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Strategic Design Fiction

A case study in storytelling and prototyping for business investment and customer loyalty

 

User need: Value beyond transactions—empathetic and personalized support, from a brand they trust, during one of life’s hardest moments

Business objective: Build alignment on a future vision that drives customer retention, asset growth, and product differentiation. Secure business investment.

Role: led experience mapping, orchestrated a multi-day design workshop, blending speculative storytelling, prototyping, and cross-functional collaboration, and delivered an end-to-end design vision

Key skills: Design strategy, Design thinking, Facilitation, Storytelling

Results: Continued business investment in offerings like, a new customer service model and digital enhancements

 

Opportunity

Billions of dollars (yup, that’s a capital “B”) leave a top financial services company every year due to the transition of customers account balances to their beneficiaries. More often than not, those beneficiaries, after experiencing the loss of a loved one, take their cash money and run after dealing with a paper-based transaction and cumbersome customer service.

Within the company, a couple scrum teams were already tasked with reducing paper in the transfer of assets after death (no small feat), but there was so much more to consider. We needed to better understand why sooooo much money was leaving the firm.


Well, twist my arm why don’t ya...

 

Process

The biggest experience map that ever lived

Ok, maybe not the biggest, but I can still hear the gasps of my partners the first time I unveiled this baby.

To understand the the lay of the land, I spent time digging through any customer jobs to be done about end-of-life planning, losing a loved one, and settling someone’s estate.

The experience map included: customer needs; journey phases and tasks; customer and associate touch points; internal capabilities and services; data, analytics, and research insights; gaps, pain points and inconsistencies

 

We pulled the rabbit out of the hat

After the loss of a loved one is not the time to build trust with prospective customers. If we want to build relationships with beneficiaries and strengthen brand loyalty, we need to engage long before loss.

This pulled the planning before loss phase into focus as a new strategic area for the company.

 

Breaking design magician code

I know your not suppose to expose how magic is done, but this is too good to keep to myself.

So, be cool.

After creating the experience map, I knew how important it was for all the teams working on this journey to understanding of the totality of it and unite under a common vision. We couldn’t have a handful of teams solving problems in isolation. We needed to come together, understand how individual steps and phases live in the broader context of loss of a loved one, and create a shared vision of exceptional experiences.

 

Secret 1: You’ve gotta build camaraderie

I brought teams across the organization together, both in-person and remote, for a 2.5 day workshop. There’s not much I love more than the buzz of a room full of over-caffeinated workshop participants.

I shuffled up the teams, split them into four groups, and gave them each one of the four key journey phase—planning before loss, getting help during loss, becoming a customer during loss, and planning after loss. They had a lot of (quality and productive) time together.

 

Secret 2: Facilitate story-based activities and conversations

I facilitated activities that built empathy for a single customer and their family, as well as an internal associate guiding them through the process. Each group outlined a story, brainstormed ideas, and created storyboards with prototype sketches that illustrated an ideal experience.

 

Secret 3: Orchestrate the AHA moment

At the end of the workshop, each group shared their journey phase’s ideal experience story board—they heard the customer plan their estate with their family and the financial company as their partners, witnessed how the company could guide their beneficiaries with care and expertise, and saw how through that care and expertise, the beneficiary became a long-term customer.

The phases fit perfectly and reinforced one another to create a wonderful experience supported by common functionality and an organization that knew the user at every step.

The collective AHA moment

They realized that with a handful of well executed product functionality they could deliver a friction-less, empathetic experience. They needed to double-down on core functionality, like status tracking and education delivery, if they wanted to achieve the best experience possible for their customers, beneficiaries, and associates alike.

 

Secret 4: Refine the story with initiative leadership

The story created in the workshop served as our first draft—filled with potential, but needed refinement.

  • We developed the story’s characters using data insights about the company’s customer base and their beneficiaries.

  • We crafted real-life uses cases that presented challenges that the company could help.

  • We highlighted functionality that was already planned while also leaving room for new innovative ideas.

Story characters: The family and a company associate

 

Overview of journey through life event

 

Select storyboard panels

 

Step 5: Make it real with prototypes that highlight strategic opportunities

We brought the user experience to life with prototypes across digital touch-points, illustrating strategic functionality that aligned with business goals and KPIs.

Avoid the smoke and mirrors

You can craft a touching story or design experiences so beautiful that everyone oohs and ahhs, but if it doesn’t align with the short-term and long-term business strategy, you might as well become an actual magician.

 

Example: Plan with the whole family

We showed how associates might center financial planning conversations around “family”.

 

Example: Make executing a team sport

We showed how executing on a plan could be a shared responsibility with the right tools.

 

Example: Infuse transactions with empathy

We showed that we could meet people where they are, based on their feelings or mental capacity.

 

Results

Collaborative storytelling + strategic prototyping = A winning UX vision

Thanks to the UX Vision, 6 new initiatives with ~20 scrum teams were funded. Those teams hit the ground running and delivered impressive value.

  • A new customer service model increased customer satisfaction, advisor engagement and referrals, asset retention, and employee satisfaction scores

  • Digital enhancements increased efficiency in customer and associate experiences through automation and case tracking