Project: Improve Bank of America Home Pages to increase user delight and sales; Main focus Personal and Small Business Position: Home Page Redesign Project Manager (Full time, In-house consultant) Year: 2006 Accomplishments: See below Project Summary: See below
"This is truly a great accomplishment. Thanks to everyone on the team for making this happen in such a quick and error-free process. When I now compare side-by-side the Personal and SB Home Pages, I would make a case that the SB homepage is now crisper and simpler than the Personal page to easily direct owners to the right products and services...Way to Go!!!"
— Brad Schwai, eCommerce Small Business Sales and Fulfillment Lead
"Thanks to your leadership we were able to execute this project in record time - only 6 weeks! You kept the team focused; organized; all the while maintaining a positive can-do attitude when accommodating some of our last minute adjustments...When we have other web design challenges for our small business website, I am hoping you will be the one assigned!"
— Sophia Tolsma, eCommerce Small Business Team
"A huge thank you to Andrew for keeping this team on task and keeping us focused. Excellent leadership!"
— Merri White, eCommerce Marketing Lead, Small Business
"I appreciated your efforts and enjoyed collaborating with you on Enrollment items.
Best of luck in your future endeavors."
— Rakesh N Patel, Online Services & Products
bankofamerica.com: The Most Trafficked Financial Organization Website in the World
bankofamerica.com receives the most traffic of any financial organization in the world. comScore Media Metrix has ranked bankofamerica.com number 25 of all sites (July, 2006) with over 23.5 million unique visitors per month. Internal Bank of America data suggests this number may be closer to 30 million unique visitors per month. The Home Page receives about 157 Million Page Views per month. Of its annual revenue of over 80 billion dollars a year, bankofamerica.com is the most successful of its seven profit centers.
When Bank of America needed help managing the Home Page Redesign it turned to AKGold. Andrew Gold had successfully completed a major project for Bank of America in 2002 serving as the Design Team Lead in eCommerce. With a project of this level of exposure, Bank of America turned to a trusted and valued resource.
Andy Lester, the Unauthenticated Environment Lead, wanted more than just a usual Project Manager. He wanted someone with vision and a wide range of skills who could add value to the Home Page project from multiple levels. Thanks to Andrew Gold's role as Home Page Redesign Project Manager, millions of Bank of America customers and prospective customers have an improved experience when they come to bankofamerica.com.
AKGold Internet completed the Bank of America Home Page Redesign project on time and in budget. As a result of the Andrew Gold's leadership as Home Page Redesign Project Manager, millions of users have a easier and simpler user experience when visiting bankofamerica.com.
Manage the Team
The core team for this project consisted of Andy Lester, UI Lead; Tim Brown, Design Lead; Nicole Bloss, Web Designer; Donal Magner, Web Designer; Mark Fusco, Usability Engineer; Phillip Maine, UI; and Suzan Revah, Editorial. The Home Page Redesign was one of the Bank's major initiatives for 2006 and I worked with each team member to clarify the process, our team vision, and the most effective way to accomplish our goals.
Ken Mowry, the new eCommerce Executive, and Sara Khoury, the Design Team Lead, also added important direction to the project.
It felt good to be back at 1455 Market Street with the eCommerce Team. My previous working experience with eCommerce enabled me to quickly settle in and get into gear fast.
Listen to the Voice of the Customer
Andy Lester helped direct me through the Bank's DMAIC process which requires going through the key steps to avoid missing an important detail. Voice of Customer data helped pinpoint key areas of needed improvement in addition to business partners' sales and traffic goals.
Nail Down the DMAIC Process
An important step to launch the project was creating a Powerpoint presentation that served as both a Project Summary and Define Deck. It contained key information such as Voice of Customer data, Opportunities, Timeline, Team, Extended Team, Change Map, Project Scope, Multi-Generation Plan, User Profiles and all key bits of information that Bank of America required. My design skills and attention to detail brought clarity the the presentation.
Promote the 3 Generation Plan
Bank of America is a large organization with a whirlwind of initiatives. By promoting the Home Page Redesign 3 Generation Plan to key business partners and executives, technology and marketing, I was able to clarify the vision and the timeline and bring everyone on the same page. The clarity of my presentation made the message clear. The 3 Generation Plan consisted of three stages: Generation 1 - Continuous Improvements, Generation 2 - Bridge Home Page, and Generation 3 - Site Redesign. I received a host of complements about the presentation due to its simplicity, depth and clarity of vision. One business partner said to me, "This is the best presentation I have ever seen at the Bank."
Get to the CoreMetrics
Bank of America uses CoreMetrics to analyze traffic flow, user flow, and to compile a host of data about its website usage. When I started the project, there was only minimal data behind previous changes to the Home Pages. A key job of mine was to thoroughly analyze all links on the Home Page and to create spreadsheets and graphs that could show patterns and also provide clear baselines for improvement. In addition to CoreMetrics data, I worked with the MIS and AIS team to build more powerful data models of the user behaviors.
Connect with Technology
I knew the success of this project hinged on clear lines of communication with technology. I engaged two technology teams: the Cold Fusion 5 team and the NGEN J2EE team. Bank of America was in the process of converting its Cold Fusion 5 Home Pages into the secure, Java-based J2EE platform and this required working concurrently with two tech teams for the improvements. I was able to work positively with Melinda Royall and Chris Beeman and their technical teams.
Make Continuous Improvements
The new Bank of America Home Pages are:
More User Friendly—The sum of all the changes improved the user experience.
More Intelligent—They intelligently present different users with different options.
More Consistent—We reduced the amount of different links.
More Focused—We reduced extraneous wording.
More Engaging—We added visual appeal to synch with the Bank of America logo.
More Optimized—We improved the Natural Search Optimization of the pages.
Small Business is Big Business
In addition to the Personal Home Page, I managed the project for the redesign of the Small Business Home Page. The core team consisted of key business partners including Joe Helweg, Brad Schwai, and Ashley Ross along with their support teams of Kevin May, Sophia Tolsma, Merri White. I worked closely with the technical team of Scott Doig, Brian Nichols and Kalaivani Nagarajan. Dawn Pasfield-Blevins, the Natural Search Optimization expert, provided excellent data and Ron Del George served as the Change Manager for the Small Business Home Page Redesign.
Consulted with Bank of America as Home Page Redesign Project Manager within the eCommerce Team in San Francisco
Successfully improved the Personal & Small Business Home Pages
Captured mind share throughout the organization with the Home Page 3 Generation Project Plan
Managed all aspects of the project including documents, meetings, MIS analysis, Coremetrics analysis, Voice of Customer data, and business partner support
Followed the Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) Process and produced key project documents
Worked with Usability, Accessibility, and Technology to deliver compliant and effective improvements
