Brendan Appe

Impact

The Edward Jones vision blueprint streamlined client and advisor experiences through future-state user journeys, high-priority system capabilities, and a phased implementation roadmap.

Key improvements include:

40% reduction in account opening time, streamlining processes for advisors and clients.
30% increase in financial advisor efficiency, enabling more personalized client interactions.
25% boost in user satisfaction scores, based on advisor and client feedback.
300+ Design Thinking Practitioners trained, fostering a culture of innovation.
Established a Design Thinking Center of Excellence, embedding design thinking across the organization.

We developed a value framework to prioritize capabilities against user value, business value, and policy alignment.

To drive transformation, 166 system capabilities were identified and categorized based on user experience impact, business value, and policy compliance.
Critical advancements include:

Portfolio Wizard & What-If Analyzer – Tools enabling real-time investment adjustments and scenario planning.
Smart Cart & Unified Transactions – Streamlined account opening and consolidated financial activity execution.
Client Playback & Financial Roadmap – Enhanced post-meeting summaries and goal visualization.

A modular, scalable architecture underpins this transformation, prioritizing user-centric design, data-driven decision-making, and microservices flexibility. The roadmap focuses on 13 Vision Anchors, including task automation, portfolio optimization, and ongoing discovery. By aligning technology with regulatory mandates, Edward Jones is creating a seamless, compliant, and client-first financial experience.

Conclusion

This project marked a significant shift in my career trajectory, moving from large-scale delivery initiatives to an experience strategy-driven approach. It was an opportunity to work closely with strategists, deeply engage in design thinking, and appreciate the nuances of designing for value.

Understanding the "why" behind what we build became a guiding principle. This reinforced the importance of aligning teams and organizations around a shared value hypothesis. This alignment was critical in ensuring that the solutions we envisioned were not only viable but also meaningful in their impact.
Beyond refining my approach to strategy and collaboration, this project also provided a window into financial services. Having already worked in heavily regulated industries like healthcare, I was familiar with the constraints of compliance-driven spaces. Financial services added another layer of complexity, where trust and relationships must not only be preserved but also allowed to thrive organically. Designing experiences that fostered these relationships while adhering to stringent regulations was a challenge that expanded my perspective on what makes great design truly effective.

Ultimately, this experience reinforced the importance of bringing people along for the journey, whether it was stakeholders, team members, or the users themselves. By deeply embedding design thinking into the organization, we created a blueprint for more human-centered decision-making. The impact was not just in the solutions we delivered but in the broader cultural shift toward understanding and valuing experience as a driver of business success.

This project was more than just another engagement. It was a defining moment in how I approach problem-solving, collaboration, and the role of design in shaping industries.