a problem. To begin understanding the space we set up interviews with all the users associated with the process when a customer calls.

The two main users are known as an MEC and MA1.

An MEC receives the call from the customer and their objective is to record identifying information about the caller as well as to understand the core reason of their call.

The MA1 is the mortgage retention advisor who is qualified to speak with the customer and give them financial options related to their mortgage situation.

An MEC receives the call from the customer and their objective is to record identifying information about the caller as well as to understand the core reason of their call.

The MA1 is the mortgage retention advisor who is qualified to speak with the customer and give them financial options related to their mortgage situation.

After our interviews we learned the MA1 was our primary user.

Product, Business & Enablement Goals

Product, Business & Engagement Goals

Business Goals

Retain more customers
- conversion in % of calls
Improve retention process
- Staff satisfaction
- Training cost reduction
- Improve QA score
- Increase capacity in call centre
- Reduction of post-call transactions
Coordinate work with other teams on Omni-channel
- Increase reuse
- Avoid duplication

Retain more customers
- conversion in % of calls
Improve retention process
- Staff satisfaction
- Training cost reduction
- Improve QA score
- Increase capacity in call centre
- Reduction of post-call transactions
Coordinate work with other teams on Omni-channel
- Increase reuse
- Avoid duplication

Product Goals

Improve the advisor's experience
- Decrease the number of systems we interact with one by one (ultimately 1)
- Staff satisfaction increase
- Training time reduction
Enable product switch with overpayment
Enable offline customer journeys
- Reduce repeat service calls
- Reduce time to completion
Continuously improve systems, keep pace with changes in process

Improve the advisor's experience
- Decrease the number of systems we interact with one by one (ultimately 1)
- Staff satisfaction increase
- Training time reduction
Enable product switch with overpayment
Enable offline customer journeys
- Reduce repeat service calls
- Reduce time to completion
Continuously improve systems, keep pace with changes in process

Enablement Goals

Engagement Goals

Hire / Train a highly effective agile team using XP, Lean and User-Centered Design
- Ratio of bank ownership
Enable continuous delivery to production
- Cadence = daily
Share learnings (agile best practices) with other bank teams
Wrap legacy systems and APIs
Establish rapid feedback cycle with telephony team
- Regular cadence: < 2 weeks

Hire / Train a highly effective agile team using XP, Lean and User-Centered Design
- Ratio of bank ownership
Enable continuous delivery to production
- Cadence = daily
Share learnings (agile best practices) with other bank teams
Wrap legacy systems and APIs
Establish rapid feedback cycle with telephony team
- Regular cadence: < 2 weeks

Hire / Train a highly effective agile team using XP, Lean and User-Centered Design
- Ratio of bank ownership
Enable continuous delivery to production
- Cadence = daily
Share learnings (agile best practices) with other bank teams
Wrap legacy systems and APIs
Establish rapid feedback cycle with telephony team
- Regular cadence: < 2 weeks

VISUALIZING THE PROBLEM

Below are two images showing the different stages an MEC and an MA1 has to navigate when a customer calls in for mortgage information.

Here are all the different stages an MEC and an MA1 has to navigate when a customer calls in for mortgage information.

Problem:

The image on the right is currently used MA1's when checking to see what products are available. It's static information that rarely changes but is updated so the user has to check it every time they communicate with a user.

After our initial stage of interviews we created affinity maps below to help us organize the findings into themes that we could later draw connections to and help us understand how different processes relate to one another.

Problem:

The image on the right is currently used MA1's when checking to see what products are available. It's static information that rarely changes but is updated so the user has to check it every time they communicate with a user.

After our initial stage of interviews we created affinity maps below to help us organize the findings into themes that we could later draw connections to and help us understand how different processes relate to one another.

User Problem:

The image below is currently used MA1's when checking to see what products are available. It's static information that rarely changes but is updated so the user has to check it every time they communicate with a user.

