Content Design at BMO
New tone guidelines
A 200-year-old bank had a “voice and tone guidelines” document as part of its digital transformation, but the guide had two problems:
- It didn’t have actual tone guidelines.
- It was a 20-page PDF.
I stepped up with a framework to help the bank modulate its tone for a range of everyday situations.
Clarifying confusing marketing
The bank’s marketing department had launched a new promotion to encourage the use and adoption of Air Miles credit cards, having just acquired Air Miles the year before.
Their existing landing page wasn’t cutting it, though. They came to the design team for help.
Improving conversions
A bank was updating a credit card product, stopping all applications for 60 days before the refresh. The marketing department wanted to put an “under construction sign” on the product page for that entire time.
I thought we could do better.
Accurate information architecture
One of the bank’s product design teams needed to build a multi-product signup flow for multiple people—up to four people at once, in fact.
I leaned in temporarily from another team to see if content design could contribute to the solution.
Simplifying complex financial products
I’ve spent a lot of time building clear mental models for confusing financial products.
Writing samples include:
- Mortgage renewal tips (Canada)
- What is a secured credit card? (U.S.)
- Credit Builder Program page (coming soon)
Documenting enterprise CMS know-how
The bank spent untold sums of money adopting an enterprise content management system over 3 years, but very few people understood how to operate it when I arrived. It was plagued with bugs and configuration oversights, too.
I took it upon myself to learn how it worked through practice and making mistakes. Then I documented my mental models and extensive bug workarounds for reference and onboarding needs.
Other contributions
Award for excellence
A few months into joining, the managers put me forward for a an award for excellence and culture (the “Lucille Award”).
Accessibility content library
I helped save $7,000 per month in translation costs by creating bilingual library of accessibility content (alt text and ARIA labels) and CTAs.
Agile process improvements
I worked with the Scrum Master and QA Lead to introduce some process improvements, especially where the company’s CMS platform presented complications.
View my work by position
UX content at BMO
The Bank of Montreal brought me on to help them build content design system standards, processes for their enterprise CMS, and a fresh perspective on their UX practice.
UX content at Meta
Meta recruited me to improve the internal tools that power sales and support operations for tens of thousands of employees pushing advertising solutions every month.
UX content at Shopify
I helped relaunch Shopify's logistics and fulfillment service alongside program managers and product marketers, simplifying logistics and delivery for growing merchants.
Creator project: Employed Historian
I started a solo project during the pandemic to show liberal arts grads how to explore and build careers. This included a 100-page website, an ebook, and (almost) a podcast.
SEO and content marketing at aha insurance
I grew the company's organic search traffic from 1K to 60K per month, and helped to create one of the most cost-effective paid search campaigns in the industry.
SEO and content marketing at Honeypot Marketing
This is where I learned proper SEO strategy, email marketing, paid search tactics, and community managment, and how to bring it all together into a conversion funnel.
Want to work together? Let's chat.
Feel free to send an email if you'd like to chat.
I love talking shop over a cup of coffee, even if you just want a second opinion on something.
Coffee's on me.