THE CHALLENGE FIS, a major financial services platform company, was incubating new startups its corporate venture studio. I was tasked with leading innovation processes for a startup-pod focused in the crypto space. We aimed to help our target customers (confidential) to invest in cryptocurrency. Over 80% of our target users were currently uninvested in digital assets; we learned that many foresaw crypto as the future, but lacked the tools to invest. THE RESULT I designed & facilitated the innovation work stream for our cross-functional team. We discovered 2 new products, and in our validation testing we learned that 85% of users said they would buy one of our solutions. Users predicted that our solutions would reduce risk in their firms by 36% and result in 50% cost savings. MY ROLE & IMPACT As the Innovation & Design Thinking Lead, I crafted and drove the innovation process, from setting project milestones and collaborating on artefacts, to defining best practices and decisioning frameworks. MY KEY CONTRIBUTIONS 1. Designing a journey map template to help us choose a problem in a data-driven way 2. Creating a research plan / learning goals that guided our test-and-learn strategy. 3. Leading the team to set customer benefits and metrics for each validation test, to ensure we were getting measurable data around our solutions’ success. 4. Designing custom workshops and lead the cross-functional team through a human-centered design process to align on 2 customer-tested solutions with a clear business case to secure investment. These concepts were recognized by other strategists and leadership as key tools in creating clarity and confidence in our innovation process. lg...more

THE CHALLENGE The leadership team at the Chicos/WHBM/Soma brand family wanted to design a new rewards program based on customer insights. Their goal was to better engage their customer base, and differentiate themselves from competition. Alongside my co-strategist, I set out to deeply understand the unique shoppers at each of the 3 brands, and design a program that would: 1. Build loyalty within the customer base for each brand 2. Encourage cross-brand shopping and loyalty THE RESULT The new programs for all three brands were launched this summer, based on the insights and recommendations that my team and I delivered. To read more about this launch, see the press release: https://retailleader.com/chicos-fas-redesigns-loyalty-programs. The brands’ CEO, Molly Langenstein, captured it well: "The new Programs offer curated benefit suites matched to spend, that deliver industry-leading value with more meaningful ways to reward her every time she shops with us; two things that are important to our customers now more than ever." MY ROLE & IMPACT I partnered with another strategist, on the discovery strategy and process, while working with a team of analysts, business subject matter experts, and a loyalty expert. I designed a research plan that would help us understand our 3 shopper segments (Chicos, WHBM, and Soma shoppers) in a post-pandemic world. Together, my co-strategist and I conducted empathy interviews and synthesized insights. We found that although the shopper segments were far apart in age and shopping habits, they had far more similarities than expected. For example, they all valued birthday rewards, money-saving promotions, and needed the loyalty program to be more clearly communicated. However, it was essential to design unique programs for each shopper type that fit their shopping habits/frequency and brand perception/lifestyle fit. Equipped these insights, we embarked on the difficult journey of designing programs that felt personal to each shopper type, but were operationally and technically feasible - and aligned to business priorities. We navigated these challenges by designing custom workshops to help the team weigh tradeoffs, and conducting metrics-driven concept tests with shoppers. I played a key role in extracting deep truths from shoppers, and helping our team keep “the reality” of shoppers’ likelihood-to-engage front and center. I clearly articulated the insight that what shoppers truly wanted was an experience that was as simple, and filled with personal choice, as possible. This helped us have a realistic view of what incentives we should focus on - ones which could truly motivate shoppers to engage with, and develop loyalty for, the brand.lg...more

THE CHALLENGE Capital One found through research that the process of buying a home / taking out equity is overwhelming for most people, and that laws and legalese were intimidating homebuyers and homeowners. They wanted to re-imagine a web experience that excited customers about these important life moments, and empowered them with tools and education to navigate the process. We hypothesized that this would also convert more website visitors into Capital One customers. THE RESULT I led a cross-functional team of engineers, designers, and researchers in redesigning and launching the Home Equity website. The new experience drove 157 more application starts per month, and got rave reviews from colleagues. For example, a Digital Strategist on the team, Stann Shinn, said: “Despite the many technical and deadline challenges, Sarah delivered a remarkable customer experience which was truly rave-worthy.” MY ROLE & IMPACT I led the product strategy/discovery and delivery for the Home Equity website. Initially, the team was marching towards an experience our business stakeholders had suggested. However, I delved into user research and crafted a narrative describing the customer journey, and specific opportunities to solve pain points for them. This drove my director’s buy-in and gave us the freedom to design an experience that accounted for stakeholders’ intent, but kept user needs at the forefront. Overall, my greatest impact was to partner with, and influence, each of the many partners - marketing, tech, design, mortgage, and more - to deliver a customer centered experience that balanced technical and resource constraints, and drove KPI’s for the business.lg...more

CONTEXT Intuit’s HR team recognized that the employee referral process was extremely cumbersome. Recruiters gave it a net promoter score of -10. Although 30% of hires came from referrals, recruiters weren’t reviewing candidates quickly enough, and therefore weren’t meeting the business KPI of 5-days-to-respond to referrals. This was hurting business efficiency metrics and slowing down hiring times for the company. THE CHALLENGE I was tasked with designing and launching a new referral experience that would benefit recruiters, referring employees, and candidates - and help the business meet their 5-day response KPI. The product’s success would be measured by the change in net promoter score (NPS). THE RESULT I designed a new experience that increased the net promoter score by 80 points: from -10 to +70. MY ROLE & IMPACT When I started the project, I was given a set of theories around what the problem might be. I decided to conduct further research; I interviewed recruiters and hiring managers and found 3 key themes: 1) Recruiters’ inboxes were flooded, and they needed a way to conveniently see the most high-priority applicants (referrals) front-and-center. 2) Recruiters needed an easy way to accept or reject candidates, and exercise minimal effort to communicate this to all parties involved. 3) Referring employees and candidates needed visibility into the application status. The most interesting insight of all came when I used service design to map out the experience. I found that there was an imbalance between the level of effort required in the process, and the most motivated person in the process. Using psychology principles, I theorized that if we put the most effort on the most motivated person, we would achieve a more efficient process. Armed with these findings, I partnered with a designer to create a new experience that re-balanced workload and slashed inefficiencies - thus resulting in an 80-point NPS increase.lg...more

THE CHALLENGE The leadership team at Capital One wanted to build a foundation that helped all employees throughout their home loans organization, to make customer-first decisions. A cross-functional team of 34 was chosen from within the org, to design and roll out a culture framework that would help us all operate in a human-centered way. I was selected to be on this team as an ambassador of the product org. THE RESULT I led the crafting of the mission statement for Capital One’s home loans framework. Building upon customer empathy we had gathered, I led the team to write a statement that evolved into our final version. I was also one of the 4 people selected to present the “story of the customer” at all of the all-hands meetings rolling out the new framework. This meant telling an empathy-building customer narrative to ~1000 of our employees. The story reportedly “gave people goosebumps,” and inspired them to adopt our customer-centric operating mindset into their daily work. MY ROLE & IMPACT As my manager at the time, Lorie Robinson, summarized it: “Sarah is an outstanding public speaker. She was asked by our executive leadership team to participate in a key initiative that resulted in her selection as an internal Town Hall presenter. Despite the hours she spent preparing, once on stage Sarah made it all look effortless. She is a natural-born storyteller, capable of moving a crowded ballroom to tears.”lg...more