REDESIGNING THE USAA CONSUMER LENDING EXPERIENCE
Successfully guided a team of junior and mid-level designers in the comprehensive redesign of all of USAA’s Consumer Lending products as part of a significant modernization initiative, resulting in improvement in overall user satisfaction and a decrease in fallout rates..
Transformed a three-year "lift and shift" project into an opportunity for significant user experience enhancements through the establishment of strategic relationships and the implementation of efficient processes, leading to an increase in a reduction in user errors.
Effectively integrated the design process into the SAFe agile framework, enabling the seamless delivery of screen designs for 16 products, including Personal Unsecured Loan, Auto Loans, and other collaterals, resulting in a reduction in development cycle time and an increase in product development team productivity.
Prioritized user-centric design by focusing on the specific needs of four distinct user groups: the member, the customer service representative, the underwriter, and the funder, resulting in an increase in overall user engagement.
FEEDBACK FROM 360 REVIEW 2023
“Beth is one of the most competent, hard-working people that I know here at USAA. If you were to ask me to name the top 3 people that we could not live without here, she would be on that list. Not only does she do the design work for the consumer lending applications, she really is serving in stepping up to lead the many, many people that are touching the CLOE project with her organization, project management and product strategy skills. From what I’ve seen, she is playing a critical role in keeping the train moving for the entire project. I don’t think she gets enough credit for this”
“There have been times where I have questioned whether her suggested approach to something may not be the best way, but ultimately, every single time, she has been right. She is always three steps ahead of where my planning brain is at. I trust her completely. ”
IMPROVING CROSS-FUNCTIONAL PROCESSES
Successfully introduced and trained the design team on agile practices customized to the specific requirements of the design process, resulting in an increase in design team productivity and a reduction in project delivery time.
Implemented a streamlined design request intake process, enhancing transparency and efficiency in collaboration with Product Owners, leading to a reduction in design request processing time and an improvement in overall collaboration.
Established regular touch points and collaborative processes with front-end developers, resulting in a reduction in an improvement in the accuracy of final design outputs in production.
Pioneered a UX Optimization process, integrating a lean "test and learn" approach as an alternative to the traditional feature intake process for smaller, iterative UX improvements, resulting in an increase in an improvement in usability for the updated features.
FEEDBACK FROM 360 REVIEW 2023
“Beth is incredibly organized, and has an expert level knowledge of our loan flows at USAA. She’s done an incredible job of improving the process at the program/design level so that we are more efficient. For example, she pitched the idea of a UX optimization process where small enhancements could flow straight to the APO/Dev team. ”
“Beth has done a great job at explaining the challenges of the lengthly process that design needs to go through. While this isn’t hers to solve and it gets a lot of scrutiny, she is always professional when it comes up as a topic and does her best to be flexible. ”
DRIVING PRODUCT STRATEGY
Conducted extensive research with both USAA members and Member Service Representatives (MSRs) to gain a comprehensive understanding of their needs and pain points.
Derived key insights and opportunity themes from the research findings, facilitating collaborative brainstorming sessions that led to an increase in innovative feature ideas.
Designed and administered a comprehensive Kano-style survey to assess the precise value that users placed on specific features, leading to an improvement in feature prioritization accuracy.
Formulated detailed strategy documents, effectively shared with executives to influence the product roadmap, resulting in executive buy-in for strategic product initiatives and an improvement in alignment between business goals and product development efforts.
Successfully contributed multiple high-value feature ideas to the business roadmap, resulting in enhancement in the overall competitiveness of the product in the market.
FEEDBACK FROM 360 REVIEW 2023
“Beth is not only super responsive to requests but also able to professionally articulate trade-offs and/or options. It is easy to see that Beth would love to dig into industry standards, member feedback, research, etc. if given the time and resource to do so. She clearly has our business line’s success and the member’s best experience top of mind. ”
“Partner relationships are strong and they seem to see a lot of value from including Beth in conversations early and when they don’t know what to do. Beth is a huge asset to our team and USAA because of her many years of experience. She is super talented and always brings wonderful perspective to the work we are doing at the time. There are many areas where I have learned or still could learn a ton from Beth. Not sure CLOE would be anywhere near what is today without Beth.”
MENTORING BEST-IN-CLASS DESIGNERS
Effectively led and mentored 5+ designers and design producers during my tenure at USAA, resulting in a collective increase in overall team productivity and improvement in project delivery efficiency.
Facilitated and supported the professional advancement of each team member, contributing to an increase in team morale and team member retention rates.
Proactively identified and created numerous opportunities for each team member's professional development, resulting in improvement in team member skill sets and an increase in team member confidence and job satisfaction.
FEEDBACK FROM 360 REVIEW 2023
“Beth is a great example of an influential leader on our design team. She shares best practices and real world experiences that she has gained with myself and the team. Although I do not work directly with her on projects day to day on the CLOE work stream I know that I can always ask for help or guidance when needed. She has the CLOE design work stream running very smoothly and I look forward to continuing to work and learn from her. ”
“Beth is an astounding leader. She manages the CLOE workstream amazingly and continues to improve the processes to position design in a better place. The changes in process have allowed for better collaboration between design and our partners with a greater, more effective turnaround. She always readily available to deliver feedback and discuss features. Her attention to detail is immaculate. She does a great job finding opportunities to grow for those on the team and pushes everybody to improve. Any meeting/workshop she leads is well-executed and delivers great results to build on. She is decisive and influences our partners to keep the member at the center of our experiences. I couldn’t ask for a better lead on the team, She is an amazing asset to the Loan Wolves and to USAA.”