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USAA: Consumer Lending modernization


(August 2021 - present)







Daily collaboration in a SAFe agile environment with a cross-functional team of designers, developers, researchers, and product owners. While translating the experience to a modernized design system, we used research and data to identify areas of opportunity within the dual-facing (customer and internal employee facing) that could be improved in the transition.

The entire translation was completed within 6 months, and once launched resulted in a 6% application completion rate. A 6% lift resulted in ~$3.8 million additional RAR each month.

︎︎︎Programs used: Figma, Sketch, InVision, Mural, Glassbox, Rally, Jira, Excel, Keynote, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop



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Redesigning the USAA Consumer Lending experience


I was focused on designing a modernized platform for loan acquisition. While this was a project with a quick timeline, rather than performing a “lift-and-shift,” we integrated competitive and user research into our design process to find areas for improvement that could be addressed without impacting timeline.

One product included in the redesign was a previously call-only experience, that transitioned to the digital platform and once launched is projected to increase the number of applications by 17%.

We worked hand-in-hand with our front-end development team from the beginning, allowing us to assess technical feasibility prior to handoff. Once developed, we ran visual quality assurance checks off all assets to ensure pixel-perfect designs were delivered to our users.









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Comprehensive UX Audit


Once all products had been translated the modernized system, I conducted a comprehensive UX audit. 

Using my accrued domain knowledge of consumer lending and financial products, I reviewed all developed designs and identifed over 150 items that could be updated to improved user experience. Once all items were captured in a spreadsheet, I prioritized them in accordance to how many [users] and how often. This was based on placement in the application and understanding of likelihood of edge cases. This allowed us to build a robust backlog for items spanning multiple PIs (program increments; 12 week spans).

Items were defined based on small efforts versus larger features.




Spreadsheet column breakdown:







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Improving file efficiency


With my peer, we conducted a complete overhaul of our Sketch (and later Figma) files to improve them for efficiency. There’s so often changes in business and legal requirements that require content and design changes across all screens, that we decided to reimagine our file structure and make it more modular. This way we were able to make updates in just a few locations and it could be represented across multiple products and hundreds of screens.

This allowed us greater efficiency with our files and easier iteration potential. We shared this practices out to the entire organization to improve all team’s processes.






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User and competitive research


In order to improve our understanding of the users of our products and their goals, we undertook multiple major research efforts. When developing our Auto loan application, we went back to the board and conducted research to better understand the user’s intent at this point in the process to inform our redesign. For these, I aided in notetaking and sensemaking efforts.

Alongside these, to flex our design skills with less constraints, we held “blue sky” ideation sessions. I led a session with a modified creative matrix that focused on emerging technologies and how we might apply them to the car buying process.





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Handoff documentation


Throughout all of our design work, we mainted top noth handoff documentation. This included detail accessibility documentation to ensure adherence to WCAG. 


“Cassie has a behavior that is actually a skill. She does well with exploring and seeking guidance with immediate and effective application. It seems she takes every consultation or conversation as an opportunity to add to her cache of knowledge and implement it in whatever she’s doing. I can see growth and application of inclusive design strategies with every review.” - Accessibility Advisor

“Cassie is a fantastic designer and I consider myself lucky to get to work with her. From her design skills, to interacting with business parters she continually impresses me. For all of the features that she takes point on, she is on top of everything from the beginning. She has been an integral part to our process and always provides invaluable feedback.” - Front-end Developer










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Storytelling


Some of our design endeavors were much earlier in their outset and benefitted from storytelling. This allowed me to capture the story of the user and inform the lean business case. This could then go on to bolster the case’s ability to gain funding.









Storyboard snapshot:

Storyboard snapshot