The Framing Inherited
- Growth means acquiring or reselling.
- Customers don’t come back.
- Success is a transaction — a match, a conversion, a monetized action.
Strategy & Systems · Product Vision
Bringing services together for a smoother customer journey.
A product strategy that connected existing services and gave customers a clearer path forward.
I mapped the full service ecosystem, reframed the original retention problem, and created a vision for a more connected customer experience.
The Context
A rich ecosystem, hidden in plain sight.
WealthGuide already offered products, education, tools, and professional support. But customers encountered them as separate services and not as one connected experience.
The problem wasn’t a lack of value. It was a lack of visible pathways for the customers.
- Most products were used independently.
- Customer entry points were spread across channels.
- Related services were hard for customers to discover.
- The larger journey was difficult for customers to see.
The Deeper Problem
The problem wasn’t retention.
The problem was presented to me as a retention issue. Fewer than one in five customers returned for a second service. Before designing anything, I asked whether retention was the real problem or just a symptom.
The Framing Proposed
- What can I learn from customers who return?
- Are customers thinking about products or about life goals?
- Do they know when another service is relevant?
- What would make returning worthwhile?
The shift: From more transactions → to better customer outcomes.
Seeing the System
So I mapped out the whole thing.
Key Observation
The ecosystem was rich in offerings but did not show visible customer pathways.
Customers remained within the areas they only knew about but missed the opportunities for other relevant products and services.
I mapped every product, business unit, customer entry point, and how customers moved. I also mapped out how the business wanted them to move.
While customers could enter the ecosystem through many different channels, there was limited or no guidance to help them discover other services that might help them further.
Customers enter through media such as podcasts and videos, the online store, classes and referrals, Google searches and landing pages, the budget app, training events, or their workplace. The ecosystem includes financial education, professional services such as money, protection, tax, and real estate, community and support, and business offerings. Dotted gray lines show the paths customers took. Solid magenta lines show proposed connections to help customers discover and engage with other relevant services rather than remain within the area they already know.
Design Response
Create clearer customer journey guidance instead of new products.
The exploration revealed several opportunities across the ecosystem. I chose to focus on improving customer journey guidance and helping customers discover relevant services as their needs evolved. The goal was not to create more products but to reveal clearer pathways between existing products and services.
Make related services easier for people to discover.
Connect education with a suggested next step action.
Introduce services when they are most relevant to customers.
Support customers across the whole journey.
Research Planner
Then I turned the unanswered questions into a research plan.
I prepared an interview guide to carry the exploration into real conversations — focused on how customers discover services, decide, and re-engage over time.
- Financial goals
- Service discovery
- Provider experience
- Life changes & milestones
- Future needs
- Decision-making
Future-State Vision
One experience built around customers’ changing needs.
Instead of asking customers to choose a product, the experience starts with what they need. It then brings together the right guidance, tools, and professional support to help them take the next step.
Proposed Customer Journey
- 01 DiscoverChoose a goal and explore the options.
- 02 LearnGet guidance that fits their needs.
- 03 ConnectFind a trusted professional.
- 04 ActTake the next step with confidence.
- 05 GrowReturn when new needs come up.
Future-state concept. Goal-based planning, education, personalized recommendations, and professional services connected in one continuous experience.
Evidence
What actually changed.
The scope of this project was an exploration. The work concluded at the vision and research planning stage.
- 01Revealed how products and services connected across the ecosystem
- 02Identified gaps in the whole customer journey.
- 03Revealed opportunities between different service areas
- 04Shifted the focus from individual interactions to the broader customer journey
- 05The map gave teams a shared reference for future product discussions.
Insight
Organizations may manage products, services and business units separately. Customers experience all of them as one company.
Sometimes the greatest opportunity isn’t building something new. It’s helping people navigate what already exists. And that starts with understanding the system before designing any one part.
Start a Conversation
You don’t need to have it all figured out before we talk.
Tell me how I can helpTell me what you’re working on, what feels unclear, and where you hope to go. We can begin by making sense of it together.