I'm a product design leader with over 20 years of experience in fintech, e-commerce, consumer, small business, and commercial banking.
Beyond design, I love spending time with my family, traveling, reading, writing, and learning.
How I found design
I started a publishing company in San Francisco.
I've always loved books and music, so it made sense to start publishing. I won't bore you with all the details but let's just say I had to learn to use a computer to layout the books and the artwork.
This naturally evolved to learning how to code so I could share my creative work online. And, soon after that, I got into the art and science of UX design. And, that should bring you up to speed.
Now, let's see some work.
Work
Wells Fargo Security Center
Helping customers keep their money safe.
Context
Wells Fargo wanted a way to consolidate their public-facing security content with the many security features of their app. This would bring more awareness to their customers about security measures and enhance interactivity to the app experience.
Problem
There's no single location for security related information across the Wells Fargo public and secure sites.
This creates frustration and anxiety for customers who want to know more about the security of their accounts and to better understand how financial institutions keep their money safe.
Objective
Research, strategize, and design an interactive feature for the Wells Fargo app to help educate customers about online security, and reduce security-related questions to the call centers by 15%.
Overview
The Security Center offers tips to prevent fraud through automated security alerts and other features on the Wells Fargo app (4.9 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ on the Apple App store).
Security Center Mockups
Security Center tracks your completion of key security tasks as a percentage at the top of the screen. Making it easy to see your progress as you activate additional security features.
Security Center: Goal and Role
Goal: Create a new interactive app feature to share best practices and educate customers about online security.
My role: Strategy, market and competitive research, product design, prototyping, managerial oversight, user testing.
Fact: There are over 5.4 billion people with access to the internet. All of them potential targets for online scammers.
Data: According to the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S., consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, with a significant portion likely stemming from online scams.
Authentication and security standards for digital finance is taken very seriously.
So much so, that additional precautions must be taken for international banking customers.
Problem
Although the standard way of delivering one-time passcodes works well for domestic customers, the same cannot be said for military and overseas customers.
Internationally, standard delivery technologies are unreliable, insecure, and sometimes impossible to receive for these customers.
Objective
Research, strategize, and design a viable and secure passcode delivery method for overseas customers so they can reliably
send money to family and friends. And enjoy the same ease-of-use on the Wells Fargo app as if they were back home.
International 2-Factor: Goal and role
Goal: Discover and build a new delivery channel to ensure ease-of-use and adhere to high security protocols for international customers.
My role: Strategy, technical research and feasibility, product design, managerial oversight, push notification prototyping, user testing.
Like many people, I have a wide-range of skills and interests. But, the one trait that drives me the most is my curiosity. I like learning new things and being hands-on is the best way to experience them.
Problem
During the COVID-19 pandemic I found myself with a bit of extra time (right?). And, although I bing-watched movies and TV shows on Netflix like many others, I wanted to be more creative with my time. So, I revived an old book project, and brought it to life as an iOS app.
Objective
Teach myself SwiftUI by planning, designing, and building a music streaming app for one of my favorite German ambient music labels, Fax +49-69/450464.
Why did you choose such an obscure record label?
When I moved to San Francisco after graduating from college, I worked at a record store on Haight Street. My curiosity allowed me to discover tons of new music, including ambient.
Although credited to music legend, Brian Eno, ambient music was
essential to the rave scene of the 90s. Raves are mostly filled with fast, heavy, loud, and progressive beats that you can dance to. But, some clubs housed "chill-out" rooms, where ravers could take a break from dancing and cool down to mellower music as you rested your legs and lungs.
This is how ambient music became so popular and Fax Label was one of the best. Founding owner and musician, Peter Kuhlmann, used the record label as a way to distribute his own music and to help other fledgling musicians distribute theirs. Better known as Pete Namlook (Kuhlmann pronounced backwards), Pete was also a husband and a father.
Fax app on iPhone
Unfortunately, in 2012, Pete died quickly and unexpectedly of a heart attak at the age of 51. I had the pleasure of meeting Pete once in San Francisco. He was visting from Germany to play a show at a club that weekend. He walked into Reckless Records where I worked, hand-delivering 2 of his label's new releases. I was both surprised and ecstatic to be meeting one of my music heroes and I was deeply saddened to hear about his death at such a young age.
This is why I chose his record label as my learning project. It's an hommage to the inspiration and joy his music brought me when I was younger. And, it serves as a reminder to keep moving forward and create the best I can every day I'm here.
I hope you enjoyed your visit.
This has been "some work." I have many other ideas and creations to share with you if you're curious.
Thanks for being here.
Contact
I'm curious and love to learn.
I bet you know something that I don't, and I want to know what that is.
