The BackStory

The initial ask was to surface system generated restrictions that may have been placed on a customer’s account due to regulatory or security reasons. While digging into data from all channels (web visits, phone support, feedback tab etc…) to understand restriction related touch points, we noticed a sharp increase in call volumes right after the Equifax breaches in September 2017.

Listening in on call recordings, we uncovered a pattern that prompted us to take a pause. Customers were calling in to request “restrictions” be placed on their accounts. These were “customer requested” restrictions and each time these customers were required to do a transaction, they simply called in, “temporarily turned off” the restriction, completed the transaction and then immediately after, call back to turn restriction “on” again.

While, at first we set out to provide customers a view of restrictions on their accounts, the above customer behavior surfaced an even greater need that warranted our attention. The challenge now was to emulate, in the digital channel, an easy and customer-directed way of setting up and managing account protection. This project is an epic in our backlog and is ongoing.

My Role

I wear multiple hats doing everything from gathering insights, wire-framing, testing with end customers, creative QA and finally, building out a backlog of design stories. I actively collaborate with the product owner and analyst to shape product direction. And work closely with a front-end developer to ensure that we’re moving fast without compromising on quality and experience.

the Solution

The pivot turned out to be the first of its kind self-serve security product created at Fidelity. In order to stay agile and get to market quicker, we limited it’s scope to blocking any money transfers out of customer accounts.

I worked closely with the Fraud & Risk team to arrive at a flow keeping in mind the assuring and supportive experience customers had when they called in to the phone line. Doing periodic usability tests with phone reps and customers helped validate the content and the interaction patterns I was using.

The feature is currently in production and customers can ‘Turn On’ Money Transfer Lockdown in three easy steps via the Security Center (an all-in-one section on Fidelity.com for security settings).

This past year, we have kept our ears to the ground and based on feedback from customers and funnel metrics, we’ve made incremental additions and changes to the flow. This includes the addition of a landing page that explains in detail the limitations of lockdown, a contextual indicator in a transaction to show an active lockdown, and additional authentication steps. We just completed a design sprint last week to ideate on other potential ways in which this product can extended.