U.S. BANK
Executive Summary
I am currently leading multiple UX/UI design initiatives within the Commercial Leasing Department in collaboration with the Equipment Financing team at U.S. Bank. Our primary focus is on modernizing legacy systems, enhancing operational efficiency, and elevating user experience. Each project is grounded in UX/UI best practices and aligned with the bank’s branding and strategic business goals. These efforts reflect my commitment to creating intuitive, user-centered solutions that deliver measurable business value and stakeholder satisfaction.
Across these initiatives, I work closely with developers, product owners, project managers, agile scrum masters, and stakeholders through every phase of the UX process. Within our department’s agile framework, teams operate on both two-week and three-week sprint cycles, depending on team needs. Using a user-centered design approach, we tackle complex business challenges—such as optimizing workflows for users with varying technical backgrounds—through continuous collaboration and iteration.
My ability to apply product management skills helps ensure stakeholder alignment, meet deadlines, and facilitate productive feedback loops. Our strongest measure of success continues to be the positive feedback and testimonials from both end-users and internal stakeholders, demonstrating our team's commitment to excellence, adaptability, and impactful design.
Disclaimer
Due to privacy and data security policies, I cannot share wireframes and mockups. However, the consistent positive feedback from stakeholders and users highlights our user-centered design approach is succeeding.
Project Highlights
My role: Experience Designer (UX/UI)
HCD Methods: Wireframing and Prototyping, User Research, Usability Testing, Client Interviews, Stakeholder Interviews, User Journey Mapping, Persona Development, Task Analysis, Design Sprint, Competitive Audit, Digitized Architectural Diagram, Accessibility Testing, Corporate Training, Agile Work Model, Client Presentation, & Deliverables Handoff.
CURRENT PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
The Company
U.S. Bank has been recognized for its digital innovation, consistently ranking high in mobile banking and digital customer experience. It was named a top digital bank by various financial publications.
U.S. Bank, officially known as U.S. Bancorp, is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, which is the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of assets. As of the end of 2023, it has assets totaling over $600 billion.
U.S. Bank offers a comprehensive range of banking, investment, mortgage, trust, and payment services products to individuals, businesses, governmental entities, and other financial institutions. The bank operates through a network of branches, ATMs, and digital banking platforms, serving millions of customers across the country.
The Team
U.S. Bank Commercial Leasing Department offices in the greater Minneapolis, Minnesota area.
My primary agile team I work with at U.S. Bank follows a three-week sprint model, bringing together 10 on-site team members in Minnesota and 10 offshore collaborators. We maintain strong alignment through a cadence of structured meetings, including daily stand-ups, weekly UX product team meetings, weekly design and developer syncs, and backlog grooming sessions. At the end of each sprint, we hold sprint retrospectives to reflect, adapt, and improve our processes.
Communication is key to our success, facilitated primarily through Microsoft Teams and strengthened by intentional team culture efforts. Initiatives like the “EFE Virtual Break Room” encourage informal hybrid team bonding, while bi-weekly in-person happy hours foster connection and collaboration across roles.
The Design Initiatives
Our onsite tech team collaborates often on Business Line solutions within Commercial Leasing from various locations.
Initiative #1: Equipment Financing Expert
Modernizing a commercial leasing desktop application into a revamped internal web app, emphasizing brand alignment while exploring innovative business efficiency solutions.
Initiative #2: EF Pricing
Developing a new web platform to streamline the creation and management of leasing charts and cards, featuring robust capabilities like search, editing, content review, approvals, and more!
Initiative #3: Workflow Tool
Creating a streamlined workflow tracker to help the Equipment Financing team efficiently track transactions and leases, enhancing clarity, collaboration, and overall process transparency.
Initiative #4: CDA
Modernizing a payment collection desktop platform into a redesigned web application, focusing on brand standards, current best practices, and alignment with stakeholder goals and expectations.
Initiative #5: Employee Access Request (EAR)
Redesigning a security and permission access web application, prioritizing compliance with brand standards, the incorporation of contemporary design best practices, and meeting stakeholder goals and requirements.
Initiative #6: Equipment Finance Mobile Application
Designing the first Equipment Finance mobile app for clients and sources, featuring application submissions, status tracking, dashboard access, buyout info, and pricing quotes—all with intuitive, brand-aligned, mobile-first design.
The Research
U.S. Bank business line offices in Marshall, Minnesota
Research has been central with all the initiatives. I conduct ongoing user interviews with employees in locations like Marshall, MN, and Portland, OR—gathering insights from 500–700 individuals. These sessions reveal key insights that guide our transition from legacy systems content to modern web and mobile platforms.
By collaborating with product owners, we ensured alignment with business objectives and built a deep understanding of diverse workflows across departments such as Sales, Credit, App Entry, Documentation, and more—informing user-centered decisions at every stage.
The Design
Figma is our collaborative application for interface design
Following comprehensive research and stakeholder consultations, I utilize Figma and adhere as best as possible to U.S. Bank's 'Shield' design library to create intuitive and accessible user interfaces. Design sprints facilitate iterative development of modalities and screens, guided by continuous feedback loops with stakeholders.
Each design iteration undergoes rigorous accessibility checks and peer reviews, ensuring alignment with brand standards and usability principles before development phases.
The Testing
Mock-up review sessions have created excitement and positive energy for users
Across our six initiatives, user testing plays a critical role in validating design decisions and improving usability. After initial mock-ups and stakeholder feedback, we conduct review sessions with end-users to gather insights on functionality, expectations, and the transition from legacy systems. These sessions help surface patterns across tools.
