Enterprise Product Strategy

Acquisition by Schwab

Millions of members, billions of dollars, and limited time

My Role

Product Leadership: Research, Strategy, Design, & Prioritization

Timeline

9 Months

Team

8 engineering teams, 2 design teams, Executive Leadership, and dual company SMEs

Problem

USAA planned to sell its brokerage and wealth management businesses to Charles Schwab after a disastrous earlier transition to Victory Capital.

That first transition was rushed and poorly communicated, leaving members unaware their accounts were moving. This led to confusion, overloaded call centers, and widespread customer dissatisfaction.

Solution

My team and I led qualitative research with members who had experienced the Victory Capital transition to understand their pain points. The research revealed members ignored USAA’s traditional mailed notices, expecting more urgent communication through modern channels.

Using these insights, I facilitated a cross-company workshop with executives and subject matter experts from both USAA and Charles Schwab. Together, we mapped every member communication touchpoint and designed a strategy using mobile alerts, app notifications, and personalized calls to ensure members clearly understood the change and felt supported.

Impact

USAA transfered of billions of dollars in assets to Charles Schwab without overwhelming call centers or damaging member satisfaction. The proactive, modern communication plan maintained trust and avoided the backlash seen in the previous transition.

Gallery

Use the gallery links below to explore additional details and visuals on the project.

Quote: 'You get bombarded with so many emails... at the end of the week you’re just gonna select delete.' by Michael T., with a black and white portrait of a man.

Research Insights

Journey map timeline displaying phases and actions from August to February and approximately 90 days out, with colored nodes representing tasks and strategies including new account setup, retention, and consent management.

Touchpoint Mapping

A man in a pink shirt points to a large chart with colorful sticky notes while four colleagues sit around a conference table, listening.

Product Workshops

Hand-drawn storyboard showing a mobile app interface for USAA with a character introducing a service to help transition an account, followed by a progress screen with steps completed and options to check balance.

Wireframes & Screens