Context

A major wealth management firm and its banking partner sought to align on a shared money movement strategy — a foundational initiative defining how clients move funds and perceive the partnership’s value.

Challenge

Despite shared objectives, senior stakeholders were misaligned:

• Leaders differed on whether transaction speed or advisor trust defined success.
• Financial advisors — the most influential adoption group — lacked clarity on how to position the partnership to clients.
• No unified framework connected business priorities, user needs, and brand trust.

Approach

I led the design strategy and facilitation effort:

• Conducted structured executive interviews to identify misalignment and language gaps.
• Designed and emceed a virtual alignment workshop using live scoring of proposed user journeys.
• Introduced experience prototypes illustrating tradeoffs among speed, cost, and trust.
• Facilitated breakouts and synthesis sessions to establish shared principles and direction.

Impact

The group reached consensus on a new value narrative:

“It’s not just about instant transfers — it’s about trusted, holistic experiences that strengthen advisor-client relationships.”

This reframing shifted investment focus from operational efficiency to strategic partnership, producing a clear roadmap for experience design.

The financial impact was significant. By aligning around a shared definition of value, stakeholders avoided the need for a costly, custom treasury system to balance accounts across institutions. Instead, they agreed to launch using existing payment rails — supported by robust training and guidance for financial advisors and bankers to help clients navigate the process confidently. Post-launch, the plan includes integrating real-time payment technology to further enhance the experience.

Relevance to Today

A clear example of systems design leadership — using design discovery to reconcile business goals, regulatory constraints, and user psychology into a shared enterprise vision.