TD Bank

Over my multiple internship terms at TD Bank, I played a pivotal role in enhancing everyday banking experiences for our key customer segments including youth, students, postgrads, and newcomers to Canada. My key tasks involved generative research, ux design and strategy. I collaborated closely with UX strategists, designers, researchers, POs, and executives to create user-centered solutions that simplify and add value to customer’s day-to-day banking.

I was extremely lucky to join such collaborative team at the start of a major project, gaining experience with the HCD approach throughout its lifecycle. Additionally, I participated in the TD Innovation Challenge for interns from all lines of business, where my team won the final prize among 15 competing teams, demonstrating my commitment to innovation and collaboration.

In each of the three major projects I worked on at TD, my tasks spanned multiple disciplines within the UX spectrum. As shown in the visual, my responsibility covered areas like user research, service design, and experience design.

Project 1

Reimagining the buying experience for banking products.

Goal

With a goal to differentiate TD from other banks, transform customer perception towards bank of being transactional by delivering value with tailored advice and personalized experience.

Conceptualize and identify features for the new cross-channel shopping experience that customers can continue their search overtime, making the experience seamless, easy, and educational for both new and existing customers.

Approach

Using evidence-based HCD approach to conceptualize the new experience, I ensured that my deliverables were deeply informed by customer insights, leading to design solutions that resonated with our target audience and aligned with the project objective. With the knowledge and goal in mind, I collaborated with researchers, designers, product owners, and executives to inform each step of the process and stayed aligned.

By supporting workshops, performing competitive analysis, creating user archetype, journey map, and providing design strategies, I ensured that our team’s work aligned with both customer needs and business objectives.

Process

Scanning market trend through competitive analysis

To see what’s current, I conducted competitive analysis from websites like Amazon, Tik Tok Live, Ikea, Hyundai, etc.
Delivered analysis to the team on the findings and patterns around how different companies are increasing sales while delivering seamless shopping experience to customers.
Common findings were around: personalization, product recommendation, bundling options, and trusted reviews.

Aligning on goals in executive workshop

Utilizing the key trends identified from competitive analysis, I created a poster that summarized these findings for the executives to draw inspirations from during the workshop.
The goal of the workshop was to align on and prioritize the long-term vision, user segments and priority audiences for the new shopping experience.
Setting the foundational direction for the scope of the discovery work by synchronizing the long-term vision, prioritizing key audiences and establishing the criteria for success.

Empathizing and setting project direction

After aligning with the executives on the key themes and target segments, I created evidence-based user archetype grounded on the previous research done for each of student, postgrad, and newcomers to Canada.
When crafting the journey map for each target segment, I focused on the points of engagement, pain points and opportunities based on their goal for each stage of the journey.
I went through 8+ iterations and editing during this stage to capture critical points based on feedback from our lead and principle strategists.
Based on the highlights/key points identified on user archetype and journey map, I used “How Might We” statement approach to create the final problem statement. This statement was then used during the solution ideation workshop.
I recognized the critical role of embedding key customer insights within the problem statement, as it guides the team to address the right challenges.

Solution ideating and design recommendation

Although during the ideation workshop and design recommendation phase, my first internship term with TD ended, our team continued on to pull out potential solutions based on the ‘HMW’ problem statement and delivered design recommendations to create concept design prototypes.

Research planning based on design assumptions

I was actively supporting with prototyping and design editing in preparation for the data collection on our initial design/experience.
Based on the design and contents of the prototype, I crafted design assumptions on the key areas that we wanted our UX researcher to probe on during research.
I collaborated with UX strategist and UX researcher during this stage to generate questions to find out what contents are valuable to users and how they feel about it. Our team made sure that this wasn’t a usability testing so finding out about what’s useful and informative to users was the key objective.
Data collection sprint spanned across four weeks with different user segments and my role was mainly to observe the research sessions and provide any feedback/observations, as well as supporting technical issues regarding the prototype.

Key Learnings

Not all projects follow a linear path: It is important to ask questions to stay aligned throughout the project, as well as remaining flexible and open to change depending on project priorities.
UX researcher, designer, and strategist collaboration: I learned firsthand how essential collaboration is within a cross-functional team, where researchers, designers, and strategists continually informed each other’s work. This synergy allowed us to deliver customer-centric solutions that addresses both their current and evolving needs, while also aligning with the bank’s long-term goals.

Project 2

Innovation Challenge:
TD’s future in-branch experience

Challenge Statement

As TD continues to enhance its digital capabilities for customers, what does the future brick and morter branch look like? What services and benefits could it offer to customers who will soon be able to do all banking from their phone?

Proposed Solution

Introducing TD Financial Clinic, reshaping the future of in-branch banking by prioritizing financial equity, particularly for seniors and undeserved populations. It provides regular financial check-ups and workshops to enhance clients’ financial well-being. Additionally, branches will feature AI-powered kiosks that streamline everyday banking tasks, including a queuing system designed to improve the overall in-branch experience.

Approach

When considering TD customers’ in-branch experience, I first focused on identifying the primary users. I led the team in pinpointing our target customers, and we quickly recognized that senior clients and newcomers to Canada would benefit most from in-person interactions. By conducting research and drawing inspirations from TD’s tech and market trend report, we developed a solution tailored to our target customers, with the goal of transforming TD into not just a better bank, but a hub for personalized financial advice and education.

My Role

Led group discussions and brainstorming sessions during weekly team meetings.
Created visuals and prototypes for our proposed solution.
Developed storytelling and a framework to effectively present our idea to the judges.

Key Takeaways

Collaboration: Working with interns from various LOBs was key to our winning solution, as the diverse expertise and knowledge of our team members broadened my perspective on problem-solving and highlighted the importance of cross-collaboration.
Importance of knowing the market and trend: Designing future experiences requires a deep understanding of current market trends and recognizing patterns beyond the industry in question. I learned that innovative solutions often emerge from knowing our target audience, understanding their needs, and the potential of future technologies.

Project 3

Student & Postgrad
Steering Committee

Purpose

To learn about people’s experiences with finances, their behaviors, relationships with banks and main pain points so that we can understand the user group and gather early feedback on concepts and strategies to consider in the future.

Approach

During the monthly 2-hour user-centered conversation with 10-12 participants we ask 3-5 questions relevant to the month’s topic (rewards, lifestyle, goal, etc). My role was to observe and take notes during each session and perform generative research for stakeholder share-out.

Final Deliverable

Delivered 60+ research findings slide on students and postgrads through generative research.
Presented and shared key research findings on postgrads to stakeholders after each session.
Informed various teams with the research and knowledge we had on students and postgrads for different projects.

Key Takeaways

Organization and prioritization of data: Strategically arranging prioritized insights to maximize delivery impact and clearly communicate the key findings.
Storytelling & presentation: Crafting clear, concise narratives to simplify complex information through storytelling to a broader audience.
Stakeholder engagement: Demonstrating how data-driven presentations can influence business decisions.