Growing Advisor Adoption from 24% to 52%

The Problem

Northwestern Mutual's financial planning factfinding tool had low advisor adoption — just 24% of advisors were actively using the digital experience. The product served a B2B2C model: advisors are the direct users, but the end value flows to their clients. Low advisor adoption meant extra data entry effort was required for clients to get the full planning experience the firm had invested in building.

My Approach

Understanding the drop-off: I started with usage analytics to identify where advisors were abandoning the workflow, then conducted interviews to understand why. The data told me where the problem was; the conversations told me what the problem was.

Experimentation framework: I established a structured approach to testing changes — not just shipping features and hoping metrics moved. Each initiative had a clear hypothesis, success criteria, and measurement plan before development started.

Cross-functional alignment: Growing adoption required coordinated changes across engineering, design, marketing, AI, and data teams. I built consensus around prioritized initiatives by tying product work to measurable business outcomes that leadership cared about.

Iterative delivery: Rather than a single large redesign, I shipped incremental improvements informed by usage data and user feedback. Each release was an opportunity to learn and adjust.

The Outcome

Over the course of my time on this product, advisor usage grew from 24% to 52%. The digital financial planning experience eventually captured 100% of its addressable market share. More importantly, the experimentation culture I established continued to drive improvements after I transitioned to the AI platform role.

What I Learned

Adoption problems are rarely just UX problems. In B2B2C, you're selling the tool to the intermediary (advisor) on the promise that it makes their client relationships better. The unlock was framing every product change in terms of advisor-client value, not feature capability.