Role
- Accountable for both cross-functional IT coordination and secure site and retirement planning tool updates to deliver critical Target Date Fund functionality. My collaboration with financial planners, product, IT, and third-party vendors ensured a successful implementation.
- Cross-functional Coordination: I was the key contributor to the core team that bridged the gap between IT and other departments involved in the project. This involved ensuring clear organizational communication, determining timing, leading work to streamline workflows across different teams, building the backlog of features, and owning the timely delivery of website functionality.
- Retirement Planning Tool (RPT) Expertise: I was responsible for directing the team to deliver the complex changes necessary to integrate TDFs into the planning tool. This involved the development, backlog management, and implementation of new functionalities within the RPT to handle TDFs.
- Collaboration Champion: Actively collaborated with various stakeholders, including financial planners, marketing, product teams, IT, and the RPT vendor, to deliver complex fund updates. This involved gathering requirements, facilitating discussions, writing backlog stories, prioritizing, and ensuring everyone was aligned on the changes.
User-Centered Design
- Fund Naming: We conducted user research to develop clear and concise names for the TDFs, ensuring participants easily understood their investment horizon.
- Sunset & Launch: The project involved a complex process of sunsetting old funds while seamlessly launching the new TDFs. We ensured a smooth user experience throughout the transition.
- Fidelity Updates: We partnered with Fidelity, the plan administrator, to update their systems and participant information.
- Content & Tools: Timely content updates were crucial. We revamped the retirement planning tool, considering the new TDF structure.
- The household model was adjusted to account for the different asset allocations of TDFs compared to select funds.
- Educational resources were added to explain TDFs and their benefits.
- We built a mechanism for members to opt out of the TDFs and choose individual funds if desired. This added complexity, as the tool would require spouse age to utilize Portico TDF asset allocation for non-member spouse recommendations.