From 3 days to 1 minute: Building adviser servicing as self-service

An adviser needs a member's account summary. They call or email support. An admin generates it off-system and emails a PDF back. Three days later, it lands. Multiply that across thousands of advisers and it's not a delay — it's the operating model.

Adviser Online gives financial advisers real-time access to member data, documents, and servicing.

Admin Online gives fund-administrator teams the controls behind it — registration, fee management, financial-crime checks, case history, audit trails. Different users, so servicing an adviser often spans both products.

I designed across that whole surface — the adviser-facing product and the connecting workflows admin teams use to support it. Member Account Summary is where that range shows up sharpest.

Prove it before asking for it

MAS wasn't prioritized. Rather than argue for resourcing, I mapped the manual journey, quantified the operational effort, and built a proof-of-concept showing what straight-through processing would save.

Tradeoff: upfront design on something unfunded — but it turned a hidden support burden into a visible product case, and MAS became one of Adviser Online's most-used features.

One request. Three handoffs. Three days.

1. AdviserCalls or emails
2. SupportManual handoff
3. AdminOff-system PDF
4. ReturnedEmail, 3+ days

Design the whole system, ship it in stages

Full STP transactions weren't landing in the MVP — a business and resourcing call. So I designed the complete cross-platform system (advisers still submit inquiries for those that aren't automated today), then sequenced MAS as the first flow to prove the model end to end.

“I designed the whole system, the business staged the rollout.”

Simple for advisers, complex underneath

The challenge was making a cross-platform flow feel like one action. Advisers got a single self-service button; behind it, Admin Online opened a case, logged the request, aggregated member data, and returned it for the PDF.

I also designed non-adviser trigger paths, so the same workflow held for broader operational teams — not just advisers.

One click. Two systems. Under a minute.

Outcome

MAS moved from a 3+ day manual handoff to self-service in under a minute — cleaner audit trail, less repetitive admin load. More than one workflow, it set a reusable straight-through pattern for future adviser transactions across both products.

I design complex B2B and financial-services products that turn operational complexity into clear, scalable experiences. Got a similar problem? Get in touch