I had the pleasure of learning more about renewable energy project finance while advising a brilliant, committed Product team. Banyan is building platform capabilities & workflow experience to unleash the power of sustainable capital. Following the rapid growth of the Product & Design Team (and company), I mentored the team of Product Managers and Designers, piloting new planning processes, frameworks and artifacts to scale how they roadmap and execute. I documented and assessed the Product Development Lifecycle, team structure & talent development, product vision/strategy, and goal-setting for CEO + Head of Product.

Led an amazing team of Product Managers to build digital servicing and experiences for Mission Lane’s customers in support of the company mission to increase access to credit. This includes the development roadmaps for several platforms: Self-service (mobile apps + web servicing portal + messaging) and Agent portal (homegrown + partner integrations). Our Team’s customer-focused mission: To forge unbreakable bonds between Mission Lane and our customers by guiding and supporting their credit building goals and financial well-being. To deliver on this mission, we drove planning and prioritization across (3) business outcomes: 1- Dependable, Digital First servicing 2- Top of Wallet Engagement (card usage, retention)3- Deepen the Relationship (Delightful CX, lifecycle management, cross-sell)Alongside my fellow Design and Engineering partners, we redefined our agile processes to build a culture of shipping, rigorous testing and repeatable release ops. We recommitted to the PDLC with heightened conviction -- investing more time in discovery, design exploration, solution definition, scoping & planning. This yielded smoother implementation sprints and accelerated speed-to-value, while upholding the quality our credit building customers deserve. Proudest “Brag Book” Accomplishments:- Within 4 months, I hired, onboarded and enabled a high-performing, highly engaged team of seasoned Product Managers and Delivery Managers, with 94% team member engagement scores.- Guided and empowered the team to ship several digital servicing features that drove down account servicing costs (e.g. call deflection, postage expense), estimated to replace >$1MM of operating expenses annually- Fostered a commitment to quality & testing, which drove down the number of negatively impacted customers by 90% within a 6-month period

I led the development effort across multiple squads to build out the issuing partnership strategy & solution scoping to build a white-labeled, merchant-branded in-store commerce experience for installment loans and BNPL products. It was fascinating work, I learned a ton, and I partnered with some of the finest Product Builders during my time with Bread.

As Marqeta's first product hire dedicated to the banking vertical, I built out a team of talented product builders to design, develop and ship modular solutions and services to power the future of banking. We launched and scaled new platform capabilities for neo-banks, fintechs, tech giants, and the banking industry-at-large to drive transformative user journeys that span across modern card issuing, transaction processing, account servicing and money movement.

As part of the SF Innovation Center, I led dedicated cross-functional squads of UX Designers and Engineers to apply principles of human-centered design, rapid prototyping and agile methodologies to build, test, and iterate customer journeys and solutions to solve for real-world problem statements related to commerce and payments. We launched to learn, seeking to determine market validity for new product concepts quickly.Specifically, I led the Conversational AI product development and thought-leadership. I drove the discovery of new commerce and engagement opportunities on digital platforms, using automated messaging chatbots, digital assistants, and voice interfaces. As adoption of these platform expanded, I helped Visa collaborate with our bank, merchant and Fintech partners to deliver delightful, frictionless customer journeys leveraging natural language. I believe these new interaction modes, applied AI and NLP technology have the potential to alleviate pain points that exist in mobile and digital today, and become the dominant way Consumers will connect with companies, access information, shop and checkout.

In this role, I was responsible for the vision and roadmap for consumer cardholder adoption of emerging payments across the omni-channel – in-store, in-app, and eCommerce. It was an exciting time to be in payments, with a transformation to the way credit cards were issued, processed and accepted due to mobile phone adoption and technology capabilities changing the way we live and how companies connect with consumers. I took to market and sunsetted our first mobile wallet customer pilot, enabling cardholders to tap and pay using the Softcard Mobile Wallet. User data and customer insights drove the marketing strategy and platform development roadmap to launch tokenization and future mobile wallets -- Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay and the Wells Fargo Wallet.Once launched, I guided ideation, discovery, and test and learn strategy for enhancing the digital wallet user experiences with value added services beyond payment capabilities to integrate with rewards, offers or other mobile banking services. I also drove the card-on-file tokenization servicing strategy and phased roadmap to accommodate market adoption.

As smart phone adoption increased rapidly, I jumped at the opportunity to lead the digital sales funnel strategy and conversion optimization on wellsfargo.com by championing UX initiatives for bank’s credit and stored value payments products. I was also responsible for building the SEO, digital sales, and fulfillment strategies for the launch of several new card products. I led the public site mobile optimization and content management system migration for the credit card product home page, including the development of an interactive product selector tool to aid customer research and online shopping experience.

I managed the P&L, key marketing initiatives, and daily operations for $70MM Secured Card portfolio, which offered a credit-building value proposition for underbanked/underserved segments. I cultivated the new-to-credit customer lifecycle (welcome kit, credit education, activation promotions, retention offers, and upgrade strategy) to deepen customer relationships and enable greater access to credit.I digitaized our cardholder communications, leveraging emerging channels (social, mobile,etc.) to connect with customers and deliver financial education content and online management tools (e.g. mobile transactional alerts). I built and maintained KPI dashboards to evaluate key metrics and trends to identify, assess, and prioritize opportunities for product roadmap. While in this role, I led a data analytics effort to build a propensity model and targeted acquisition programs, which increased sales volume 3x over my tenure. I also launched the Secured Card in former Wachovia markets under accelerated timelines, ahead of the bank-wide conversion schedule, 18% under budget, which resulted in approximately $1MM in incremental revenue.As a leader in underbanked lending, I was a speaker for an industry webinar hosted by the Center for Financial Services Innovation , "Transition to Credit: Opportunities for Secured Cards"(November 2010)

I partnered with Marketing, Operations, and customer service centers to deploy retention and engagement strategies to improve the end-to-end Debit Cardholder customer experience to maximize customer lifetime value. I led qualitative and quantitative customer research studies to benchmark satisfaction and product loyalty. My role was to translate research findings and customer insights into actionable business plans to improve customer pain points, thereby increasing retention and usage metrics. Debit Card product loyalty improved by 35% during my tenure.I conducted deep analyses of processes and procedures to identify resource gaps, obstacles, and timing issues to inspire innovative solutions to enhance service levels and improve customer experience.I relaunched the Instant ATM Card and achieved 100% regional support to deliver consistent emergency card replacement solution for customers with lost, stolen, or damaged debit cards. I managed the design and development of a web-based inventory system that enabled just-in-time shipments of Instant ATM Card plastics to branches, successfully eliminating paper-based procedures and 18 potential points of error.

I developed a marketing strategy targeting Asian American consumers, applying in-depth customer insights to shape culturally relevant campaigns aimed to increase customer acquisitions, retention, usage and interchange revenues.I evaluated a pilot segmentation method (attitudinal clusters) using the response results of 10+ direct mail campaigns (enrollment rates, lift in transactions and spend, etc.).

I created and executed strategic advertising plans for clients, who included: Microsoft Corporation, The Oakland Athletics, Applied Materials, Del Monte Foods. I partnered cross-functionally across global agency to develop positioning strategy and creative assets for integrated B2B and B2C marketing campaigns. I launched Microsoft’s first, global brand identity campaign in 10+ international markets. Named Interbrand’s #2 Most Valuable Global Brand in 2001 & 2002. This campaign established Microsoft in the server software category, increasing purchase consideration 42%.

Developed campaigns for entrepreneurial and eCommerce start-up companies, including The Fairmont Hotels, BriteSmile, RocketCash.com, DOVEBID.com