GOVERNANCE UX · 2026
Truist
CTO
Governance
5+
ROLES
1
PRODUCT
3
GROUPS
20+
USERS
UX research, technical writing, and experience design for Truist's Core Technology Operations division, spanning stakeholder workshops, business analyst interviews, requirements documentation, and QA testing on the compliance monitoring system.
VISUALS PROTECTED DUE TO CLIENT NDA. THIS CASE STUDY PRESENTS PROCESS, STRATEGY, AND OUTCOMES ONLY.
UX RESEARCH
QA TESTING
TECHNICAL WRITING
GOVERNANCE STRATEGY
"Align technology operations standards to governance requirements across a top-10 U.S. financial institution, then help design the system that monitors them."
The Truist Core Technology Operations Adherence Monitoring Team was responsible for ensuring all CTO standards had proper alignment to internal and subsidiary governance requirements. The engagement required operating across multiple disciplines simultaneously: UX researcher, technical writer, business analyst, and QA tester. The work touched the full lifecycle from discovery through to system validation.
Five disciplines,
one engagement
01 - Creative Strategy
THE SCOPE
Governance work that crosses every lane
Most engagements have a defined lane. This one didn't. Ensuring CTO standards aligned with governance requirements meant working as a researcher during discovery, a technical writer during documentation, a business analyst during requirements sessions, and a QA tester during system validation. The work demanded full-spectrum thinking.
THE APPROACH
Research-led, documentation-grounded
The engagement was anchored in collaborative sessions with Standard Owners to align existing standards to governance requirements, then validated through insight-driven interviews with Business Analysts. Every conversation was structured to surface documentation gaps, not just surface opinions. Findings were translated directly into governance documentation and UI/UX improvement proposals.
Discovery through
validation
02 - The work
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
01
Collaborative sessions with Standard Owners
Led working sessions with Standard Owners to align CTO standards to internal and subsidiary governance requirements. Facilitated structured conversations to identify gaps between existing standards and compliance expectations.
TECHNICAL WRITING
03
Governance documentation authorship
Translated research findings and stakeholder requirements into precise governance documentation. Worked across legal, technical, and UX registers to produce documentation that served compliance needs while remaining usable for the teams implementing the standards.
RESEARCH
02
Insight-driven interviews with Business Analysts
Conducted comprehensive user research with Business Analysts to identify pain points, growth opportunities, and valued enhancements in the governance documentation process. Findings informed both documentation updates and system improvements.
QA TESTING
04
Compliance monitoring system validation
Performed QA testing on the system governing requirements monitoring, collaborating with development teams to propose and implement UI/UX improvements based on research findings. Validated that the system accurately reflected the governance requirements documented earlier in the engagement.
Why it was
designed this way
03 - Creative Direction
01
Starting with Standard Owners, not end users
In most UX engagements, research starts with end users. Here, the research started with Standard Owners because their compliance requirements were the foundation on which everything else was built. Getting that layer right before moving to user-facing work prevented downstream rework.
02
Treating documentation as a design artifact
Governance documentation at a financial institution is more than just compliance overhead; it's the interface between policy and practice. Applying design thinking to how requirements were structured, labeled, and communicated made the documentation more usable for the teams responsible for implementing and monitoring standards.
03
Closing the loop with QA
Research that doesn't connect to what gets built is incomplete. By staying engaged through QA testing, the research findings could be verified against the actual system rather than handed off and assumed to be implemented. This kept the work honest from discovery through delivery.
04
Leading leadership workshops
Facilitating workshops directly with leadership to address business needs required translating complex governance and UX concepts into language and priorities that resonated at the executive level. This positioned the research as a strategic input, not just a deliverable.
Standards that
hold
04 - Outcomes
Governance alignment
CTO standards aligned to internal and subsidiary governance requirements through structured collaboration with Standard Owners, reducing compliance risk for a top-10 U.S. financial institution.
System improvement
UI/UX improvements were proposed and implemented on the compliance monitoring system based on research findings, validated through QA testing before deployment.
Cross-functional delivery
A single engagement delivered research, documentation, and system validation across UX, technical writing, business analysis, and QA disciplines simultaneously, without handoff gaps.
MY ROLE
UX researcher, technical writer, business analyst, and QA tester across the full engagement lifecycle.
UX RESEARCH
WORKSHOP FACILITATION
TECHNICAL WRITING
STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
QA TESTING
Tools: Microsoft Excel · Powerpoint · Whiteboard