Current Project: PM @ Apple, Working on Mobile Apps
Reimagining the Wells Fargo Mobile® banking app
Part of a great team who came together to revitalize the banking app.
The new app is live! If you’re a Wells Fargo customer, download it here today:
Project vision
To provide simpler, and quicker value to customers using the mobile app.
Priorities
The app needs to work fast and be easy to use.
Customers only want a few key features and they want them to work well.
Optimize for speed
Identify the value - make sure the user will find it with no intermediate steps (no hidden value).
Can someone find the value of the product on the first use?
Reduce number of steps
Is it easy to return to that value in the future? Easy navigation - don't hide the value.
Most consumers usually want the same basic features, key features need to be easily found in navigation paths.
Hub of communication
I loved being a part of this project acting as a hub of communication between diverse groups to keep the project moving forward, even when we were not able to be in the office together.
Pay By Touch - Building a startup launch team
My story: Pay By Touch (PBT), a SF based start-up that aimed to revolutionize the way the world pays. My role was customer facing. As the Account Manager for our largest client, SuperValu (a grocery leader), I spent years on the road at Albertson's stores in Portland, Cub Foods in Minneapolis, and Jewel-Osco in Chicago.
My team and I spent our time in the stores talking to all types of customers: ranging from grocery shoppers, store workers, our corporate sponsors, new potential clients, to hedge fund and individual investors. We heard everything from "is PBT the Mark of the Beast?" to "What happens if they cut off my finger." To the first: no. To the second: go to the hospital. Incidentally, the sensors were heat and pulse sensitive and wouldn't work if your finger dropped below a certain temperature or loses its pulse, something we learned the hard way in the frigid Chicago winters.
We lived in corporate apartments, drove rental cars, bought lots of candy and junk food with our fingers at the stores, got to know the community, and wore an attractive array of corporate swag. My closet was filled with PBT gear. I bought and wore hideous neon green pants and tank tops. They were such stables of my wardrobe, I didn't even think to expense them.
Startups making headlines…
That’s me in the Chicago newspaper during my time at PayByTouch, March 22, 2006
Action oriented…
At Pay By Touch we were scrappy and self-sufficient.
I work with an open mind, a deep sense of curiosity and constant desire to learn.
Customer focus…
I’m always thinking about the audience.
I love talking to customers.
I enjoy seeing patterns, and understanding the context of things.
At Pay By Touch, we enjoyed hanging out in the grocery stores to talk to customers!
Reflecting on lessons learned
I wrote about our startup adventure at Pay By Touch in this article at Forbes magazine.
FabExchange - Marketplaces, negotiation, team incentives
Online marketplace
I was part of the founding team of a niche online marketplace that specialized in arbitrage of highly specialized semi-conductor fabrication equipment.
We managed end-to-end sales transaction cycles including overseeing physical removal, relocation and installation.
I train sales teams
I’ve always been really excited to mentor and coach people.
I created formal and informal new employee training programs where employees get mentorship and training.
I loved coaching my teams about sales, negotiation and communication.
I frequently published excerpts from the training materials I created.
Team incentives
Work hard, play hard.
Startups are long hours but can also be fun when you like the people you’re working with.