Feedback is carefully integrated into design iterations, ensuring a user-centered approach and smooth handoffs to development and QA for each web or mobile solution.
The Opportunities
Opportunities can appear as struggles and hurdles but lead to untapped future success
Opportunity #1: One area I’ve found especially rewarding is educating business line staff on UX principles and U.S. Bank’s 2025 product guidelines. Many team members are unfamiliar with user-centered design best practices. By introducing the value of user research and collaborative design, we’re building a shared understanding that allows user insights to meaningfully inform product decisions while aligning with business objectives.
Opportunity #2: My ongoing learning in equipment financing and commercial leasing has been key to my successful growth on the team. Developing a deeper understanding of our systems, terminology, and processes allows me to design more effectively, ensuring solutions meet both user expectations and business requirements.
Opportunity #3: A valuable opportunity lies in revisiting and modernizing design work completed prior to my tenure. By applying current UX standards, accessibility guidelines, and best practices, we can elevate legacy tools to align with today’s design expectations—ensuring consistency, usability, and long-term adoption across platforms.
Opportunity #4: By fully embracing the use of AI tools like GitHub Copilot and design-support platforms we are streamlining key steps in the product development process—from documentation, research synthesis, to faster interface iteration. By proactively exploring emerging technologies, we continue to boost efficiency, improve output quality, and position our team to deliver faster, smarter, and more scalable solutions.
The Professional Development
Ongoing continued education has been enjoyable and equals self growth
At U.S. Bank, ongoing professional development is a key component of my growth as an Experience Designer. I regularly engage with corporate training programs and curated content that deepen my expertise in areas such as data security, accessibility, inclusive design, brand standards, and cross-functional collaboration.
Participation in events like Innovation Week, Development Day, and Demo Day sessions has helped strengthen my understanding of the business, refine my communication skills, and expand my design leadership capabilities. These opportunities have not only supported my technical proficiency and strategic thinking but also provided exposure to enterprise-level design systems and product delivery at scale.
By staying engaged with evolving industry trends, internal resources, and enterprise-wide learning experiences, I continue to sharpen my ability to deliver impactful, research-informed, and future-ready design solutions that align with both user needs and organizational goals.
TESTIMONIALS & FEEDBACK
Supervisor Feedback
Consistent UX results have been continually inspiring positive supervisor feedback
“Keep doing what you’re doing! You are proactively working ahead, coming up with ideas, interviewing users, and engaging with the team on your own without us having to drag stuff out of you. It’s great to see all of this… I appreciate what you do and love having you here!”
U.S. Bank Direct Supervisor
“I love the trajectory that we are working towards with you, Matt! This is exactly what I envisioned when we hired you as our UX guy. This is great!”
U.S. Bank Senior Engineer
“Now that I am working with you, I have started asking better questions… you’re teaching me!“
U.S. Bank Agilist/ Scrum Master
Peer Feedback
Peers have been recognizing improved designs and are voicing added value to the team
"Matt, I love your positive energy! Since you started, I've realized that I want to contribute more and embody half of the positive qualities you bring to the team. You've taught me that I can do more. Thank you for that!"
U.S. Bank Offshore Software Engineer
“I am really glad we went over this together. I did not really consider the user when I built this.”
U.S. Bank Software Engineer
“I think it was really good. I thought it was going to be 10 minutes of ‘Hey, look at this screen, that’s all you need,’ and that’s it. You gave me a lot of learning. It was a good experience. I am grateful that you went into such depth and showed me everything. You have brought a perspective to this team that none of us really think about. Thanks.”
U.S. Bank Intern Software Engineer
User Feedback
User feedback collected during user interviews and mock-reveals are highlighting excitement
“The meetings I have had with you have been awesome! I have gotten a good idea of what is going on from your end, and you truly are here to help. It has been nice to experience. Your interest in truly deep diving into what we do makes me realize that this is really something you are committed to working on.”
User/U.S. Bank Equipment Finance Business Line Employee
"Thank you, Matt! Right after our meeting, I told my manager that it was a great first meeting, and I'm excited to be involved. I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me and listen to everything I had to say. Have a great evening!"
User/U.S. Bank Equipment Finance Business Line Employee
THE FUTURE OF THE PROJECT
Looking ahead, the future of the design work within the Equipment Financing group at U.S. Bank is filled with opportunity, collaboration, and ongoing innovation across multiple initiatives. Each project—whether it’s internal tools like EF Pricing, Workflow Tracker, and CDA, or customer-facing platforms like the Equipment Finance Mobile Application—offers a meaningful opportunity to elevate user experience, modernize legacy systems, and improve operational efficiency.
As these platforms continue to evolve, we’re refining our three-week sprint cycles to increase alignment across cross-functional teams, improve communication, and accelerate delivery. Our feedback loops—rooted in user interviews, usability testing, and stakeholder workshops—will remain essential in shaping design outcomes that address the needs of diverse user groups across multiple locations.
Future efforts will emphasize:
Greater consistency and scalability by strengthening adherence to the U.S. Bank Shield design system
Ongoing accessibility and usability testing to ensure inclusive, long-term adoption
Advocacy and education, helping business line partners embrace UX thinking
Revisiting and modernizing legacy workflows to meet current design standards
By treating every project as a space for learning and collaboration, we are not just improving products—we’re nurturing a culture of thoughtful, user-centered design that will guide our digital future at U.S. Bank.
