Designing a retirement income gap calculator to support annuity sales

This calculator aims to support MassMutual’s recommitment to becoming a top 5 manufacturer of annuities in the U.S.The ask: What can we create for prospects and financial professionals to use that will contribute to MassMutual’s annuity goal?Solution: A Retirement Income Gap Calculator helps prospects calculate the gap between their retirement expenses and guaranteed income, positioning an annuity as a potential solution.Outcome: This calculator had a 60% completion rate three months after launch.

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Designing a financial wellness hub helping consumers find information quicker

This hub aims to help MassMutual consumers break down complex financial decisions and feel comfortable making those decisions.The ask: How can we help consumers who do their own research understand products and strategies that make the most sense for them given their priorities?Solution: A financial wellness hub that provides relevant content tailored to where consumers are in life.Outcome: This hub generated 45k sessions within 30 days of launch and a 71% increase in time spent per session year-over-year.

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Website and app transaction/capabilities heuristic evaluation

MassMutual took in 800k+ manual request from digitally registered policyowners. Policyowners reported a substantial decrease in digital ease 40% after 4 months of attempting to use the platform.The ask: How easy it to do transactions online?Solution: The user experience design team conducted a heuristic evaluation of massmutual.com and the MassMutual app.Outcome: We found 107 total violations across both platforms and provided actionable design recommendations.

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Designing a retirement income gap calculator to support annuity sales

A calculator for prospects use to estimate money needed in retirement based on expenses and expected money during retirement. Financial professionals can use this as a tool when engaging with prospects and policy owners.

Company: MassMutual is a mutual life insurance and financial services company helping people for over 170 years.Role: UX DesignerResponsibilities: Analyze user research findings, draft wireframes, finalize wireframes, prototyping and visual quality assurance.Year: 2023

Project overview

MassMutual has recommitted to be a top 5 manufacturer (based on sales) of annuities in the U.S. with the launch of a multitude of new products in 2023. A retirement income gap calculator is needed to support the sales of MassMutual’s full annuity portfolio.Users“I need help understanding what my future expenses will be in retirement. If there are gaps what do I do?” - Prospects“I need a tool that will help me recommend a personalized annuity solution that is best for my clients needs.” - Financial professionals

How will launching an income gap calculator contribute to business goals?

Business goals• Increase the % of leads/business generated through our digital channels• Annuity sales increase especially in third party where we expect a YOY increase of 7% in 2023• Calculator usage that exceeds current benchmark of 138k per year• Increase leads to agencies when consumer completes on website first - benchmark 5.7% average conversion rate

Research study

A usability study was conducted with 8 participants utilizing our competitiors annuity gap calculator to understand:• What works well for users
• What causes confusion
• Identify gaps
• Determine how we can solve the identified gaps into our design

Findings and recommendations

Top 5 most helpful parts of the calculator:1. The visuals
2. Ability to edit the input information
3. Future dollars being calculated
4. Seeing your income vs expenses
5. Seeing the gap

Top 5 most confusing/difficult parts of the calculator:1. Multiple data entry points were confusing, or ignoredRecommendation: Step user through data inputs in smaller chunks, otherwise users will miss entire categories2. Alot of “default” data that populated the calculator was confusing. People either skipped over it, not realize they can enter their data or wondered where the numbers came fromRecommendation: Do not pre-populate data3. Confusion around what “guaranteed income” meant, with some participants noting 401k, investments or current savings should be includedRecommendation: Clearly define what guaranteed income means in laymans terms and provide additional information for those that need it (what it includes and does not include)4. The tool used calculate Social Security goes to another site5. When the user selects married on the Social Security site this caused confusion because it wasn’t clear if information entered in the calculator should be for one person or for spouse/partner as wellRecommendation(#4 and #5): Consider having the Social Security calculation built into the calculator, instead of sending them to another site

Final designs

The goal is to provide prospects and financial professionals with a calculator that did not overwhelm them with information. Our calculator will provide quick tips and helpful hints to guide them through completing the calculator.

Expenses

We start with their current monthly expenses based on categories making sure to show a total amount as they enter their data. We encourage them to itemize their expenses rather than an estimate to showcase a real snapshot.

Future expenses

They estimate their future expenses showing their current total expenses side by side. This allows them to see the amount they entered on the previous screen. Future dollar expenses does include inflation based on their retirement age and calculate that in the total for them.

Future income

Lastly, they enter money they already they have saved for retirement. The Social Security field pre-populated with the average monthly amount across eligible ages. They also have the option to get a more detailed estimate via the Social Security government website.

Results

We visually show them how much they will have based on what they are currently saving beside what they will need, next to their gap side by side.• We use language to let them know they are not alone in figuring out retirement.• We give them clear next steps which is connecting with a financial professional to determine if an annuity is right for them.• If they are not ready to talk to a financial professional then they can learn more about annuities or explore other ways to plan for retirement.

