Career Highlights
Product Strategy | Product Management | Discovery | HCD | UX | User Research | Management Consulting
Product Strategy | Product Management | Discovery | HCD | UX | User Research | Management Consulting
Verticals
Fintech | TravelTech | HRtech | Edtech | Agtech | Foodtech
Fintech | TravelTech | HRtech | Edtech | Agtech | Foodtech
Portfolio
Human Centered Design (HCD) + loosely coupled system = meaningful products that stand the test of time
Artifacts are owned by the company I was representing; I've included when readily available.
I’m revamping my personal site and adding content, so come back soon for more.
Human Centered Design (HCD) + loosely coupled system = meaningful products that stand the test of time
Artifacts are owned by the company I was representing; I've included when readily available.
I’m revamping my personal site and adding content, so come back soon for more.
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Product Management | User Research | Design Strategy | UX |
Capital One is on a mission to Change Banking for Good through technology and innovative customer experiences.
Product Management
Close Account | Discovery, Design, Delivery & In-Market
Close Account allows customers to close their account online rather than call an agent or voice response system. I felt that several educational products already in production would greatly enhance customer satisfaction during and following account closure. I spoke with consumers (both customers and non-customers), created wireframes and collaborated with a UX/UI Designer to perform empathy and usability testing in our Research Lab. Knowledge gained from that research, coupled with a partnership with an amazing UX/UI Designer, produced a streamlined experience that guides customers through everything they should consider prior to closing an account.
Product Management
Close Account | Discovery, Design, Delivery & In-Market
Close Account allows customers to close their account online rather than call an agent or voice response system. I felt that several educational products already in production would greatly enhance customer satisfaction during and following account closure. I spoke with consumers (both customers and non-customers), created wireframes and collaborated with a UX/UI Designer to perform empathy and usability testing in our Research Lab. Knowledge gained from that research, coupled with a partnership with an amazing UX/UI Designer, produced a streamlined experience that guides customers through everything they should consider prior to closing an account.
- Results: Close Account was first to market with this capability enabling customers to service their accounts online from open to close. Saving over $2 million in operating expenses per year. Released on-time, on budget and with zero defects or customer complaints.
- User base: A/B testing where 15 million active North American consumer and small business cardholders are presented with this product.
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"Grace was able to seamlessly translate and deliver our credit card close account processes from the phone channel to the web. Over 1.5MM customers close their accounts each year and placing this highly-regulated functionality online required flawless execution. Grace quickly developed a clear understanding our business objectives, which through her intake process and targeted, succinct questions, as well as her great understanding of the customer experience. Her initial prototypes demonstrated that she was able to capture our intent and the optimal customer experience in a package that could be executed within our timelines. The final product was an industry first and a huge win for our operation. Approximate 18% of our customers use the web to close their accounts now, saving us over $2MM in operating expenses each year. Additionally, we have not received a single customer complaint or risk item from this channel of the close process. Grace's skillsets have propeled us on our digital journey.
Additionally, Grace’s clear and timely communication minimized time spent in discussion, while allowing us to keep stakeholders well informed. She was very straight forward when communicating timeline risks and gave great recommendations on how to mitigate them." - David "Matt" Bartles, Business / Process Manager - US Branded Cards
ETS | Factory & In-Market
Enhanced transactions (ETS) was first to market with brand logos and Google maps in an effort to help customers recognize their transactions and reduce disputes of legitimate transactions. Worked with team to deliver MVP while collaborating with UX Designer to improve the MVP experience by adding larger, dynamic maps that keep customers within the application. Championed that new design and worked with partner team to get it into a subsequent release.
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Rewards & Card Servicing | Studio, Factory & In-Market
Product Managers understand that not every effort involves shiny new objects. Sometimes that work involves making small changes to an experience that results in a big win for customers, reimagining/recreating externally hosted experiences, developing new APIs or making infrastructure enhancements to allow for growth and the needs of soon to be released experiences.
