Mark Phelps Email & Phone Number

Stratham, Nh, Us

New York, New York, Us

Engaged to provide vision and design leadership to rapidly-scaling capital management firm with a reputation staked on a peerless client experience. Charged from day-one with the integration of multiple high-priority, short-turnaround business, product, design and development workstreams. Introduced iterative design principles and a range of lean UX and Agile process improvements to manage conflicting direction, duplicate efforts and project swirl which led to fewer missed deadlines and cost overruns, ultimately mitigating the deployment of late, poor and inconsistent user experiences.Implemented the firm’s first daily Business/Product/Design team kanban and stand-up routine to manage requirements intake, design story advancement and design delivery alongside a comprehensive stakeholder-focused review routine to vet UI in a QA environment pre-release. Led the implementation and curation of a design system, component library and live prototype portfolio to provide partners access to current and upcoming designs, specs and component code. Served as de facto content strategist, vetting and finalizing all online client direction, copy and labeling.Served a transformational leadership role during the transition from a legacy UI to the new client-facing site that has since won industry awards for CX excellence. Led in the creation and deployment of lightweight UI across apps, dashboards and platforms for clients as well as operations and advisory teams. Accomplished in a collaborative but fast-paced, dev-driven environment, resulting in rapid improvements to methodology, design quality and ultimately iterative, impactful and well-received enhancements to internal and client user experiences.

New York, Ny, Us

Established, implemented, and led the Digital Products and Experience UX program for a mission-critical digitization of the global product placement platform as part of an Operational Excellence strategy. Recruited midway through a 3-year digital transformation initiative to institute a dynamic UX COE, apply accountability and rigor to the discovery-to-release system, and implement a data-driven strategy to immediately impact user acceptance and experience. • Produced a Strategic UX Plan through frank analysis of the state of the platform from user feedback, a comprehensive audit of design issues, and interviews with key stakeholders and leadership. Presented a plan with incremental steps to improve acceptance, mitigate development re-work/costs and reduce release delays.• Formed a highly skilled UX Practice; expediently recruited, hired and ramped-up a team of design, research and UX operations staff to immediately begin to provide more effective working partnerships and improved user experience.• Quickly established UX as a critical contributor in Agile Program increment planning with the influence to impact process, work streams, and scheduling in order to deliver timely and needed user-focused outcomes.• Planned and began building a comprehensive, UX-curated Global Design System that would serve as the program’s sole ‘Source of Truth’.• Implemented an all-stakeholder global design review system, timed with design story delivery so that all in-flight UI would be reviewed/approved across regions and teams.• Greatly improved sprint-based operational capacity that allowed the UX team to discover, define, iterate, report-out on and deliver a much larger volume of business-approved design and CSS styling stories into production each PI.• Established a rigorous UX Research & Usability Lab practice allowing the early implementation of live prototype testing programs providing actionable user insights and reducing dependence upon second-hand proxy feedback

New York, Ny, Us

A decade of responsive digital design project direction for multiple, concurrent Agile/SAFe Release Train teams for critical, enterprise-impacting programs and initiatives. Leadership, strategy and UX/UI direction for large, matrixed design, content, accessibility, and usability teams, integrating closely with business and tech as part of a CX center of excellence. • Directed CX leadership advance team planning for the incorporation of digital initiatives with the acquisition of EverBank (now TIAA Bank); creating customer personas, journey maps and integration plans presented to the board. • Credited with turning around the design plan and management of the firm’s multi-million-dollar immediate annuity initiative after being asked with little notice to step in, integrate with the business and tech leadership team, create actionable short-term solutions, and salvage the program from imminent funding withdrawal. • Led research, creative, and content teams for several C- and board-level future-state vision initiatives requiring analytical research and VOC/stakeholder interviews through multiple iteration sprints and executive presentations and demos. Developed high-profile design briefs, proof-of-concept comps through to clickable prototypes.• Directed overhaul design efforts for high-visibility revenue-impacting channels including a new brokerage customer experience, an online enrollment overhaul and large bottom line-impacting transfer money-in/-out programs. • Management and design direction of transformative, parallel, high-profile pension system UI programs for very large institutional clients such as City University of NY, University of Michigan, and NY Department of Financial Services.

Program management and leader or 10-member UX/UI/CX team direction for several of Merrill Lynch’s industry-leading, cross-platform online financial product programs through unsettled transition to Bank of America practices, and priorities.