Outcomes

Three months after launch stats:• 330 total unique sessions where prospects started the calculator• 197 total calculator completions• 47 clicks on “Contact a Financial Professional” call to action• 1.91m average engaged time

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Designing a financial wellness hub helping consumers find information quicker

Creating an experience that provides relevant and useful content for MassMutual website visitors.

Company: MassMutual is a mutual life insurance and financial services company helping people for over 170 years.Role: UX DesignerResponsibilities: Analyze user research findings, draft wireframes, finalize wireframes, prototyping and visual quality assurance.Year: 2022-2023

Project overview

MassMutual is a mutual life insurance and financial services company with a financial wellness marketing team. As the lead User Experience Designer I created a new experience that provides relevant and useful financial wellness content. Visitors will be able to secure their financial future and protect their loved ones by creating a plan that takes their situation and priorities into account.

How will launching a financial wellness experience contribute to business goals?

Business goals

• Create an intuitive and dynamic way to capture some information about the consumer and provide relevant, useful content• Brand and marketing teams will gain greater insight into who our non-customers are• User feel as though a valuable relationship is being made with MassMutual• Ease of navigation through all of MassMutual content

Research study

Secondary research and two rounds of user interviews were utilized to undertand user wants and needs when exploring financial wellness content.MassMutual marketing team created 5 personas based on research. The personas were based on different generations and explained:• Who we are serving
• Where to serve them
• What to serve them
• How they think about money

Round 1: User interviews

Moderated user interviews were conducted to gain insights on:
• Their financial goals
• What or who influences their financial decisions
• What topics are important to them as it relates to financial wellnessDuring the interactive exercise, the interviewees used stickers in Figjam to stamp:
• Which topic they relate to
• Want to learn more about
• Found intimidating

Findings and recommendations

Based on user research, we were able to narrow down our content into 4 categories for users to select and explore on their own:1. Building a foundation
2. Life stages
3. Getting stuff done
4. Building wealthLife stages was categorized into 6 different stages:1. Starting out
2. New parent
3. Juggling many things
4. Business owners
5. Ready to invest
6. Nearing retirement

Round 2: User interviews

After reviewing the feedback we conducted a second round of user interviews to show a prototype. The prototype included topics that users felt were important to them in different forms of communication such as:• Quizzes
• Videos
• Fillable PDF worksheets
• Articles
• Calculators

Final designs

I created high fidelity designs based on our findings and the content that we had readily available. We provided an easy way for users to find what they were looking for without having to dig and offer takeaway resources. We incorporated a variety of calculators throughout the experience to get the user to take a more active part in the experience into their financial wellness journey.

Outcomes

Within 30 days, there was 45k sessions and a 71% increase in time spent per session year-over-year.
The marketing team was a finanalist for the 2024 Content Marketing Award for Best Content Driven Website presented by The Content Marketing Institute.

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Website and app transaction/capabilities heuristic evaluation

Due to proprietary nature of viewing an authenticated experience, detailed screenshots are not included in this portfolio. Further detailed analysis is available upon request.

Company: MassMutual is a mutual life insurance and financial services company helping people for over 170 years.Role: UX DesignerResponsibilities: Designed illustrated prototypes for recommendations and created Figma slides presentation.Year: 2025

Project overview

MassMutual took in 800k+ manual request from digitally registered policyowners. Policyowners reported a substantial decrease in digital ease 40% after 4 months of attempting to use the platform.

Business goal

Improve digital adoption and understand why operations took in 800k+ manual transactions in 2023 from digitally registered policy owners.

Objectives

• Understand the level of ease for completing online transactions
• Discover pain points in the massmutual.com and app experience
• Explore ways the business can improve digital adoption

Methodology

We utilized the Jakob Nielson’s 10 Usability Heuristic Evaluation framework to identify design problems for our policy owners by better understanding potential violations in the user experience, human behavior, psychology, and information processing.

Key findings

After evaluating 18 customer facing transactions and capabilities, we found 107 violations:
• 48 on massmutual.com
• 59 on MassMutual App

Most common violations on MassMutual.com:• Match between system and real world
• Error prevention
• Consistency and standardsMost common violations on MassMutual App:• Consistency and standards/Visability of system status
• Flexibility and efficiency of use
• User control and freedom/Error prevention

Recommendations

1. Conduct proper data collection and integration to create a more seamless form, payment, and new business flows for customers and financial professionals.2. Prioritize visibility of system status by providing real-time status updates for application, change address, change ownership, and other prominent transactions.3. Increase consistency of standards,predictability, and accessibility with latest design system integration.4. Leverage the design system to create efficiency in development and maintenance of experiences to expedite new releases and bug fixes.

5. Incorporate personalization and predictive analytics to match between system and the real world.6. Modernize error handling and feedback loop to further address error prevention and increase flexibility and efficiency of use.7. Build an intutitive search interface to increase usability and streamline flows.

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