At T. Rowe Price’s Innovation Lab, the mission is to reimagine the investing experience through zero-based design (ZBD). Experience designers are the voice of the customer and also the voice of employees. It’s important to use design thinking and UX to discover a great solution that solves both sides of the problem while championing the VoC. This workshop will form VoC and VoB teams to work through the ZBD process to gather pain-points, vote, create a lot of solutions quickly, vote, converge ideas and then, yes, vote some more, on the favorite solutions. The workshop will end with each group presenting their innovative solution… but not until after a twist! Samantha Borowy, T. Rowe Price

1. Zero-Based Design
User Workshop
Gathering Real Pain Points from Real People

2. Sam Borowy
Sr. Experience Designer
T. Rowe Price Innovation Lab
samborowy.com
samantha_borowy@troweprice.com
Kelly Driver
Sr. Experience Designer
T. Rowe Price Innovation Lab
kellydriver.com
kelly_driver@troweprice.com

3. Huge, giant disclaimer:
We are designers. We are not finance
professionals. Please do not take
anything you see in this presentation
as financial advice or insider secrets.

4. “This is absolutely great. I believe that I am the person
who tipped the scales to make this website change.
I was completely frustrated trying to make a contribution to my
Roth IRA. I ultimately spoke to a person and suggested such a
change. This is just what I wanted. Thank you so much.”

5. What is
Zero-Based Design
(ZBD)?
Complete re-imagination of the end-to-end
customer and associate experience,
co-created with the customer through a true
“Test and Learn” process.
Value-based innovation from front-end
experience to back-end integration focusing on
biggest pain points, areas of impact, signature
moments, etc.

6. ZBD Process Flow
Kick-off
User Involvement
Subject Matter Expert (SME) Involvement
FE-to-BE
Walk-through
Customer Research Workshop
Design Team
Ideation
ZBD
Workshop
MVP
Feature Voting
Early User Feedback
Above the Line / Below
the Line
Dev Sprints, Design & Testing
Iterate & improve based on user feedback
Launch
MVP
Define
MVP

7. The purpose of the
user workshop
Gain empathy through listening and working
with our clients
Collect pain points straight from the users
Identify phases of the process in user’s mind
Dig deeper and validate hypothesis
Inform the creation of personas
VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER

8. ABOUT
As a young mom of two with a burgeoning career at Under Armour, Kim is all about laying a firm financial
foundation for her family. She and her husband both already auto-transfer portions of their paychecks into
retirement plans, but Kim wants to become more involved in growing her portfolio. While astute, engaged, and
hungry for more information, Kim also has an independent streak that keeps her from working directly with a
money manager.
Kim wants to feel like she understands all of her options, and isn’t being pressured into plans or options that
aren’t in her best interest. She’s in it for the long haul, and wants to feel informed and in control.
SCENARIO
Kim recently earned a promotion and a $15k end of year bonus. She wants to split her bonus between
existing mutual funds and add promising new funds to her portfolio. She’s not sure how to best divide
her contributions, nor what new funds may complement her existing portfolio.
TECHNOLOGY
• Primarily uses laptop or mobile to do banking
• Would be interested in some sort of “wizard” to help her learn and step through investing.
Income:
$165,000/yr.
Investment Assets:
$75,000
Employment Status:
Full-time
Experience Needs:
Kim, 36
Young Accumulator
Comfort with technology?
Fearful Comfortable ExpertFluent
Subject Knowledge Engagement
Beginner PassiveExpert Highly Active
Tablet Mobile WearablePhone Desktop/LaptopBroker/In-person Voice
“My family is my top priority, and I want to
make choices that benefit them, not someone
else’s bottom-line.”
FunctionalJobs
EmotionalJobs
Social Jobs
Feel safe
(financially) &
secure
Responsible
& set a good
example
Be guided
through the
process
Able to do things
today & not feel
budget strapped
Advisor to
provide
gaurd rails
Check
performance of
existing funds
Quick access
to answer any
questions
Feel like a
good parent
Feel prepared for
unforseen events/
emergencies
Move money
on the go
Available
for fun
activities
Relaxed & on
top of things
10%
Inform Personas