Us

Independent management consultant providing effective interaction and creative visual design, logo creation, strategic market planning and partnership- and business-development. Marketplace analysis and direction for online promotion and communications. Aggressive web sales growth remedy and affiliate marketing program management, design, branding, PR, and copywriting. Led UI design, market research and persona/journey mapping projects for large international clients including a ‘Big-Three’ consulting firm, national media-placement and banking firms. Engagements also include:• PartnerCentric (Santa Barbara, CA)International business research and in-country UK market-entry relationship and business case development for largest affiliate marketing firm in the US. Executive and investor business plan analysis, research, planning and writing. • AgencyIM and A&O Jewelry (Portsmouth, NH, Boston, MA), Wayfinder AB, (Stockholm), Aztec Learning Innovators and The PR Department (London), The Miller Agency (Shelton, CT), HH Brown/Shoeline.com (Nashua, NH).

Us

Managing consultant for the planning and development of large client digital products for this in-demand boutique web development agency to Fidelity, TIAA, and multiple Fortune 500 firms. Information architecture, customer experience design, product, and project management for a team of web strategists, copywriters, and designers in responsive Agile environment. Independent consultative operation. • On-site collaboration with Fidelity business, product, channel, style guide and dev teams to plan, manage and deliver 7+ large-budget, high-exposure VOC-focused sales and benefits site redesigns and scalable functionality upgrades.

Boston, Ma, Us

Led IxD, design and editorial efforts for Roth 401k Conversion Evaluator and Personal Retirement Annuity Calculator, two complex, high-exposure online marketing tools with urgent deployment deadlines. Integrated closely with business, investment management, solution delivery, legal and development teams to visualize, plan, design self-service calculators that represented state-of-the-art web sales tools for high-wealth investors. • Directed design-to-development for two business-critical $1.5M initiatives that impacted multi-millions in customer assets. Coordinated multiple client teams in the IA, design, and delivery of two vast Fidelity HR sites. • Directed Flex development through multiple, rapid iterations pushing hi-res prototypes to Fidelity executives.Brought in to lead team of 15 IxD, design, editorial and usability experts for complex 450+ page redesign of Fidelity’s massive institutional payroll product. Led interaction design, usability, and dev-delivery operations.• Managed 35-member interdisciplinary team through exhaustive $10M+ BRD-to-SDS project life cycle; from analysis to requirement origination, wireframing, design and style guide, usability testing and technical specifications delivery. Consultant to Executive & Board Business Communications Planning ProgramManaged development of marketing communications content for Fidelity Board and Trustees, strategizing architecture and design. Business/design/development liaison to execs, directing rollout across high-level Fidelity businesses.• Managed high-profile $1M+ executive and trustee documentation and interface reformatting project integral to first fully web-enabled Fidelity Board Meeting with 80 trustee documents converted. Stakeholder interviews, market and internal research, graphics layout, and implementation

First-in-industry online insurance sales initiative concept creation, development and management. Responsible for de-sign, content and development of e-commerce sales channel with first-to-market online quote, bind and CRM systems. Managed traffic generation through pioneering SEO, online advertising and market research programs. Initiated and aggressively grew affiliate partnership programs. • Planned, designed and led complete site overhaul resulting in 2nd place in Gomez National Insurance Site Rank-ings.• Developed web traffic generating relationship and partner programs that grew targeted site visitors by 145% over 12-months (to 60k/mo), and increased affiliate-originated site traffic by nearly 800% (to 35k/mo).• Built and managed website traffic and sales programs that generated more than 20% of the firm’s annual new sales revenues (2002).

Bakersfield, California, Us

Managed rapidly growing regional site’s brand and promotions, traffic generation and sales revenue production. Man-aged divisional strategic development process and served on senior management planning committee.• Initiated and managed print-allied partnership programs that increased site traffic by 577% (to 270+ visitors/mo), site generated revenue by 236% (to $30k+/mo) and ad sales client base by 1,118% (to 130) in my first full year of online program leadership.

Founder of innovative e-commerce consultancy. Researched and wrote 1998 National Marketing Plan for Car & Travel, AAA National’s 1.75 million circulation magazine. Onsite Magellan and Garmin GPS systems sales management for the London International Boat Show.

Stamford, Ct, Us

Product manager for online advertising content and ad client accounts for Time Warner Cable’s new product launch for the cable industry’s first fully interactive digital cable television technology trial. Created in-home printer focused promotions and collateral for users.• Researched, developed and gave ad sales presentations to C-level executives – including Ford, Nissan, Best Buy, Procter & Gamble, SmithKline Beecham, Atlantic and Elektra Records – that represent the world’s first interactive TV ad contracts and placements.

Mba, Marketing, Ebusiness

Ba

D.School, Design Thinking