When Capital One acquired Discover in a $35.3B deal, every debit card had to move from the Mastercard network to the newly-owned Discover network. I designed the support and servicing experience that made a high-stakes migration feel seamless for millions of cardholders.
EnterpriseScale servicing transformation
$35.3BAcquisition this supported
10moProject duration
My roleLead — support & servicing design
FocusUX, Service & Content Design, Strategy
PartnersPM, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Brand, Bank Voice
StatusLive — launched incrementally
Background A large-scale debit network migration
A complex transition that had to feel invisible.
This was a large-scale debit network migration requiring coordination across product, servicing, legal, risk, compliance, and operations teams. A cross-functional team of designers, PMs, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Brand, and frontline associates assembled to make a complex transition feel seamless, intentional, and low-effort.
I led the support and servicing design — preparing the associate flows that would resolve the top anticipated call drivers before they became escalations.
Redacted
Internal associate tool — blurred to respect confidentiality
The Problem Two sides of the same transition
Customer problem
Customers didn't ask for this. An unexpected replacement card created uncertainty about a basic need — access to their money. Concerns spanned recurring payments, wallet updates, merchant acceptance, travel and military timing conflicts, and possible duplicate replacements from loss or theft.
Business problem
Migrating debit onto an owned network was strategically critical for a scalable payments ecosystem. At scale, that required a predictable, low-effort experience that minimized call volume, escalations, manual servicing, and any disruption to purchase volume.
The happy path was easy to design.
The real work was everything that happens when customers don't follow it.
Ideal vs. Reality Designing for the unhappy path
Journey storyboard shared with leadership to align on the experience we were delivering
Ideal state — happy path
Customer is informed in advance, receives their Discover card, activates promptly, and updates recurring payments in-app. Their Mastercard stays active for 90 days, giving a clear, non-urgent transition window. Predictable, low-friction, done.
Reality
Many customers don't follow it. They miss emails. Cards get lost or stolen mid-conversion. They travel and return after their old card deactivated. When confusion arises, customers call in — making the call center a core part of the experience.
Key Design Challenges The edge cases I designed for
01
Lost / stolen during conversion
Customers who lost their Mastercard mid-conversion risked receiving two replacement cards — duplicate activation and duplicate payment-update work. I enhanced the existing associate servicing tool to:
Identify whether a customer was scheduled for a Discover card, and where they were in the conversion
Equip associates with context-specific talking points, surfaced through distinct stylized banners
Preserve the platform's existing content patterns so the experience stayed familiar for associates
What it enabled
Real-time visibility into Discover card issuance, clear guidance on when waiting reduced effort, and a reliable fallback for immediate access.
Why it mattered
Prevented unnecessary reissuance — saving delivery cost while sparing customers from doing activation and payment updates twice.
Edge caseCost savingsAssociate tooling
02
The "not ready yet" exception
Some customers couldn't activate immediately — travel, acceptance limits, military service, natural disasters. Under standard rules, their Mastercard deactivated after 130 days regardless. I introduced a way to briefly reactivate the Mastercard so they could keep accessing funds until ready. To prevent misuse, it was intentionally constrained: available once, limited to a short window beyond closure.
What it enabled
A temporary reactivation option with clear timelines and messaging designed to reduce urgency and anxiety during the transition.
Why it mattered
Customers kept a sense of control during exceptional circumstances — preserving trust while keeping the conversion governed.
Exception handlingRisk-constrainedTrust
03
"Can I get my Discover card early?"
Some customers proactively requested their card ahead of schedule. The initial instinct was to build a new flow. But on closer evaluation, a proactive request was functionally a replacement request — the customer was effectively asking to replace their Mastercard. Reframing it that way let us support early issuance through the existing lost/stolen replacement flow, instead of building a separate experience.
What it enabled
A controlled early-issuance path with built-in eligibility checks, using tooling and patterns associates already knew.
Why it mattered
Honored customer intent without one-off exceptions or operational risk — reducing unnecessary flows, technical debt, and associate cognitive load.
Systems thinkingReduced tech debtReframe
Associate Awareness System Mapping the full banner lifecycle
Associates lacked visibility into where customers were in the conversion. Banners had been built incrementally with no shared understanding of how one should transition to the next. I led the effort to map the full banner lifecycle across the journey — clarifying both the happy path and the unhappy path where delayed activation could cause failed payments or deactivation.
Redacted
Banner lifecycle mapped across the full conversion timeline — Day 0 through Day 130+
What it enabled
Journey-state banners with clear next-best-action guidance embedded directly in associate servicing tools.
Why it mattered
Improved first-call resolution, reduced handle time, prevented misrouting, and created a more predictable servicing experience.
Content Standardization One language across every touchpoint
Language around the new cards was inconsistent — "Discover debit card" vs. "debit card on the Discover network," full numbers vs. last four. This created confusion for customers and associates alike.
I created standardized terminology and content guidelines — a consistent way to refer to cards across every touchpoint, with rules for when to mention the network, the last four, and ATM vs. debit.
Why it mattered
Improved clarity, reduced miscommunication, and established a repeatable standard for future card experiences.
Servicing states mapped across each phase of the conversion window
Validation Under Constraint How you test what can't be tested
No user testing. So I built other proof.
This work operated under strict confidentiality — only partners read into the program could access designs, ruling out traditional user testing and external validation.
To navigate that, I partnered weekly with my PM and senior Bank Voice leaders — the teams who handle customer calls — to review flows, content, and decision logic, pressure-testing edge cases before launch. I also led Legal, Risk, and Compliance reviews, among the most rigorous checkpoints, ensuring transparency while outlining the downstream effects of every action.
Redacted
Error and edge-state handling reviewed with Legal, Risk & Compliance
Outcome Live in production
Successful mass reissuance
The conversion launched in two pilot waves — associates first, then customers — before scaling broadly. Over 750,000 debit cards have been replaced using the conversion-specific lost/stolen flow (as of November 2025), spanning high- and low-volume users — validating that the edge cases I designed for are actively running in production.
