Seamless Paperless Enrollment
Guiding a UX team to excellent results
Title
Senior UX Design Lead
Time frame
June 2022 - Feb 2023
Summary
I led a 3 person UX team through the redesign of the website's paperless enrollment process by creating UX field maps, hosting UX team meetings, and aligning UX specialities. The team consisted of a UX researcher and UX content strategist and myself. The collective team effort resulted in SUS score of 96% and a NPS of 9.5/10.
Results
The redesigned paperless enrollment process delivered exceptional results:
96% System Usability Score (SUS): Far exceeding the industry average, indicating an exceptionally user-friendly experience.
9.5/10 Net Promoter Score (NPS): Demonstrating high customer satisfaction and likelihood to recommend.
Reduced Customer Service Inquiries: The intuitive design significantly decreased support requests related to enrollment.
Improved Completion Rates: More users successfully completed the paperless enrollment process without abandonment.
Leadership Impact
As Senior UX Design Lead, I orchestrated a collaborative effort that brought together diverse UX specializations to achieve outstanding results.
Led and coached a cross-functional UX pod (UX Research, UX Content Strategy, and Design) delivering complex enterprise servicing experiences.
Established shared workflows and operating rhythms that improved alignment, prioritization, and delivery predictability.
Introduced experience mapping and field maps to surface systemic friction and guide strategic design decisions.
Aligned specialized UX disciplines around a unified experience vision, ensuring each role's expertise was leveraged at the right stage.
Embedded a research-driven design approach balancing user needs, accessibility, and business objectives.
Challenge
The existing paperless enrollment process at Charles Schwab presented several critical challenges:
Complex User Journey: The enrollment process was confusing and difficult to navigate for users.
High Abandonment Rates: Many users started but did not complete the enrollment process.
Increased Support Volume: Customer service received numerous inquiries about the enrollment process.
Lack of Team Alignment: Different UX specialties needed to work cohesively toward a unified solution.
Strategy
My approach focused on collaborative leadership and strategic alignment:
Team Alignment
Established clear roles and responsibilities for each UX specialist, ensuring everyone's expertise contributed to the solution.
UX Field Mapping
Created comprehensive field maps to visualize the entire user journey and identify pain points.
Research-Driven Design
Leveraged user research to inform design decisions and validate solutions throughout the process.
Iterative Collaboration
Held regular UX team meetings to review progress, share insights, and refine the design iteratively.
Content Strategy Integration
Worked closely with the UX content strategist to ensure messaging was clear, concise, and supportive of user goals.
Process
Our collaborative process ensured every decision was informed, intentional, and user-centered:
1. Discovery & Research
Conducted user research to understand pain points in the existing enrollment process
Analyzed customer service data to identify common issues and questions
Created user personas and journey maps to guide design decisions
2. Field Mapping & Planning
Developed comprehensive UX field maps to visualize the enrollment flow
Identified key friction points and opportunities for improvement
Aligned team on priorities and defined success metrics
3. Design & Prototyping
Created wireframes and prototypes based on research insights
Collaborated with content strategist to refine messaging and copy
Conducted internal reviews and iterations
4. Testing & Validation
Conducted usability testing with representative users
Measured SUS and NPS scores to validate improvements
Refined design based on testing feedback
5. Implementation & Launch
Collaborated with development team to ensure design fidelity
Monitored launch metrics and user feedback
Documented learnings and best practices for future projects
Learnings
This project reinforced several key principles about effective UX leadership:
Collaboration amplifies expertise
By bringing together specialists in research, content, and design, we achieved results none of us could have accomplished alone.
Field mapping creates shared understanding
Visual representations of the user journey helped align the team and identify opportunities that might have been missed otherwise.
Regular check-ins maintain momentum
Consistent UX team meetings kept everyone aligned, addressed blockers quickly, and maintained project velocity.
Metrics validate success
The exceptional SUS and NPS scores provided concrete evidence of the redesign's impact, justifying the investment in UX.
User-centered design reduces support burden
When experiences are intuitive, users don't need help—which benefits both customers and the organization.
Want to learn more about this project?
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