9. A closer look into the
User Workshop

10. User workshop
example agenda
Welcome & Introductions​
Overview of the Day ​
Ground Rules ​
Warm-up and Team Breakout ​
Exercise: Jobs to be Done
​Exercise: Defining Your Journey​
Lunch ​
Exercise: Improving Your Journey​
Solution Presentations
Wrap-up​

11. Be Open
The Rules
Be Present Participate Don’t Judge

12. A great warm-up exercise
that becomes a “thing”

13. Pick an
experience
(Ideally, we would have recruited
you because you all had a
recent experience in one area)
Think of a recent on-boarding
experience you have had that needs
improvement
Examples:
• Checking into your hotel
• The first week at a new job
• Signing up for health insurance
• Getting cable in a new home

14. “This part of the
process is still very
manual for us.”
Calvin
T. Rowe Price Employee, 4 yrs.
Uncover Unseen Opportunities
Functional Jobs
Emotional Jobs
Social Jobs
Jobs to be Done

15. Your Journey Team Name:
Name the Phases of
Your Journey
Activity
Touchpoints (Current)
Activity
Touchpoints (Future)
Pains/Frustrations
Must-Haves (basics)
Nice-to-Haves
“Wow”s
Explanation: Explanation: Explanation: Explanation:

16. Journey Map
5 MIN. 5 MIN. 5 MIN.

17. Write down
the activities in
your journey
5 MIN.
Do this individually...
Write out each activity on a separate
post-it for your end-to-end journey
Think about the steps you take before,
during, and after

18. Map out
the journey
as a team
Share your process and converge
with the rest of the team
Group like post-its on the journey map
Do you have the full picture?
• When are you “done” with this task?
• Did you need to do anything before
to prep for this task?
5 MIN.

19. Name the
phases of your
journey
Create 4 main themes
for your journey
5 MIN.

20. Identify
pain points
(This is actually, the main
reason we are here.)
Ask users to individually write out pain
points for each of the phases
Add to the Journey Map
You may need to ask “why?” and probe
deeper into possible frustrating areas
Have users vote on pain points they feel
are the most painful
10 MIN. (+ 5 MIN. FOR VOTING)

21. Solution
time!
(But... this is the most fun
for the participants!)
Focus on solving for pain points
with the most votes
Four Step Sketching:
• Gather info take notes
• Rough solution sketches (go for quantity)
- Remember: One idea per post-it
- Map out as “Must-Haves,” “Nice-to-Haves,” “Wows”
- Vote on favorite solutions with stars
• “Crazy 8’s” on a favorite idea
• Storyboard to expand on a single solution
(Yes, you have to draw it out...)
25 MIN.

22. Adopted from Google Ventures
Get sketching!
5 MIN. 8 MIN. 5 MIN.
VOTE

23. Adopted from Google Ventures
Rough Sketches
5 MIN. 5 MIN. 5 MIN.
5 MIN.

24. Adopted from Google Ventures
Crazy 8’s
5 MIN. 5 MIN. 5 MIN.
8 MIN.

25. Time for a
twist!
Let’s get totally crazy!
It’s hard to iterate one idea 8 times.
Sometimes we need to push the users in the
workshop...
But, how?
Pick a card or two and try to solve your
problem like you are solving for an innovative
company or a new requirement.
Cards from Innovate Cards

26. Adopted from Google Ventures
Solution Sketching
5 MIN.

27. Team Solution
5 MIN. 5 MIN. 5 MIN.
10 MIN.

28. Presentations

29. Thank you
Additional resources can be found at
samborowy.com/resources/
© 2018 T. Rowe Price. All rights reserved.
201811-654047