Martin Tiger FinanceMitigating Operational Risk through Seamless Legacy Migration
Discovery & Diagnosis
Service Mapping: Audited the end-to-end journey to identify 'dead time' and information gatekeeping betwen the Branch and Home Office.
Result: Exposed a 5-day operational bottleneck that created high anxiety for clients and high risk for the firm.
Logic Integration
Front-End Empowerment: Surfaced complex backend calculation engines directly into the Branch UI via the design system.
Result: Transformed a 'blind' dependency into real-time transparency, allowing for immediate error resolution.
Workflow Optimization
Friction Removal: Eliminated manual hand-offs, status-tracking alerts, and redundant verification steps for Branches.
Result: 100% reduction in 'back-and-forth' communication, allowing branches to stay focused on high-value client advisory.
Systemic De-Risking
Standardized the calculation process to ensure 100% compliance with tax-sensitive removal deadlines.
5,000 manual processing days saved annually and total elimination of 'human-error' restitution costs.
Financial clients at Martin Tiger must remove excess retirement contributions to avoid tax penalties, but branches were "blind" to the required calculations, creating a 5-day dependency from communicating with Home Office. By surfacing the calculation into the banking center with minimal UI components, we transformed the 5-day delay into a 5-minute resolution, turning a stressful administrative error into a high-confidence client service moment.
Role
Product Designer
Year
2026
Duration
3 months
Team Members
Product owner
Business analyst
UX researcher
Operations team
Deliverables
Low & high fidelity designs
Prototypes
Executive presentations
Final specs
Asset production
Problem StatementSafeguarding Assets: Preventing "Service Blackouts" during System Sunsetting.
“We are NOT fans of waiting for Home Office to review. We have to check regularly for the response with the calculation, then call back the client, then confirm with Home Office how the client wants to continue.”
Martin Tiger faced a significant business risk: the legacy tool used to digitize physical stock certificates was approaching its sunset date. Without a modern replacement, the firm risked losing the ability to process these assets, potentially driving clients to move their portfolios to competitors. I was tasked with integrating this complex physical-to-digital workflow into the modern banking ecosystem to ensure uninterrupted service.
User research & journeyEliminating "Research Debt" and Operational Blind Spots.
“Our current process requires branches to submit through different systems depending on the dollar amount, asset movement type, account type, and program type. These requests have to go through Home Office review, leading to delays, inconsistent branch and client experience, and lack of client visibility into the final dollar amount.”
Research revealed that branch agents were burdened by "research debt," spending hours cross-referencing outdated manuals to avoid high-stakes data entry errors. The manual nature of the legacy process created a "black hole" of status tracking, where certificates were often rejected by the Home Office without clear explanation. My goal was to replace this high-anxiety guesswork with a guided, transparent interface.
The service blueprint for Excess Removals, illustrating the delays caused by back-and-forth conversations between branches and Home Office.
Activities
User interviews
Technical discussions
Branch shadowing
Outputs
Affinity maps
User journeys
Design Strategy & ExecutionTranslating Complex Physical Requirements into Intuitive Digital Guardrails.
Partnering with Operations, I designed a specialized "Transfer Type" that balanced technical constraints with real-world physical processing needs. We introduced automated data validation and contextual help from the Martin Tiger design system, effectively building "guardrails" that prevented common errors at the point of entry rather than days later at the Home Office.
Activities
Feature mapping
Co-design workshops
Outputs
High-fidelity designs
Clickable prototype
The proposed service blueprint for Excess Removals, allowing branches direct access to the calculator and reducing 3-5 days from this process.
Increasing Submission Confidence and Reducing Administrative Friction.
Validation & TestingTesting showed that the new guided flow significantly reduced the need for external research and manual double-checking. By providing real-time status tracking and clearer rejection logic, we empowered branch agents to manage client expectations accurately, allowing them to pivot back to high-value advisory work faster.
“... it’s more streamlined and informational - you get more information immediately than filling out a form. We don’t see the earnings or loss on the excess removal now, so having it all right here and immediately calculated I do think is better.”
Martin Tiger’s banking center’s UI, updated with the instant calculation and the ability to select how the amount will be removed from the retirement account.
Activities
Usability sessions
Affinity mapping
Outputs
Presentation deck
High-fidelity designs
Prototypes
Annotated redlines
Protecting Firm Assets through Modernized Service Continuity.
the impact / statsThis redesign ensured 100% service continuity for a critical asset-intake channel, directly supporting Martin Tiger’s asset retention goals. By digitizing a cumbersome manual process, we reduced hours of branch research per transaction and eliminated unquantifiable operational risk, ensuring that client certificates stay—and grow—within the firm.
“... it’s more streamlined and informational - you get more information immediately than filling out a form. We don’t see the earnings or loss on the excess removal now, so having it all right here and immediately calculated I do think is better.”
Martin Tiger’s banking center’s UI, updated with the instant calculation and the ability to select how the amount will be removed from the retirement account.
Activities
Usability sessions
Affinity mapping
Outputs
Presentation deck
High-fidelity designs
Prototypes
Annotated redlines