Vanilla: Transforming Financial Advisory Through Design Leadership
Company: Vanilla Role: Vice President of Design, Co-founding Member Dates: June 2019 → Present
Vanilla was born out of a client project from Rubric, the product and brand design studio I co-founded along with Sam Trapkin. Our client, Steve Lockshin, a highly influential financial advisor, approached us to create a prototype for an interactive estate plan report, which led to the creation of Vanilla. He asked us to co-found the company along with him, marking the beginning of our journey.
As a founding member and Vice President of Design at Vanilla, I have been instrumental in bringing Vanilla from 0 to 1. Our mission is to simplify complex financial concepts around estate planning by bringing thoughtful modern design to an underserved audience. My journey at Vanilla highlights my expertise in design leadership, organizational building, and entrepreneurship, driving not only product innovation but also the overall company strategy.
Design Leadership at Vanilla
Role and Responsibilities
- Lead the Design Team: Foster a collaborative and innovative environment to drive creativity and efficiency.
- Engage in Hands-On Design Work: Set standards and inspire the team through direct involvement in projects as a player-coach.
- Design Operations Build Out: Organize research, documentation, and processes for effective collaboration with product managers and other stakeholders.
- Work Cross-Functionally with Other Leaders: Align design initiatives with business goals to ensure cohesive strategy and execution.
- Advocate for Design Across the Company: Ensure that design principles are embedded in all departments, promoting a design-centric culture.
- Enable All Departments to Incorporate High-Quality Design: Support various teams in integrating design thinking and execution into their work.
- Help Make the Company and Design Team More Data-Driven: Emphasize research and data while balancing appropriate visual innovation.
- Serve as a Trusted Confidant and Motivator: Inspire and support team members across the organization, fostering trust and collaboration.
Key Achievements
Establishing a Design-Led Culture
- From the early stage to today, fostered a design-led culture across the entire company, ensuring that design thinking and execution influence all aspects of the business.
- Introduced weekly roundtable meetings, design critiques, monthly all-company design showcases to foster a collaborative environment.
- Developed a comprehensive training plan for designers, content designers, and researchers focusing on typographic skills, research-based processes, and high craft sensibility.
Enhancing Design Quality and User Experience
- Overhauled the Vanilla Aether Design System to support growth and ensure consistency across products.
- Focused on improving the quality of design and user experience by implementing user-centered design practices and continuous feedback loops.
- Leveraged data and user research to make informed design decisions, ensuring that our products meet user needs and exceed their expectations.
Brand Design
- Led the internal brand design efforts, creating a cohesive and compelling brand identity for Vanilla.
- Developed brand guidelines and assets that ensured consistency across all touchpoints, from marketing materials to product interfaces.
- Oversaw the design of the marketing website, ensuring it effectively communicated Vanilla’s brand, value proposition, and product.
Driving Exceptional Revenue Growth
- Played a crucial role in navigating various stages of company growth, from early startup to a more mature organization.
- Developed and executed product strategies that aligned with the company’s evolving goals and market demands.
- Facilitated successful fundraising efforts, securing $12M in Series A funding and $30M in Series B funding by demonstrating the impact of design-led innovation.
- Achieved $4.37M ARR in the first year post product-market fit, positioning Vanilla in the top 1% for revenue growth in our stage.
- Helped set Vanilla on a path to exceed $10M in ARR in less than two years, establishing us as best-in-class for our segment.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Building Vanilla from the Ground Up
Strategic Vision and Execution
- Played a crucial role in the initial vision and strategy for Vanilla, from the early prototype stages to market-ready product.
- Worked closely with the co-founder, Steve Lockshin, and CEO’s David Hauser and Gene Farrell, to establish the company's mission, values, and long-term goals.
Company and Product Strategy
- Was instrumental in defining and executing the product strategy, ensuring that design was at the forefront of the decision-making processes.
- Collaborated on fundraising efforts, securing $12M in Series A funding and $30M in Series B funding by showcasing the impact of design-led innovation.
Product Innovation
Vanilla Estate Builder
- Developed the Estate Builder MVP, incorporating complex tax calculations and PDF report creation.
- Continuously improved the user experience based on feedback from pilot programs with clients like Morgan Stanley, Vanguard, and others.
Vanilla Document Builder
- Oversaw the design of Vanilla's document generation service, creating a more user-friendly and efficient system.
- Facilitated the design and production of physical document packages, ensuring seamless integration with Vanilla's product and brand design.
Organizational Building
Company-Wide Initiatives
- Fostered a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement across all departments, including product, engineering, legal, marketing, and customer success.
- Implemented company-wide initiatives such as monthly design showcases to educate the entire organization on the design team’s work, insights from user research, and recent achievements.
- Advocated for a user-centric approach, integrating feedback from customers into the company’s strategic planning and product development.
Team Growth and Development
Hiring and Mentorship
- Grew the design and product team to over 15 members, encompassing both product design, content, and brand design, emphasizing diversity and equal pay.
- Developed job descriptions, career bands, and training plans to enable team members to contribute effectively and gain visibility for their work.
Building Design Operations
- Organized research, documentation, and processes to streamline collaboration between designers, product managers, and other stakeholders.
- Established efficient workflows and documentation practices, ensuring that all team members had the resources and information needed to work effectively.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Fostered a culture of collaboration across product, engineering, legal, marketing, and customer success teams.
- Organized monthly design showcases to educate the entire organization on the design team's work, insights from user research, and recent achievements.
Strategic Growth and Adaptation
Adoption of Agile Methodologies
- Transitioned design and engineering teams to an Agile scrum methodology, improving collaboration and efficiency.
- Helped implement a pod-based model with clear ownership and responsibilities, fostering greater collaboration between PM, Design, and Engineering and enabling the team to tackle complex challenges effectively.
Customer-Centric Approach
- Leverage data and user research to inform product development, ensuring that design solutions addressed real-world challenges and deliver value to users.
- Engage directly with customers through meetings and feedback sessions to gain insights and continuously improve the product.
Learnings
- Fostering a Collaborative and Innovative Culture: The importance of building a design-led culture that integrates design principles across the company to enhance collaboration and innovation.
- Integrating Design Thinking into Strategy: Successfully embedding design thinking into all aspects of the company’s strategy, driving better business outcomes.
- Navigating Company Growth: Learning to be adaptable and resilient in navigating different stages of company growth, from startup to a mature organization.
- Emphasizing Quality and User Experience: The continuous focus on improving design quality and user experience through user-centered practices and data-driven decisions.
- Building Design Operations: Recognizing the value of organized research, documentation, and processes to streamline collaboration and enhance productivity.
- Customer-Centric Development: Leveraging direct customer feedback and data to continuously improve products and meet user needs effectively.