User Research
interviews | card sort | surveys & questionnaires | prototype evaluation (facilitated and online)
Design Strategy
Incubation of Close Account | Design Jams | Design Sprint | Design Thinking Deep Dive workshop (Capital One)
Product Managers understand that not every effort involves shiny new objects. Sometimes that work involves making small changes to an experience that results in a big win for customers, reimagining/recreating externally hosted experiences, developing new APIs or making infrastructure enhancements to allow for growth and the needs of soon to be released experiences.
- Results: Released on-time and on budget, saving millions of dollars in yearly operating costs. Customer feedback is mostly positive. Monitoring is ongoing.
- User base: 30 million active North American consumer and small business cardholders (14 million when servicing rewards).
User Research
interviews | card sort | surveys & questionnaires | prototype evaluation (facilitated and online)
Design Strategy
Incubation of Close Account | Design Jams | Design Sprint | Design Thinking Deep Dive workshop (Capital One)
UX
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation, fleshing out UX/UI with Designers and communicating with stakeholders and development team | Designing the Mobile User Experience workshop (Human Factors International)
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation, fleshing out UX/UI with Designers and communicating with stakeholders and development team | Designing the Mobile User Experience workshop (Human Factors International)
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Product Management | User Research | UX |
Quiviras' AutoPilot was the start-up's product line focused restaurant management.
Product Management
AutoPilot | Studio, Factory & In-Market
AutoPilot is a restaurant product line designed to allow Quick Service restaurant cashiers to quickly apply discounts, keeping customers from waiting in line behind someone trying to use a coupon. The system allows scheduling and automatic application of promotional pricing as well as 1 touch coupon redemption. System also includes timekeeping, inventory management and integration with a popular accounting application.
User Research
guided tour | shadowing | interviews | surveys & questionnaires | prototype evaluation
UX
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation and communicating with stakeholders and development team.
Product Management
AutoPilot | Studio, Factory & In-Market
AutoPilot is a restaurant product line designed to allow Quick Service restaurant cashiers to quickly apply discounts, keeping customers from waiting in line behind someone trying to use a coupon. The system allows scheduling and automatic application of promotional pricing as well as 1 touch coupon redemption. System also includes timekeeping, inventory management and integration with a popular accounting application.
- Results & user base: This system was piloted by a national Smoothie company and quickly became the system of choice, rolling out to stores in 5 states. When the Great Recession hit the US, the impact to restaurants was substantial and this product line was shelved to allow investors to focus on other products.
User Research
guided tour | shadowing | interviews | surveys & questionnaires | prototype evaluation
UX
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation and communicating with stakeholders and development team.
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Product Management | User Research | Design Strategy | UX | Management Consulting |
Sphere of Influence is an award winning innovation and analytics studio specializing in product innovation, design and development along with data analytics and big data.
Product Management
I was a Product Manager for Sphere of Influence, focusing primarily on customers' products.
User Research
guided tour | shadowing | interviews | surveys & questionnaires | diagram it | prototype evaluation
Design Strategy
Product Innovation Workshops | product/portfolio roadmaps | incubation of GatorSnap, mobile app that automatically captured and posted photo streams...too bad our ideation sessions didn't morph this into SnapChat; host of ideas and concepts that were euthanized early-on (fail fast!)
UX
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation and communicating with stakeholders and development team.
Management Consulting
Assessed and provided recommendations to improve customers’ in-house portfolio & product management, UX and development practices.
Product Management
I was a Product Manager for Sphere of Influence, focusing primarily on customers' products.
User Research
guided tour | shadowing | interviews | surveys & questionnaires | diagram it | prototype evaluation
Design Strategy
Product Innovation Workshops | product/portfolio roadmaps | incubation of GatorSnap, mobile app that automatically captured and posted photo streams...too bad our ideation sessions didn't morph this into SnapChat; host of ideas and concepts that were euthanized early-on (fail fast!)
UX
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation and communicating with stakeholders and development team.
