Northwestern Mutual Learning Platform Vision
July - Dec 2018
Senior UX Designer, New York
After performing field studies and synthesizing existing research, we determined the field, as a whole, struggles with high attrition, low integration, and antiquated tools.
Our task was to deliver a vision to senior product stakeholders of a scalable, single platform for onboarding, learning, and development that aligns with NM’s digital strategy. By mapping out the E2E learning journey for a Financial Advisor, we identified goals and designed a user story with key moments to demonstrate the NM Learning experience..
The vision was presented to Senior Leadership and used to identify features to build out the Product's roadmap.
Research / UX / Journey Mapping
UNDERSTAND
Conducted field research and created a journey map of the Financial Advisor’s career experience
I attended sales schools in Nashville and Sacramento to observe and understand how Sales School prepares new representatives to start work. I used a rainbow spreadsheet to record observations and interviewed the Director of Training and Training Consultant to get their feedback on current process and desired improvements. I used these observations to support researched needs and pain points identified in FX learning and added any new ones.
I synthesized all our research findings and plotted out the career development journey for a Financial Advisor. We then validated it with Product Managers and our Design team.
Developed a strategy to guide design principles and product direction
DEFINE
I understood that a financial advisor’s learning is ongoing throughout their career and would need to support their career growth over time and across their digital workspace.
Identified key moments in the learning journey and sketched numerous solutions
IDEATE
I sketched various options for each screen that corresponded to each moment in the learning journey.
Explored multiple design options
DESIGN
I created wireframes from the sketches and explored multiple designs. I conducted design reviews with Design Directors and Visual Designer, incorporating their feedback and iterating my designs further. Once the wires were finalized, I shared them with Visual Designer to create final designs. I provided feedback on these as well.
Presented the vision to senior stakeholders
VISION
The vision was presented to the Product and Business Leadership teams. It was well received and used to identify features to take into the future product roadmap.