STICKY LEGEND - RED = PROBLEM GREEN = INSIGHT YELLOW = OBSERVATION

- STICKY LEGEND - RED = PROBLEM GREEN = INSIGHT YELLOW = OBSERVATION

Quote:

"Tedious work before you get started with customers. Every system needs a different username and password. Can’t write anything down."

Karen, MEC, 5 Years

Quote:

"Tedious work before you get started with customers. Every system needs a different username and password. Can’t write anything down."

Karen, MEC, 5 Years

Once we had enough insight about our users we were able to update our proto-personas that we made earlier as a starting point for understanding users.

To help the team build a shared understanding of the problem, we created a service blueprint to visualize the individual steps and stages for when a customer calls. Visualizing the process helped us identify risks and other unknowns we were eager to uncover. We then identified the system touch points so we could understand what tools were being used.

FOCUSING ON THE RIGHT PROBLEM

The problem we decided to focus on was why MA1s had to navigate ten different applications when speaking with customers.

Once we were in agreement with the problem space we wanted to start testing our assumptions immediately. We drew up a hypothesis statement so we could learn what we wanted to quickly test with our users. The hypothesis statement we decided on was to create a single interface for advisors that showed all products that were available to a particular customer.

We would know our hypothesis was true if we received repeated positive feedback from advisors stating that they were able to think more clearly when speaking with customers and finding information for the customer was less complex.

The problem we decided to focus on was why MA1s had to navigate ten different applications when speaking with customers.

Once we were in agreement with the problem space we wanted to start testing our assumptions immediately. We drew up a hypothesis statement so we could learn what we wanted to quickly test with our users. The hypothesis statement we decided on was to create a single interface for advisors that showed all products that were available to a particular customer.

We would know our hypothesis was true if we received repeated positive feedback from advisors stating that they were able to think more clearly when speaking with customers and finding information for the customer was less complex.

The problem we decided to focus on was why MA1s had to navigate ten different applications when speaking with customers.

Once we were in agreement with the problem space we wanted to start testing our assumptions immediately. We drew up a hypothesis statement so we could learn what we wanted to quickly test with our users. The hypothesis statement we decided on was to create a single interface for advisors that showed all products that were available to a particular customer.

We would know our hypothesis was true if we received repeated positive feedback from advisors stating that they were able to think more clearly when speaking with cuctomers and finding information for the customer was less complex.

LEAN BUSINESS CANVAS

Because of the uncertainty and risk involved in the beginning of the project, we wanted to ground all the decisions on a solid foundation of business and product goals. To do this we worked together on a Lean Businss Canvas so we could align ourselves and stakeholders on a solid strategy.

VISUALIZING THE SOLUTION

To come up with the scenario that we wanted to test, we had brainstorming session called a Design Studio. We gathered the entire cross disciplinary team together and sketched out the different ways that we could approach to solving the problem of the scenario.

PROTOTYPE

Now that the team had agreed on the design direction from our design studio session I then started to create wireframes based on the elements from our sketches that we dot voted on.

The most important problem we were solving for was to give the user access to the correct information when they needed it and have it all in the same place so they could concentrate and be helpful to the customer.

Now that the team had agreed on the design direction from our design studio session I then started to create wireframes based on the elements from our sketches that we dot voted on.

The most important problem we were solving for was to give the user access to the correct information when they needed it and have it all in the same place so they could concentrate and be helpful to the customer.

Now that the team has agreed on the design direction from our design studio session I started to create wireframes based on the elements from our sketches that we dot voted on.

The most important problem we were solving for was to give the user access to the correct information when they needed it and have it all in the same place so they could concentrate and be helpful to the customer.

