Why This Work Mattered

TIAA brought me in to rethink the entire cradle-to-grave retirement journey. The goal was to figure out where and how TIAA could keep people (and their assets) inside the ecosystem, whether through proactive nudges or smarter support when things go sideways.

The big business targets were clear: increase net contributions by 15% and cut retiree attrition by over 30%. I was also tasked with giving leadership a clear, actionable roadmap that stretched three to five years into the future.

My role

Mapped participant behavior and key decision points
I dove into the research to find patterns, especially the “critical money moments” where people tend to leave or stay. Those became the pivot points for design.
Ran cross-functional workshops that actually moved the needle
Led “Retirement Studio” sprints with product, call center, compliance, and strategy teams. We co-created future-state journeys and explored how AI could support users without creating policy headaches.
Scoped the full Service Design effort from scratch
Built a phased plan that included discovery, co-creation, prototyping, and roadmap development. It spanned everything from big-picture ecosystem strategy to UX-level flows.
Designed high-fidelity service maps and prototypes
Created stakeholder maps, lifecycle journeys, and a detailed blueprint for an AI-powered “Digital Advisor” that could support participants across stages.
Brought financial services expertise to the table
Quantified projected revenue lift, tied each concept to NPV, and used an Impact vs Effort matrix to prioritize what should ship first.
Delivered a clear story to senior leadership
Presented the final strategy to the EVP of Wealth. Included a staged rollout and KPI framework spanning FY25 through FY27.

Inside the Process

1. Deep Insight Work

Found the emotional and life-stage triggers that tend to cause people to leave
Turned those findings into a set of guiding principles that all the retirement squads used

2. Co-Design & Facilitation

Ran Miro sessions to cluster pain points and surface guardrails
Used lightning-decision jams to quickly generate new service concepts

3. Mapping & Prototyping

Journey Map: Eight core life stages, 60+ sub-scenarios
Service Blueprint: Front stage, back stage, tech, and policy layers
Prototype: Built out key flows for the “Digital Advisor”
Ecosystem Map: Visualized how advisors, sponsors, and payroll systems connect and where the leverage was

Tools & Methods

Figma, Miro, Adobe CC, Illustrator
Jobs-to-Be-Done, Service Blueprinting, Systems Thinking, Story Mapping, AI Design

Outcomes

15% projected increase in net contributions
Over 30% anticipated reduction in participant departures
A shared strategic foundation built with personas, maps, and measurable KPIs

Storymap Tool: Marisol’s Journey

To ground our strategy in real human experience, I created a narrative-driven tool we called the Storymap. It followed "Marisol" through key life stages, from her first job to family milestones, caregiving, and health events. Each was mapped alongside financial behaviors and emotional peaks and valleys.

Below the line, we plotted where TIAA could proactively support her with timely nudges, resources, or human outreach, and where we’d need to react quickly during high-stakes transitions.

This tool helped unify all stakeholders around one core question: how do we show up for people when it really matters? It became a north star for product, policy, and design teams and helped translate abstract strategy into emotionally resonant, actionable moments.

Ecosystem Mapping + Insight Framing

This tool helped us map out all the people, platforms, and institutions surrounding our core user. We visualized how these actors show up across different moments in the journey, from HR reps and call centers to third-party advisors and employer sponsors.

On the right, we framed the most important takeaways: What patterns are emerging? Where are the friction points? What surprised us? And where might we have the most leverage?

This simple layout gave the team a shared understanding of the broader system, and made it easier to spot strategic blind spots, duplication, and disconnects. It helped us move quickly from fuzzy research to sharper insight.

Horizon Mapping Framework

This tool helped us move from scattered signals and trends to a clear, long-view strategy. On the left, we collected weak signals and drivers, things like policy changes, tech shifts, and behavioral patterns that could reshape the future. In the middle, we built out scenarios across three, five, and ten years to explore what might be plausible, probable, or possible.

Then we got tactical. On the right, we worked backward from the futures we wanted to reach (or avoid), outlining practical steps to bring them closer or head them off.

It gave our team and stakeholders a structured way to think ahead without falling into vague predictions. More than that, it brought alignment. We weren’t just reacting to what was happening, but we started to shape what could add value in the future.

Project Summary

This project set out to do more than patch up isolated pain points. It asked how a legacy financial services brand like TIAA could fundamentally reimagine the retirement journey for today’s participants and those coming next.

What made it different was the commitment to going deep. We didn’t stop at surface-level user needs or generic touchpoints. Instead, we explored the emotional and behavioral drivers that shape long-term financial decisions. These are often made under stress, during moments of uncertainty, or at key transitions in life.

Working across strategy, product, policy, call centers, compliance, and design, we built shared clarity around the moments that matter most. These are the points where people stay, leave, or quietly need support but don’t ask for it. From those insights, we designed future-facing journeys, storymaps, ecosystem visuals, prototypes, and experience maps. All of it helped teams see around corners and act with greater confidence.

What began as a service design sprint grew into a strategic foundation. It became something the organization could actually build on, iterate from, and use to align stakeholders across months and years. The work helped shift TIAA from reacting to attrition toward actively earning long-term trust, with measurable results expected in both engagement and contribution growth.

This wasn’t just a design project. It was a way to reconnect business strategy with human impact and give teams the tools to move forward together.

Designing the future of retirement