Work
I built it as if I was the member.
That's the whole methodology. Everything else — the architecture, the branching logic, the decision not to automate something — follows from that one instinct.
Approach
Most conversational AI systems are built from the outside in. Someone maps the use cases, writes the intents, tests for edge cases. The result feels like a system that's been designed at members rather than for them.
I built ours differently. Every response goal, every button label, every branch point — I asked: if I were a member at 11pm trying to figure out why my transfer failed, would this actually help me? If not, it wasn't done.
The other thing I got right: I built for the integration I didn't have yet. Every deeplink in the system is a placeholder for an API call. The conversational logic doesn't change when the integration arrives — you swap one thing, not everything. That's not clever engineering, it's just knowing that the work you do today has to survive the decisions you haven't made yet.
Case study
TruMark Financial GVA
Three-bot system across public, authenticated, and mobile entry points — designed, built, and maintained by one person
Three bots, three entry points, one consistent design philosophy. The public bot is a concierge — it tells members what's possible and hands them off when they log in, passing conversation context forward. The auth bot is the workhorse — it handles the full intent taxonomy, classifies member needs, and routes to the right deeplink or diagnostic information. The mobile bot runs the same logic against a different UI.
Every intent falls into one of three categories: task (classify and deeplink), diagnostic (classify and inform), or handoff (empathy and route to a human). The system knows which category it's in before it asks its first question. No dead ends — a representative is always reachable through natural language, from anywhere, without a button.
Currently mid-rebrand: auditing every response goal, button, card, and link across all three bots for brand compliance, while simultaneously authoring net-new coverage for recently launched products.
View system map ↗Platforms owned
Glia Virtual Assistant
Conversational AI — full design, authoring, and maintenance ownership
Symitar Quest
Core banking system — member data, account management
MeridianLink
Loan origination and account opening
Fiserv Zelle
P2P payment integration and member support
Callsign
Digital identity and fraud intelligence
MANTL
Digital account opening
Background
Digital Solutions Associate II, TruMark Financial
Second promotion. Full platform ownership across six fintech systems. GVA design and implementation lead.
Digital Solutions, TruMark Financial
Joined during the shift to digital-first member services. Built the GVA from scratch.
General Manager, various
13 years of P&L ownership and operations. Learned that every failure is a systems problem wearing a people costume.