John Schuett

Demand for podcast ad slots typically exceeds supply, and increases in same-show ad-slot inventory, through broader availability and better matching, are likely to be filled to benefit the podcast publisher, the advertiser, and the platform. I led the analysis and assisted in delivering new features over twelve sprints, which gave podcasters the ability to designate ad slots for a tiered allocation algorithm, ensuring that ads from directly contracted advertisers were filled first. Any remaining inventory would be allocated dynamically to platform advertisers at large. The features included advanced category matching and exclusions based on advertiser and podcaster preferences. These tools allowed easier set up of preferences—slanted to broader exposure and greater flexibility regarding ad positioning.

I managed user story backlog, led weekly grooming, and participated in daily scrums and other rituals, regularly interfacing with customer experience representatives, designers, and developers. The team used tools that included: Jira, Coda, Figma, Lucidchart, Slack, and G Suite.

A regional bank wished to activate a feature on their case management application that would allow the system users, fraud investigators, to email semi-formal requests for information to internal and external parties through a set of auto-filled templates. The project spanned five business groups and a total of 90 application users.

My role in this project was that of a business analyst, and my primary objectives were to capture and document functional business requirements and define the templates themselves.

Initial discussion of the feature with stakeholders was universally positive. All felt that the utility would be a great time-saver, a good way to standardize processes, and greatly benefit the team by linking the correspondence back to the case. With confirmed stakeholder support, I obtained the names of key end-users for further analysis.

The end-users had an easy time providing mockup templates, and we worked together to identify preset text and auto-populated fields.

Once development, testing, and training were completed, the new feature was successfully implemented to the client's great satisfaction.

Despite passing through similar touchpoints in their execution, marketing campaigns for the credit card, checking and savings, lending, wealth management, and commercial product lines within the organization were executed using different platforms and processes.

Our goal was to bring all product lines onto a single campaign workflow platform (Aprimo) and establish a common core workflow for all. Toward this end, I led JAD sessions that would map the manager’s journey through all campaign stages and collected requirements pertaining to each step in the process. These sessions effectively gained a common vision for the target-state solution and established a core set of process maps and requirements, which were explored more deeply through subsequent working sessions.

Working closely with the engineering, marketing strategy, list generation, and compliance teams, in addition to the end-users, the project deployed successfully over five phases.

In a previous role with an asset management company, I was asked to join a team that produced a current state analysis for its portfolio management processes. The analysis would be used to inform a post-merger systems consolidation plan which would encompass over 1,300 individuals, $1.5 trillion in assets under management, and 20 separate processes ranging from order capture, pricing, benchmark management, through to account set up, cash management, trading, compliance, and reporting.

As a process consultant, it was my role to ensure all processes were identified and documented and establish a reusable template upon which each could be described. For this purpose, I incorporated a SIPOC format to capture the relevant parts to each process (supplier, input, process, outputs, and consumers) and business process and data flow diagrams. After each process was understood, the template was supplemented with an integration summary outlining gaps, system enhancements, and dependencies.

By capturing this information consistently and concisely, my team members and I could prepare a comprehensive booklet for each core product to be migrated.

First Republic Bank’s ION FX platform fed a mix of live and end-of-day data to multiple internal systems ranging from accounting, risk, and customer accounts to analytics, finance, loans, and BSA/AML. As part of a like-for-like system upgrade, it was necessary to ensure that these outputs did not change or otherwise impact downstream data consumers, either systems or individuals.

Although most core consumers of the data were known, no definitive list existed. Without one, it would not be possible to establish a comprehensive regression testing plan for the initiative. I spearheaded an effort to close this information gap by conducting an impact analysis assessment, which involved ten lines of business and progressed through three stages: collecting all accounts that had accessed the data over the past 12 months, consolidating accounts by the line of business with primary contacts, and identifying all processes that depended on the data along with specific databases, tables and any automated jobs used to extract, transform, and load the data.

With its rollout of Zelle P2P payments, the bank anticipated a significant upswing in attempts at fraud through account takeover, identify theft, or deceptive actions. I joined the team to design and implement a call agent dashboard that would expedite caller verification and establish an instant risk profile.

In collaboration with in-house UX design, external vendors (Pindrop, Fiserv), and internal data teams, we established a dashboard that utilized caller ID to retrieve and present a panoramic view of the customer from a risk-fraud perspective. The screen picked up risk-related client data from internal sources, such as recently made phone number or password changes, suspicious transactions, and call histories. The screen also called external authentication and fraud detection technologies to obtain multi-factor insights on the call based on the telephone numbers and biometric information.

In addition to providing a superior engagement for existing customers, the solution identified fraudulent callers in line with expectations. It provided agents with a remarkably simple interface that eliminated much of the time that was once used to ask questions and extend members’ experiences unnecessarily.

The bank processed over 2,000 international wire transfers per day over the SWIFT network and was required by law to screen each against the DHS Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN). The existing process was outsourced to a third party. The project goal was to bring this entirely in-house to enable greater control over algorithms, integrate with a case management platform, and support advanced analytics. I led analysis and post-project operationalization over the course of 18 months.

The early analysis focused on tailoring the business analysis approach to the needs of the organization. The resulting strategy called for a combination of low and high formality deliverables and enabled the team to adapt quickly to unknowns without losing focus on established success metrics.

The new application successfully reduced the overall hit rate from over 15% to just 7%. Integration with case management expedited issue resolution and tracking. Advanced reporting was implemented via Tableau. Training, business contingency, and support runbooks were delivered prior to the rollout of the new system.