3 Main Areas of Focus:

Combining all the customer’s identifying information into a single place
Have all the customer’s information about the products and monthly payments together
Create a simple way to see how overpayments will impact the product offerings and monthly payments

3 Main Areas of Focus:

Combining all the customer’s identifying information into a single place
Have all the customer’s information about the products and monthly payments together
Create a simple way to see how overpayments will impact the product offerings and monthly payments

3 Main Areas of Focus:

Combining all the customer’s identifying information into a single place
Have all the customer’s information about the products and monthly payments together
Create a simple way to see how overpayments will impact the product offerings and monthly payments

Single Loan Mortgages

Early Prototype

Design Iteration

MVP Design

Multi-Loan Mortgages

Early Prototype

MVP Design

CONCLUSION

We were successful in discovering the problems our users were experiencing and they were excited with the prototyped solutions we tested with them. We also were very happy to hear how much the client team enjoyed working in a lean and agile process.

Unfortunately, their development pipeline to production was much worse than anticipated by client leadership and caused massive blockers for us to ship our MVP. Also, the client was unable to put together a balanced team during our engagement to take the project forward after we rolled off and I believe this will cause serious problems for the future success of our users.

In all, this was one of my most favorite projects. The need for solving this navigation problem was so big and everyone we spoke with was so excited after seeing the designs we created.

We were successful in discovering the problems our users were experiencing and they were excited with the prototyped solutions we tested with them. We also were very happy to hear how much the client team enjoyed working in a lean and agile process.

Unfortunately, their development pipeline to production was much worse than anticipated by client leadership and caused massive blockers for us to ship our MVP. Also, the client was unable to put together a balanced team during our engagement to take the project forward after we rolled off and I believe this will cause serious problems for the future success of our users.

In all, this was one of my most favorite projects. The need for solving this navigation problem was so big and everyone we spoke with was so excited after seeing the designs we created.

In one of our user tests, a user exclaimed after going through our design, "what is this beautiful magic! "

The below image was our team's final retro board.

This image shows our final team retro board

LEARNINGS

All Pivotal engagements include some level of skills enablement for clients. We did pair programming with engineers, pair product management and pair design. Initially the client insisted on their need to hire a product designer, but this didn't happen.

This experience has taught me to be more aligned with client stakeholders and really try to understand the motivations behind their decisions. I thought I was being straightforward about the business case for hiring a full-time designer, but it became clear that they only wanted a temporary designer. A member of their leadership once told me, “freelance designers are great because you can turn them on and off like a light switch". I'm now learning more about how to communicate the value of design with leadership .

Another important learning experience I took from this engagement is to ask for more feedback and to do it often. We had 1:1 feedback sessions with our internal team and held weekly retro meetings with the client but it wasn’t enough. After this engagement I didn't receive any critical feedback from my team, but realized this was necessary in order to improve my skill sets in the future. I have to be more precise with my questions and ask for targeted feedback. Since this project, I have implemented this and it has served me well.

All Pivotal engagements include some level of skills enablement for our clients. We do pair programming with our engineers, pair product management and pair design. On this engagement, despite initial promises by the client for a hiring a product designer, it never happened.

This experience has taught me to be more aligned with client stakeholders and really try to understand the motivations behind their decisions. I thought I was being straightforward and clear about the business case for hiring a full-time designer but they insisted they only needed someone was freelance. A member of their leadership once told me, “freelance designers are great because you can turn them on and off like a light switch". I'm now learning more about how to communicate the value of design to leadership.

Another important learning experience I took from this engagement is to ask for more feedback and to do it often. We had one on one feedback sessions with our internal team and held weekly retro meetings with the client but it wasn’t enough. From this engagement I personally know what I want to improve on in the future but I didn’t receive any critical feedback from my team. Based on the feedback I received I know I did my job well but if I really want take my work to the next level I have to be more precise with my feedback questions and ask for targeted feedback. I’ve done this since this project and it has served me very well.

Email - mtodonnell417@gmail.com

hi@mattodonnell.design

Twitter

Financial Services -

Financial Services -

Financial Services -

Financial Services -

Lead Designer

Nov ’17 - Feb ’18

Lead Designer

Nov ’17 - Feb ’18

Lead Designer

Nov ’17 - Feb ’18

Lead Designer

Nov ’17 - Feb ’18

WHO & WHY

WHO & WHY

UNPACKING THE PROBLEM