The challenge

Wells Fargo had deployed their first pilot application called Stage Director to assist customers coming into the branch. It promised to do two main things: 1) check-in customers to see a banker and 2) pre-stage customer transactions with a teller to shorten wait times.

The application was enthusiastically received by the pilot branches, but quickly fell out of favor with both customers and team members alike. It suffered from poor adoption, performance issues, and was difficult to use. The tablet app looked like this:

The process

The original ask was for a redesign to improve adoption and usability, but I sensed there were something more at play with the product. So I initiated a research phase to uncover the underlining problems with product, design and business processes. I visited 8 branches in California, meeting 40+ team members and their managers.

Research and Discovery

I led an extensive 3-part research and discovery effort: 1) Conducted a series of in-person branch observations and interviews with branch team members, 2) heuristic review of the app, and 3) partnered with product, technology and other stakeholders on the business goals. This lead to several foundational insights that translated into product recommendations.

Insights & Recommendations

The key areas to probe were:

• Did the customer / banker choreography feel natural?

• Was the team member able to maintain eye contact with the customer?

• Did the visit feel faster for the customer?

• Did the customer receive better service?

• Was the Lobby Leader able to balance all their other responsibilities?

The research led to uncovering some foundational findings and insights that were then translated into product design recommendations and roadmap. Below are some highlights:

The outcome

Based on the research and discovery, I recommended a completely new product direction, one that removed a key pillar of the app: pre-staging teller transactions. Instead, the app would focus on redesigning and improving the banker check-in process. I was able to successfully make the case with extensive research, testimonials, pilot data, and by focusing on what the app does best. The case was enhanced with a comprehensive prototype that highlighted the usability of the new workflows.

The result was a streamlined app that did one thing really really well. It allowed the product to focus on leveraging useful data that helped match customers with the right banker. For team members, it was simpler, easy to use, and leveraged a new design system that was uncluttered yet useful. And most importantly, the workflow matched real life customer-team member choreography.

Ease of use

Customer lookup, a key function in the check-in process, added valuable customer information, like customer segment, age and address, that not only made lookup faster, but personalized the experience. In-state customers were displayed first, followed by out-of-state customers.

Integrated card swipe was added for faster and more precise customer lookup.

To connect the suite of applications, I developed the “One UI” navigation system, introducing the concept of '“Workspaces”, functional groupings by team member role and personalization.

The impact

The new mobile design system and navigation model was then applied to build 2 other apps, Vault Manager and Manager View. Vault Manager is an app that’s used to track all money movement within the branch. All movement went through dual control and digitized a traditionally paper-based workflow, helping reduce error and fraud rate. Manager View is an app used by Branch Managers to oversee the ins and outs of banker-customer activity.

The combined suite of applications provided team members with better visibility into branch activity, improved controls, shorter customer wait times, and proactive support through real-time alerts and notifications. It also gave customers transparency and control over which banker to see and when.