Management Consulting
Assessed and provided recommendations to improve customers’ in-house portfolio & product management, UX and development practices.
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"I nominated Grace when she won the Push for Quality Award; Grace is the first person who comes to my mind because of the improvement in work quality and communication on the product team. I have seen how her leadership, experience, and knowledge of the operational system improved the user interfaces, artifacts, testing, and demo quality. I have also seen how she changed how they were testing (focus) which improved the quality of the product, expertise and enthusiasm for the effort."
- Scott Pringle, EVP of Services
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"I had the pleasure of working closely with Grace from 2006 - 2014 (or close to that) and truly appreciate her talent and contributions. Grace is not only a very loyal colleague, she delivers on her commitments and takes good care of her clients. I hope to be able to work with Grace again one day. If Grace is overseeing a product, she (better than anyone on the team) will know everything that product needs to do . Grace quickly becomes an authoritative source on product scope, requirements, and "shippability". She's a good personality to work with and is committed to success."
- Thad Scheer, Sphere of Influence Cofounder
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Management Consulting | User Research | Design Strategy | UX |
Customer while I was a Product Manager at Sphere of Influence.
Multiple consulting engagements for projects, products and groups within John Deere's Agriculture segment. Received a E3 Big Buck Award for Delivering Excellence & Exceeding Expectations.
Management Consulting
Assessed and provided recommendations to improve customers’ in-house portfolio & product management, UX and development practices. Resulted in significantly improved throughput and time-to-market via dramatic shift from product line and waterfall silos to portfolio management and colocated agile development teams.
User Research
guided tour | shadowing | interviews | prototype evaluation
Multiple consulting engagements for projects, products and groups within John Deere's Agriculture segment. Received a E3 Big Buck Award for Delivering Excellence & Exceeding Expectations.
Management Consulting
Assessed and provided recommendations to improve customers’ in-house portfolio & product management, UX and development practices. Resulted in significantly improved throughput and time-to-market via dramatic shift from product line and waterfall silos to portfolio management and colocated agile development teams.
User Research
guided tour | shadowing | interviews | prototype evaluation
Design Strategy
Hosted Product Innovation Workshop
UX
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation.
Hosted Product Innovation Workshop
UX
Created wireframes and mockups for prototype evaluation.
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Product Management | User Research | Design Strategy | UX |
Customer while I was a Product Manager at Sphere of Influence.
Chemonics is an employee owned, international aid organization.
Product Management
ABACUS | In-Market
It is a platform designed to enable accountants in developing countries around the globe to manage their finances regardless of connectivity and streamline the process of closing the books. Business rules ensure accuracy of information and can be applied to one or more programs. Roll-up data is available to allow program managers to quickly identify potential issues and approval status. The platform was modified overtime to fit the changing needs of a rapidly growing organization.
User Research
shadowing | surveys & questionnaires | interviews | prototype evaluation
Design Strategy
Incubation of Data Dashboard, global data visualization product concept for the ABACUS platform
UX
Created mockups for prototype evaluation, fleshing out UX/UI with Designers and communicating with stakeholders and development team.
Chemonics is an employee owned, international aid organization.
Product Management
ABACUS | In-Market
It is a platform designed to enable accountants in developing countries around the globe to manage their finances regardless of connectivity and streamline the process of closing the books. Business rules ensure accuracy of information and can be applied to one or more programs. Roll-up data is available to allow program managers to quickly identify potential issues and approval status. The platform was modified overtime to fit the changing needs of a rapidly growing organization.
- Results: ABACUS has been in production for a decade. The timeframe for closing the books decreased from 3+ weeks to under 10 days, which netted operational savings of nearly $500k in the first year alone.
- User base: Consists of finance, program management and field accountants. During my tenure the number of locations actively using ABACUS grew from approximately a dozen to more than 70 field offices on 5 continents.
User Research
shadowing | surveys & questionnaires | interviews | prototype evaluation
Design Strategy
Incubation of Data Dashboard, global data visualization product concept for the ABACUS platform
UX
Created mockups for prototype evaluation, fleshing out UX/UI with Designers and communicating with stakeholders and development team.
