Merrill Lynch – New Client Onboarding — Morgan Curran Experience Design

Merrill Lynch wanted to deliver an online experience that worked harder for both the business and the prospect/customer. Two rounds of design concepts were presented, but the client felt they took too long, were too brand-oriented, and were not reflective of the in-person ‘Merrill Lynch Experience’. To resolve this disconnect, I proposed a 10-day intensive rapid prototyping engagement to work directly with our client stakeholders – in real time – to reimagine and prototype the new experience. The client embraced the output of this engagement, saying: “That’s our new site – build it”. This approach was later sold to other clients as a stand-alone branded product — “Speed-To-Real”.

The new experience pivoted away from promoting Merrill Lynch features and benefits to focus on the prospect, and their ‘Arrival Mindset’ – mirroring the initial in-person conversation (and next steps) a Financial Advisor might have with a new prospect.

Engagement Approach

The existing digital ecosystem drove prospects through a single messaging entry point “Finances” to one of 4 legacy Merrill Lynch sites that were stand-alone and lacked even basic integration.

The next-generation experience aimed to capture prospects outside of the core Merrill Lynch experience – with distributed life event-oriented content that connected directly to user needs.

The prototype reflects a prospect who’s financial concerns center around healthcare – connecting their ‘Arrival Mindset’ to a fully integrated, high-touch onboarding journey.

Client Engagement

The Digital Experience Strategy

The existing digital ecosystem drove prospects through a single messaging entry point “Finances” to one of 4 legacy Merrill Lynch sites that were stand-alone and lacked even basic integration.

The next-generation experience connected with prospects outside of the core Merrill Lynch experience – with distributed Life Priority-oriented content that connected directly to user needs.

The finished prototype reflected a prospect who’s financial concerns center around healthcare – connecting their ‘Arrival Mindset’ to a fully integrated, high-touch onboarding journey.

The Collaborative Process

The Core Team worked side-by-side in agile mode for 10 days to script, storyboard, design, review, refine and prototype the next-generation Merrill Lynch digital experience. The final output was a far more useful, usable and engaging user experience that improved outcomes for both the business and the user. It surpassed direct competitor offerings in market at the time.

A distributed content strategy put Merrill Lynch content at key digital touch points associated with Life Events popular to the target audience. (In this case, WebMD – a “Health” touch point.)

Final Prototype

Clicking through from each external ‘Life Priority’ touch point (or Google search) brings the user to the ML.com homepage – which is personalized based on their Life Priorities/Arrival Mindset.

Users are guided to deeper engagement around their Life Priorities – and can interactively model their levels of importance relative to one another.

After answering additional online questions about each priority, the user receives their initial “Life Priority Profile” documenting what’s most important to them in a long-term financial advisor relationship – based on preferences they selected.

Users are offered options for selecting the right financial advisor (known name, matching Life Priority expertise, closest proximity and known LinkedIn connections) – helping them select the right advisor to connect with.

Once an Advisor is selected – the prospect’s ML.com homepage experience pivots to reflect the advisor selected.

Armed with the client’s Life Priority Profile – the Advisor sets up a call to discuss specific funding, timelines and risk tolerances for each goal – modeling each one in detail to make it ideal for the client’s needs and comfort levels.

Once the prospect becomes a Merrill Lynch client, ML.com homepage experience pivots again to reflect this, and the appropriate documentation and signatures required to start the relationship and fund the client’s goals are fully managed online

Clients can monitor their goals and their progress against them in real time – in a very interactive and personal experience

Each client then receives a rich personalized content experience based on their Life Priorities – combining both Merrill Lynch and 3rd party content to support them in working towards their goals and with decision-making along the way.