‍Problem:

Messaging was previously limited to study-specific communication, forcing researchers to create fake studies or send individual messages outside of study contexts to reach participants. This made it difficult to engage participants, maintain panel health, ensure compliance, and update them on past study outcomes over time.

Role:

I led the end-to-end research and design of Bulk Email, a long-requested feature that enabled research teams to communicate with participants beyond individual studies. Through iterative research, design, and testing, I ensured the solution met usability, security, and compliance needs while aligning with broader platform goals.

Impact on the Future:

Beyond solving immediate communication challenges with a lightweight MVP email composer, this project provided a way to test backend ideas for decoupling participants from studies. These learnings helped inform larger strategic discussions on how to better structure relationships between users, studies, and participants—shaping future improvements to the platform’s architecture.

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I introduced a scalable insights system into a web-based user research platform, helping admins access key metrics like emails sent, incentives paid, studies conducted, and user engagement. This work began as small, strategic enhancements and evolved into a full metrics dashboard initiative.

The Problem:

USAA’s aggressive MFA rollout led to low adoption, fragmented authentication experiences, and a surge in support calls, exposing critical security and usability gaps across five channels. Without a unified security strategy, authentication processes remained inconsistent, inefficient, and frustrating for both users and internal teams.

Role:

I co-led an investigative effort alongside a seasoned experience architect, working with business partners, engineers, stakeholders, and customer support teams. Allowing me to:

• 1:1 interviews & call center ride-alongs to understand real user pain points.
• Experience audits across five authentication channels (mobile app, web, interactive voice response, call centers, and third-party IoT).
  • Map authentication experiences across all channels.
  • Uncover security & usability pain points affecting adoption.‍
• Design thinking & empathy-building workshops to align teams on user needs.‍
• Ideation sessions to explore and prototype scalable authentication improvements.
• Align cross-functional teams on a scalable authentication strategy.

This resulted in a comprehensive security blueprint that mapped authentication experiences, highlighted inefficiencies, and aligned teams on a scalable security vision.

Impact (The Outcome & Future Implications)

The blueprint became a strategic tool that:

• Created alignment across security, UX, engineering, and business teams.
• Guided future security initiatives, including the "Authenticator of Choice" vision.
• Drove forward progress, ensuring authentication improvements were user-centered rather than purely compliance-driven.‍
• Allowed for efforts that streamlined authentication processes to improve security and usability some leading to reduced call center authentication times, saving millions in operational costs.
• Strengthened cross-functional collaboration, proving that design plays a pivotal role in security strategy.

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Problem

USAA faced rising account takeovers and fraud, making multi-factor authentication (MFA) a critical security measure to protect member accounts. However, the existing authentication system was fragmented and difficult to use, leading to low MFA adoption, security gaps, and increased call center burden.

Following our Security Blueprinting Initiative, which mapped authentication challenges across multiple channels, we prioritized redesigning the web login experience as the first step toward a more secure, scalable, and user-friendly authentication framework.‍

Role

As lead designer for the Identity and Access Management team, I worked closely with security, IT, and stakeholders to design a modernized, user-friendly authentication experience that:

• Simplified the login process while maintaining security across all digital portals.
• Increased adoption of secure authentication methods.
• Reduced call center authentication time, saving millions in time and operational costs.
• Established foundational authentication patterns that influenced future security initiatives across USAA.

Impact:

This effort laid the foundation for a scalable, accessible authentication framework across USAA’s platforms. Beyond the immediate security and usability improvements, it strengthened cross-functional collaboration between security and UX, proving that design plays a critical role in business and security strategy.🚀

Multi-Factor (MFA) Experience

Original screens:

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New screens: