UX Lead, Estates and Compass (2019 – 2020)
A lot happened in a year, before the pandemic, but the following is a list of the projects I worked on while on the Frontline UX Team. Since the software and sites that I worked on were for internal use and rely on connections to secure servers to operate, I was not always able to save screenshots of the final, developed software.
Estates. The was the project I was specifically hired for in March 2019. The goal was to modernize how Estate cases were handled, by creating software that could be used by the NEC (National Estate Center, a large office call-center at CIBC) to process estate cases, answer questions and communicate with branches. Prior to this project, branches spent hours on the telephone with the NEC, or on hold and shared documents by fax. Often the bank’s clients would be required to return to the branch many times before an estate case could be resolved. This would be difficult when family dealing with a deceased loved one’s estate lived in a different city, province or country. Estate cases would take months, or years to be settled and closed.
Over several days, I interviewed managers and staff at branches who were part of our initial pilot program of 60 branches. The research was used as feedback to improve our existing software build, to implement suggestions and choose new features for the team to focus on. I also uncovered and flagged technical issues and limitations with branch equipment that would be an impediment to the success of our project.
The results of the interviews were analyzed and organized into a report for our agile team and presented to the Executive stakeholders, who were from many different departments (Estates, Process Engineering, Service Design, PEGA DevOps).
Concierge, tablet application. Software that would run from iPad and touchscreen Windows tablets. It would provide the client account management functions a branch teller would use, as well as track appointments for the branch. I assisted with the design when the team was under tight deadlines and reviewed designs when feedback was needed. I also assisted in providing editing for the French copy, which was too lengthy to fit the interface as translated. I received great feedback from the translation house on my editing and my French teacher at Alliance-Francaise was very proud.
Compass. The software that branches use, built on the PEGA platform, to access customer information, all account details. I worked on many parts of this software, but the majority of my work was part of an agile team which focused on functionality and logic to ‘recommend’ products to clients. After a brief questionnaire, operated by branch staff, the software would recommend products which client’s would be approved for, from a selection of credit cards to actual mortgage and lending rates. Then the application would facilitate the client’s application for those products.
IDEA Log. In Jira, a team of senior management kept a detailed list of prioritized feature requests, planned improvements and feedback for our Compass software. They would meet weekly and review concepts and suggestions, and add items to the log.
I was challenged with creating conceptual designs for these list items, to solve all kinds of problems, showing how features could be added and implemented in the existing software. Many of my solutions were approved for future implementation, when budget and resources allowed.
Estates Express. Following the success of the Estates launch, a huge update was proposed to add functionality that allowed branches to do even more, closing simple Estates cases on their own (rather than passing them onto the Estates Center).
This project had a very short turnaround time, but I worked with a wonderful Process Engineer who knew the infrastructure like the back of his hand. After the launch of the software, he sent this very nice note through an eternal system, cc’ing my manager, to pass on his thanks.