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Product Management | Strategy | User Research | UX |
Product Management
Program Audit Tool (PAT) | Studio & Factory
This product was designed and developed to reduce fraud and employee misuse/abuse by helping monitor & manage their program. Application of custom business rules can be applied to one or more groups within a program. Transactions outside acceptable thresholds are flagged for inspection by auditors, allowing them to quickly focus on potential issues. Faster inspection likely prevents additional fraud/misuse/abuse on those accounts. The dashboard allows auditors and program managers to view overall approval status along with fraud and misuse/abuse totals for their area of responsibility.
CitiDirect Card Management System (CCMS) | In-Market
Championed new capabilities and feature enhancements to get them onto the roadmap and into production.
Product Strategy
Managed the largest Commercial Cards client’s software multimillion dollar roadmap by working with stakeholders to optimize ROI while delivering highest customer value. This led to development of a new product, the Program Audit Tool (PAT), as well as modifications to existing product line.
User Research
focus groups | shadowing | surveys & questionnaires | interviews | prototype evaluation
UX
Created mockups for prototype evaluation and communicating with stakeholders and offsite development teams.
Program Audit Tool (PAT) | Studio & Factory
This product was designed and developed to reduce fraud and employee misuse/abuse by helping monitor & manage their program. Application of custom business rules can be applied to one or more groups within a program. Transactions outside acceptable thresholds are flagged for inspection by auditors, allowing them to quickly focus on potential issues. Faster inspection likely prevents additional fraud/misuse/abuse on those accounts. The dashboard allows auditors and program managers to view overall approval status along with fraud and misuse/abuse totals for their area of responsibility.
- Results: PAT has been so successful that it has been in production for nearly a decade and has been expanded to all public and private customers.
- User base: Phased rollout to the development fund client. User base of program managers and auditors with 15,000+ cardholders and 7,000+ billing accounts with over 2 million transactions and $1.5 billion in spending.
CitiDirect Card Management System (CCMS) | In-Market
Championed new capabilities and feature enhancements to get them onto the roadmap and into production.
Product Strategy
Managed the largest Commercial Cards client’s software multimillion dollar roadmap by working with stakeholders to optimize ROI while delivering highest customer value. This led to development of a new product, the Program Audit Tool (PAT), as well as modifications to existing product line.
User Research
focus groups | shadowing | surveys & questionnaires | interviews | prototype evaluation
UX
Created mockups for prototype evaluation and communicating with stakeholders and offsite development teams.
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"I had the privilege of working with Grace at Citigroup in 2005-2006. In her role there, she managed multiple high-priority technical projects for one of our largest and most high-profile customers. Grace is one of those rare individuals with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with both the technical developers and systems engineers, as well as with the business owners and non-technical stakeholders involved on a project. The projects she managed at Citigroup required extensive problem solving to develop complex business solutions. Her skill and expertise in gathering business requirements and clearly communicating them to a technical team to craft and execute a solution consistently delivered successful results. Another key strength Grace has is building consensus around a proposed solution, and then moving it through the necessary channels to deliver on budget and on time. Her organizational skills, as well as her extensive knowledge and expertise make her an enormous asset to any team . I hope to have the opportunity to work with her again in the future!"
- Katherine Dews, VP Federal Card Solutions Relationship Management at J.P. Morgan
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"While working with and within close proximity to Grace at Citigroup, I witnessed first hand her ability to manage our biggest government customer account. It would be an understatement to say that this customer presented us with a huge challenge, but Grace managed to stay focused and calm on a daily basis. Her organizational and project management skills, as well as her knowledge of the customer's product needs, were such that they were not pleased when she left the company. Her dependability and support of others made her a valuable team member. It would be an honor and a pleasure to work with Grace again."
- Allyson Duke Newman, Federal Training Manager at CenturyLink Government
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I’m revamping my personal site and adding content, so come back soon for more.