How Might We

Enable designers and their partners to more actively and effectively use design and research methods so that they can better create products and services their customers love

How Might We

Enable designers and their partners to more actively and effectively use design and research methods so that they can better create products and services their customers love

DESIGN AND RESEARCH METHODS WAYFINDER
CATEGORY

Product Design

CLIENT

Capital One Enterprise

MY ROLE & SCOPE 
Project Founder & Lead
Oversaw cross-functional team
Impact across entire enterprise
No prior or existing product

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW
– Observational Research
– Persona Sketches
– Co-Creation Sessions
– Landscape Analysis
– Concept Testing
– Filter Mechanism Study
– Organization Socialization
– Pitch Video
– Implementation

OPPORTUNITY

Because of the heightened exposure I had to Capital One associates through teaching design courses regularly, I became a part of the frontline of designers who would receive ad hoc requests from associates from across the organization interested in applying what they learned through courses from a design and research perspective. I was innundated with requests and wanted to create some kind of self serve support system for associates to continue to apply design and research methods even without embedded design resources.

APPROACH

I knew I needed to pull together a multidisciplinary team (product, tech, design), partner with them on a vision, delegate responsibilities, keep us on track with a project plan, and deliver an MVP all side of desk. So, I came up with a pitch deck to present to our innovation lab within the Commerial Bank–it outlined the opportunity I saw, observational research insights, and roadmap proposal to MVP. I quickly generated enough interest, people, and got us all together to get started. I had created a pitch video too (shown below) and used that to onboard folks.

OUTCOME

I lead the team through brainstorm sessions in order to align in our longterm vision and MVP. We fleshed out our perspective of who we were creating this tool for through additinal research, outlined our individual responsibilities, and I ultimately not only drove the work from a design perspective but also as a team leader and project manager. An MVP launched and I socialized it on a few platforms: 600 person design calls, local demo days, and through various online channels. The MVP continues to be used today by associates across Capital One.  

Scroll down for a detailed look at the process and assets created throughout the project including :

PERSONA SKETCHES
CO-CREATION SESSIONS
CONCEPT TESTING
PITCH VIDEO
IMPLEMENTATION

A PASSION PROJECT

I saw a need within our organization for a tool to help designers and their partners better leverage design methods (ie. empathy interviews, synthesis sessions, ideation sessions, usability testing). I observed a disconnect between the design education courses I was teaching and each team’s ability to change the way that they worked.

I got in contact with a multi-disciplinary team who took on side of desk projects through an intake process called “demo day”. To the right is my first presentation. It was the beginning of a lengthy side of desk passion project for me and a handful of teammates.

FORMING A TEAM

As I mentioned above, this project was completely side of desk with a team of individuals (product, tech, business SMEs) who opted into working on this based on my pitch. It was up to me to create team norms, milestones, drive the roadmap, and help gather additional resourcing as needed. 

PERSONA SKETCHES

I created four persona sketches I uncovered through observational research through the courses I was teaching at the time. 

As a team leveraged these personas throughout the entire efforts: from identification and prioritization of features, key milestones, to usability testing, to socializing the MVP once  we launched. 

CO-CREATION SESSIONS

I organized and facilitated working sessions between our core team of a product owner, business analyst, developer and myself. We brainstormed key features based on our personas and prioritized which were most important. We planned out how to launch an MVP over the coming quarters.

LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS

I evaluated existing tools outside of Capital One that I drew inspiration from and shared with our core team team. We weighed what we valued most and what out teammates really needed.

Inspiration came from many places including the following:

CONCEPT SKETCHES

I sketched out what I planned to prototype from co-creation sessions with our core team. I showed this back to them to make sure that we were in alignment before I got into digitizing the work. 

CONCEPT TESTING

I created prototype and put it in front of 15 participants. I tracked learnings in a Google sheet. I found that the tool was on track with the exception of a few tweaks.

At this time I began interviewing designers and partners across the enterprise to make sure this tool did not already exist – duplication of work was common at the time.

 

Documentation of Participant Feedback

FILTER MECHANISM
& METHODS CATEGORIZATION

I collaborated with design partners that I identified across the enterprise on the best way to filter methods tactically as well as how to categorize them. I created a means of documenting what we agreed upon ie. a series of matrices.

Methods Framework Discussion

Aligning Methods to Selected Framework

ORGANIZATION SOCIALIZATION

Throughout the project I continued to stay connected with partners across the enterprise to make sure another team was not creating this tool – if they were, we planned on collaborating with them.

I presented the project to our 500 person design organization through video call. This was an opportunity to share how far we’d come, what was next and collect additional volunteers. 

PITCH VIDEO

To keep momentum and visibility up, I directed and helped shoot a pitch video leveraging a  videographer I had recruited from another part of the organization. We had a great time working together despite being in different parts of the country!

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IMPLEMENTATION

I worked closely with our team’s developer to launch our MVP as well as begin to strategize scaling the tool. I identified additional contributors and we planned how to allow them to upload content.

MVP SOCIALIZATION

With an MVP of the tool built it was time to share it with the larger Capital One community. I created a demo of the tool, setup a booth and engaged in a four hour campus demo day with a design teammate. Visitors were excited to see our work and start using the Methods Wayfinder. 

 

 

We continue to publicize and scale the tool from MVP to this day. We gather feedback and when we see a theme we make updates to the tool. 

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In this iteration we were able to include an interactive framework that is taught within our design education courses. This helped the tool become more of a follow on to the course as well as a gateway to other courses and materials–an essential part of our design education ecosystem.

Natalie Kuhn

A believer that many of the world’s problems can be solved using a designer’s mindset and methodology. Hopeful that I can help to create change by starting within my local community.

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Ⓒ Natalie Kuhn 2025. All Rights Reserved.
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