Background
Bank of America’s Experience Design (XD) organization includes roughly 200 full-time and contract designers distributed across the country, supported by a hybrid work model.
Once a quarter, full-time XDers join an All-Hands call to hear updates from the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) on priorities, initiatives, and key wins.
Problem
With the XD team dispersed across the country, maintaining a strong sense of culture and connection was difficult.
In eSAT surveys, XDers shared that they felt disconnected and wanted more direct communication from leadership on strategy, focus areas, and craft. Quarterly All-Hands provided high-level updates, but limited opportunities for deeper communication and connection.
Result
As a volunteer effort, I led a team of four to create Consumer & Business Banking’s (CBB) first newsletter, which inspired another XD team to launch their own grassroots newsletter (2023–2024).
After merging efforts, we partnered with the Senior Leadership Team to launch XD’s first organization-wide newsletter, which helped boost eSAT scores by 9% in just six months.
Primary: XD staff
XDers who want more transparency from leadership on strategy and craft, better visibility into impactful work happening across the org, and a deeper sense of connection with peers.
Secondary: Peers of the Head of XD
Digital executives who gain insight into XD’s strategy, craft, and culture, as well as awards and accolades that demonstrate our discipline, rigor, and impact.
To showcase how the XD Center of Excellence builds human-centered solutions and world-class experiences for the second largest bank in the U.S. and a Fortune 20 company, while strengthening our team culture through shared learning and celebration.
Blend executive thought leadership that highlights XD’s best practices, innovative solutions, and measured successes with team spotlights celebrating volunteer impact and personal achievements, showcasing both our strategic impact and the people behind the work through the following content structure:
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70% Craft + Insight: Provide specialized leadership, expertise, and guidance grounded in user, behavioral, and contextual insights to ensure high-quality, human-centered solutions.
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30% Intro + Collaboration: Leverage the strengths of our teammates and foster a stronger sense of community by encouraging dialogue and celebration.
Research on the XD identity
We immersed ourselves in Bank of America’s brand ecosystem by studying the company’s visual guidelines and reviewing previously shared XD executive decks to understand how XD had represented itself internally. What we found was an opportunity to create something that not only fit within the Bank’s broader identity, but also reflected the distinct voice and creativity of the XD org.
Design explorations & proposals
In Figma, we explored across two key dimensions, brand adherence and content density, to create a spectrum of visual options for the XD SLT to choose from. We defined 3 points on the spectrum (established, evolving, and experimental), created mood boards that embodied each aesthetic, produced a variety of wireframes, injected wireframes with each brand style, and refined down to 3 hi-fidelity concepts based off director feedback.
This approach helped leaders visualize how different balances of brand expression and information density could shape the tone of XD's identity, guiding us toward a direction that best balanced brand integrity with the organization's unique character. It also turned decision-making into a collaborative and engaging moment, giving each leader a voice in defining the future brand of XD.
Initial reviews with the XD SLT
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SLT aligned with our content strategy and committed to guiding content priorities for each issue.
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XD Directors were split across the 3 design directions.
Final review with the Head of XD
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Decision to
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Adopt Bank of America's established brand style to maintain consistency across enterprise communications
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Shift cadence from quarterly to monthly issues
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Shift production from Figma to MS Word for scalability, ease of contribution, and enterprise-wide access
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Result: major pivot in execution & visual expression
Execution model
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Distributed monthly as an email by the Head of XD
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Produced in MS Word and finalized as a PDF
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Established BofA brand style
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Lightweight, sustainable volunteer effort with a rotating team of designers and content strategists
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SLT-aligned content mix
Final template
With a production pivot to Microsoft Word, where formatting flexibility is limited, we focused on making the content-dense newsletter feel clean and grid-aligned, adding balanced pops of imagery and brand color to improve scanability and preserve XD’s unique identity.
