Understanding Human Experiences through Connected Disciplinary Teams

Experience Optimization: Driving Home Office Cohesion for the Purchase Experience

BACKGROUND:

BUSINESS IMPACT:

Northwestern Mutual identified the desire to design a better Client Purchase Experience. In-home Interviews with distinct segments of Clients aimed to address identified experience gaps from the Client’s pov so that cross-functional teams could confidently:
• Create a holistic picture of the end-to-end Client experience.
• Understand Clients’ wants, needs, expectations, and pain points and their underlying causes.

The goal was to provide cohesion throughout the individual product purchase journey and the various paths our Clients take when purchasing one or more of our products
by providing a set of key principles that hold constant throughout the Client’s journey and are product agnostic
and by addressing both the tactical transaction and the human components during delivery
so that we exceed our Client’s expectations and deliver a preeminent Purchase Experience.

Increased Delivery Efficiency: Aligned 12 cross-functional teams on supporting data & insights to develop a North Star Strategy that created synergy and cohesive solutions

Increased Communication and Alignment with Change Management to Drive Field Success: Drove a simplified purchase process (steps) by 25%

Increase Prospect to Client Conversion: 42MM (Purchase analysis identified opportunity cost)

ROLE:

Experience Design Strategist - Spearheaded project from exploration to execution through Stakeholder Management, UX Research Design & Synthesis, Workshop Facilitation, Journey & Experience Map Design, UX Design and Capability Prioritization & Roadmap Development.

PROBLEMS SOLVED:

Reduced Departmental Silos - Brought a variety of stakeholders in early to eliminate strategies being developed in silos. In doing so, it vastly improved the probability of creating mutually valued, meaningful and measurable experiences.

Reduced Customer Abandonment – Friction & uncertainty in the purchase process negatively impacts customers, reducing their likelihood of activating their plan specifically when providing substantial medical information and when setting up payment information. We solved the problem by:

  • Reducing Friction – Enabled customers to seamlessly take action with fewer steps and less effort by minimizing barriers to purchase.

  • Driving Conviction - Augmented the relationship with the advisor through experiences that provided clients with additional support and reassurance.

VISUAL ARTIFACTS:

The end results were actionable and measurable outputs in the form of a bold strategic aspiration, conceptual narrative, explorative prototypes and a near-term product development gameplan.