Company Overview

Northwestern Mutual is a financial services and mutual organization based in Milwaukee. They are ranked No. 104 in the 2018 fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Recently, Northwestern Mutual acquired the NYC-based Learnvest to transform them to a product-centric company.

Role Summary

• Joined in 2018 as a Freelance Design Lead. Accepted Associate Director role eight weeks later. Responsible for growing and managing a team that oversees an expanding product suite. Our scope includes everything digital that allows Financial Representatives and Leaders to grow and manage their business.

• Changing internal processes and culture to allow for a user-centered approach to thrive.

• Aligning business and product owners to our larger design vision.

Approach and Execution

Leading workshops

I have found myself running many workshops while at Northwestern Mutual. Workshops provide freedom for participants to express their concerns/opinions/and even dreams. My workshops have aligned product design process, solidified requirements from business partners, and defined future roadmaps. The internal quality of design has improved significantly as a result of the foundational workshop work.

Defining the process

The Learnvest acquisition brings digital product design know-how into the organization. I am working with product and business teams to define and optimize our process. We have created alignment on requirements, timelines, and deliverables. Additionally, we have moved into a data and user-centric model where product decisions are made based on analytics and user research.

Aligning to a vision

Northwestern Mutual’s product ecosystem is currently fragmented with no central guiding principal. The larger design team is creating an experience vision that will help all products and services align. It calls for a unified platform and a consolidated design language. My team has helped influence this vision by providing feedback for UI patterns, user needs, information architecture, and concept development. I continue to sell this vision in to high-level members of the organization.

Making the vision a reality

The product suite I own is the first to bring this vision to reality. I am helping business partners integrate their initiatives into this new platform. Below are two examples: the leadership and advisor dashboards. We have designed them to align to the vision work. They are part of a product suite that allow financial representatives (and their leaders) to set and track financial goals. In addition to creating these dashboards, my team is working with product and technology to create and update the patterns needed to support the vision.

Accomplishments

• Growing and leading a team of 8+ Designers, Researchers, Product Managers, and Copywriters.

• Running all UX freelance hiring. Staffing across a design org of 70+.

• Aligning NYC, & MKE teams to optimal product design process.

• Translating high-level vision to actual products and patterns that can be used across the organization.

Additional Work