Book Management Hub: Redesigning a Unified Client Servicing Experience.

Overview

Northwestern Mutual’s servicing experience was fragmented across multiple tabs—Clients, Insurance, Planning, and a variety of single-purpose pages. Financial Representatives (FRs) spent too much time navigating, not enough time acting.

We designed a consolidated Book Management Hub to:

  • Centralize book-level data and actions

  • Reduce navigation overhead

  • Enable proactive, scalable client management

This hub transformed daily workflows and made insights instantly actionable across the entire book of business.

Outcome

70% reduction in time to service clients

34% increase in user satisfaction

30% reduction in manual servicing errors

15% increase in client follow-up conversations

Role and Responsibilities

I was the Lead UX Designer for the Book Management initiative.
I collaborated closely with product managers, developers, and researchers across a 6-month project timeline.

My responsibilities included:

  • Designing IA and interaction models for the new hub

  • Leading wireframing and prototyping in Figma

  • Conducting usability testing (moderated and unmoderated)

  • Partnering with UXR to structure research engagements

  • Building a scalable component library aligned to our design system

Context & Problem

The Challenge

Client servicing applications were siloed and inconsistent. Users had to jump between tabs and tools—without meaningful filtering, bulk actions, or integrated insights.

Key Pain Points:

  • No way to act from book-level views

  • No consistency in interaction patterns across tabs

  • Critical data (e.g. upcoming birthdays, plan gaps) was hidden in separate, static pages

  • Book-level tasks required excessive manual repetition

"I feel like I’m constantly looking for things instead of working with clients."

The Goal

Design a consolidated "Book Management Hub" to streamline client servicing workflows, reduce context switching, and empower FRs to take proactive action through integrated insights and book-level applications.

Research and Discovery

Research Objectives

  • Understand how FRs currently manage their client books across fragmented tools.

  • Identify inefficiencies and unmet needs in navigating between multiple servicing apps.

  • Explore user expectations for a centralized workspace.

Methods

  • Qualitative Interviews (Feb): To uncover current pain points and behaviors.

  • Concept Testing & Card Sort (April): To validate app consolidation and left-hand navigation concepts.

  • Tree Testing & Mental Models (May): To refine navigation hierarchy and information architecture.

Key Insights

  • FRs want a single-entry point for all book-level tasks.

  • Navigational sprawl and tab-specific functions create unnecessary friction.

  • Users rely on custom lists, filters, and saved views to prioritize tasks—but these features were not well supported.

Audit and Synthesis

We mapped out every existing touchpoint where book-level information appeared:

  • Clients Tab

  • Insurance Tab

  • Planning Tab

  • Landing Page (Birthdays, Insights, etc.)

This audit revealed over a dozen different views and apps that needed to be integrated into one experience.

The Design

We introduced a Clients & Servicing Hub as the single source of truth. It consolidated:

  • Household and client data

  • Application statuses

  • Disbursal and planning insights

  • Navigation to other book-level features

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Impact and Benefits

  • Saved Views: Easily access filters like "Clients without PX Plans" or "Upcoming Birthdays."

  • Bulk Actions: Trigger tasks (calls, opportunities) from insights tables.

  • Proactive Servicing: Alert indicators in navigation, app-level summaries, and actionable insights.

  • Consistent UI: Streamlined data tables and task flows for scalability and predictability.

Before After
Siloed experiences across multiple tabs One unified Book Management Hub
No bulk actions Bulk task creation enabled
No Saved Filters Custom Saved Views supported
Fragmented insights Centralized, actionable client intelligence
Inconsistent UI patterns Standardized design system elements across all book-level tables

Reflection

This project helped me deeply understand how to:

  • Scale UI for high-volume data contexts

  • Design interfaces that support both proactive and reactive workflows

  • Work cross-functionally through research, design, and build phases

It also reinforced that clarity and speed are critical in high-stakes servicing environments.