Learning a New Domain
August 2018. I joined as a Product Manager, though my background was in product design. Leadership specifically wanted someone who could bridge both disciplines. My first challenge: I knew nothing about payments, compliance, or risk operations. I spent my first two weeks just learning acronyms — chargebacks, OFAC, sanctions lists, false positive detection rates, KYC vs. CDD vs. EDD.
I could have faked expertise. Instead, I embraced being a beginner. I asked “stupid questions.” I took notes obsessively. I built a glossary. This beginner’s mindset became my superpower — I wasn’t constrained by “this is how we’ve always done it.”
Research methodology. I conducted extensive ethnographic research over 3 months: 30-40 investigator interviews across departments and seniority levels, multiple office locations, supervisor interviews, and full-shift shadowing sessions. Methods included contextual inquiry, task analysis, journey mapping, pain point identification, and cognitive load assessment — documented in Miro, Google Sheets, and screen recordings.
I created detailed journey maps for each department covering six phases (Case Assignment, Information Gathering, Analysis, Documentation, Approval/Escalation, Case Closure) — mapping actions, tools, time spent, pain points, emotional state, and failure points for each.
Key Research Findings
The Excel Nightmare. Every department managed cases in Excel spreadsheets passed around via email — not a shared database, not a ticketing system. A typical workflow: receive case email, open personal Excel tracker, log into Attack (copy transaction details), log into Admin (copy personal data), open Norkom (search risk flags), open World-Check (check against lists), manually compare, document in Excel, email supervisor, wait for response. For. Every. Single. Case.
Tool Fragmentation. Minimum 6 applications per case (Email, Excel, Attack, Admin, Norkom, World-Check) — some departments added LexisNexis, Dow Jones, and Google Maps for manual address verification. Each required separate login and different UI patterns. Average: ~50 clicks per case.
The Aha Moment. A senior investigator told me: “We are one company, but we use sooooo many tools for investigation.” World-class engineering, billions in payments — yet investigators were copying data manually between 6 systems, spending more time on tooling than actual investigation.
Departmental Silos. No shared case visibility (PEP couldn’t see SAR’s flags). No communication protocols. Same user under review by 3 departments simultaneously without anyone knowing. Duplicated effort, inconsistent decisions, frustrated investigators — and the real victims were customers.
