Natural Capital Exchange
NCX Segmented Onboarding
As Experience Design Director, I guided the multi-year redesign of Schwab’s Retirement digital ecosystem (web + native app), spanning onboarding, rollover, client dashboards, plan sponsor software, and advisor tools.
Scope of work
Product Design
UX Research
Strategy
Conversion increased 1.11% → 4.07%
New flows increased conversion by an additional 4%
2x increase in discovery calls, with faster activation following initial contact
Market Clarity transformed confusion into trust and adoption
Role
Principal Product Designer
Date
May 2024 - October 2024
Team
104+ Team members
Product Owner, Director of Growth, Director of Forestry, CEO, Partnerships strategist, FS Engineer, Data Scientist
Problem
NCX’s platform introduced a novel, complex offering—unlocking income and conservation opportunities for landowners through data-driven forestry programs. But the value proposition was difficult to grasp. Potential clients often dismissed NCX as irrelevant to their needs, slowing growth and limiting adoption. To achieve its growth goals, NCX needed to: -> Clearly articulate its unique value to diverse landowner segments. -> Simplify onboarding and reduce decision fatigue. -> Create new offerings that delivered both immediate income and long-term stewardship value.
The Approach
I led a multi-pronged strategy to reframe NCX’s offering through segmentation, onboarding, and in-product experiences. Segment-Specific Funnels: Created hyper-targeted experiences that mapped directly to landowner motivations: -> Timber Income Landowners – income generation and financial predictability. -> Conservation-Minded Landowners – stewardship and long-term sustainability. -> Income Optimizers – balancing profit, tax efficiency, and land costs. Simplified & Trusted Narrative -> Replaced jargon with plain language, framing NCX as a solution to their specific anxieties and goals. ->Designed a guided onboarding journey to reduce overwhelm, offering actionable steps and contextual help. Feature Development: Launched three new product offerings aligned to client priorities: -> Stackable Income Programs – layering multiple revenue streams. -> Disaster Mitigation Solutions – leveraging geospatial mapping to model Southern Pine Beetle risk and forest resilience. -> Cashflow Optimization – visualizing income vs. costs over time to support tax and financial planning.
Conversion increased 1.11% → 4.07%
Outcomes
In 2 years LAUNCHEd
Redesigned and launched at least 1st phase of 6 interconnected experiences:
1. Enrollment & Onboarding
2. Rollover
3. Client Logged-in Experience
4. Record Keeping backend
5. Plan Sponsor Experience
6. Advisor Experience
BUILT PROCESS & CULTURE
01/ Created UX Bootcamps to educate Product and Engineering, which built empathy and shared practices.
02/ Developed a UX-QA process inside Agile, increasing efficiency and trust by 200%.
03/ Raised design maturity on team. Coached designers on workshop facilitation and alignment practices.
INCREASE FUNNEL & RETENTION
01/ Secured deals worth $300M with Airline and Healthcare companies because of work.
02/ Increased funnel conversion through rollovers and easier onboarding. Combined $29M AUM and 12,000 clients impacted first year.
03/ Customer satisfaction increased with combined app and easier to understand data, architecture and design.
SELECTED WORK
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