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Wells Fargo Merchant Services — Product Owner

Product Owner supporting two Pega-based MVP applications across Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) and operational workflows.

  • Served as Product Owner for two Pega-based applications: Risk Profile Assessment (RPA) and Shared Mailbox (SMB).
  • Partnered with Pega and cross-functional stakeholders to define, prioritize, and deliver MVP solutions for distinct business and operational needs.
  • Owned requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, workflows, and backlog priorities across the product lifecycle.

Risk Profile Assessment (RPA)

Internal underwriting & risk-monitoring tool for Merchant Services Risk & Credit teams.

  • Owned the product vision for an internal underwriting tool supporting periodic merchant risk review (yearly, quarterly, monthly, or custom cadence).
  • Led the migration of merchant risk analysis and underwriting workflows off an external vendor (Fiserv) onto an internal Wells Fargo platform, centralizing risk decisioning in-house.
  • Defined the core domain model — merchant information, risk exposure, risk rating, collateral, and credit approval amount — underpinning underwriting decisions.
  • Shaped requirements for the risk rating framework (Borrower, Collateral, and Asset Quality Ratings) and key exposure indicators such as chargebacks, refunds, and non-delivery exposure.
  • Partnered with Credit Officers, Risk & Compliance, Change Managers, and onshore/offshore development teams to deliver the MVP.
  • Owned the Pega front-end experience and workflow, consuming APIs and Kafka event messages from the backend credit-decisioning team to drive review setup and merchant data display.
Hierarchy Updates

Updated MVP RPA to add merchant hierarchy functionality.

  • Led requirements to upgrade the merchant hierarchy integration from API V1 to V2, supporting updated hierarchy relationships and data structures.
  • Expanded processing-volume analysis from a 12- to 13-month review window, giving Risk and Credit users additional merchant activity for underwriting decisions.
  • Added functionality surfacing prior credit problems for high-risk merchants, improving visibility into historical risk indicators during underwriting.

Shared Mailbox (SMB) Workflow Migration

Case-management application replacing manual, Outlook-based email handling with structured workflow and tracking.

  • Owned the product vision for migrating the Merchant Services shared Outlook mailbox into a Pega-based case-management solution.
  • Addressed operational risk and SLA breaches caused by manual email triage, lack of case tracking, and limited visibility into queue volume and aging.
  • Defined the case model: Email Triage (ET) cases for incoming mail and linked Service Request (SR) cases for required actions, with routing rules maintained by an Admin role.
  • Partnered with Operations leads, Change Managers, and onshore/offshore development teams to define intake rules, routing logic, and case workflows.
  • Improved auditability and SLA compliance by replacing inbox-based tracking with structured case assignment, escalation paths, and reporting.
  • Used the SMB foundation to stand up follow-on shared mailboxes within Merchant Services, including a mailbox routing payments tied to an Illinois state tax/tip/fee law.

Approach & Impact

  • Ran discovery using stakeholder interviews and MoSCoW prioritization to scope each MVP against real operational pain points.
  • Wrote and refined stories against the INVEST framework, with Given/When/Then acceptance criteria covering happy path, edge cases, permissions, and integration behavior.
  • Drove backlog refinement, sprint planning, and sprint review/demo as the primary business voice across both applications.
  • Defined reporting requirements feeding the Pega → Power BI pipeline and Grafana dashboards, giving Risk and Operations leadership visibility into case aging, queue backlog, and RPA completion metrics.
  • Managed the platform transition from Pega's legacy Cosmos UI framework to the newer Constellation design system, navigating functionality gaps and stakeholder expectations along the way.

UAT Testing

Owned User Acceptance Testing (UAT) planning and coordination for Pega-based MVP releases, ensuring business stakeholders validated functionality against acceptance criteria before go-live.

UAT Testing
  • Owned the UAT test plan, translating user stories and acceptance criteria into test scenarios covering happy path, edge cases, and permission-based access.
  • Validated Pega workflow behavior against business requirements before handoff to end users, catching gaps between designed functionality and actual business need.
  • Tracked and triaged defects surfaced during UAT, working with development teams to prioritize fixes against release timelines.
  • Documented test results and obtained formal sign-off from business stakeholders prior to production deployment.
UAT Coordination
  • Recruited and scheduled business-side UAT testers across Risk, Credit, and Operations teams, matching tester coverage to feature scope.
  • Ran daily UAT stand-ups and status check-ins to surface blockers, track testing progress, and manage timeline risk ahead of release.
  • Served as the primary liaison between business testers and the development team, clarifying requirements and reproducing reported issues.
  • Coordinated with Change Managers to align UAT completion with release and deployment schedules.
Key Steps to Conduct UAT
  • Defined UAT entry criteria, confirming the build was feature-complete and had passed QA/SIT before entering UAT.
  • Built test scripts mapped directly to acceptance criteria, so every story had a corresponding pass/fail scenario.
  • Set up a dedicated UAT environment with representative test data, avoiding false positives/negatives from stale or incomplete data.
  • Executed test scripts with business testers, logging results and defects in real time.
  • Triaged and retested defects, re-running affected scenarios after each fix.
  • Closed UAT with a formal sign-off from business stakeholders, confirming readiness for production release.

Agile Delivery Process — Shared Mailbox (SMB)

Delivery model used specifically for SMB — UAT after every sprint while building the MVP, sprint demos for stakeholder feedback, continuous iteration on that feedback, a final UAT signoff ahead of prod launch, and a post-launch warranty period with Grafana reporting to measure success.

1
Discovery

Interviewed Operations stakeholders to understand mailbox pain points, volume, and SLA risk before writing any requirements.

2
Groom Into Stories

Broke discovery findings into INVEST-aligned backlog stories with clear acceptance criteria, ready for sprint planning.

3
Sprint Build & UAT

Built the MVP sprint by sprint, running UAT after each sprint to validate functionality as it was delivered.

4
Demo & Iterate

Ran sprint demos to gather stakeholder feedback and continuously iterated on the product based on that feedback.

5
Final UAT & Launch

Closed with a final UAT signoff from business stakeholders, then moved to production launch.

6
Warranty & Reporting

Supported a post-go-live warranty period for defects and enhancements, and, where bandwidth allowed, built Grafana reporting to measure success.

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Agile Delivery Process — Shared Mailbox (SMB)

An iterative delivery model used specifically for SMB, combining stakeholder discovery, sprint-based MVP delivery, continuous UAT and feedback, final business signoff, and post-launch measurement.

1
Discover

Engaged Operations stakeholders to understand mailbox pain points, workflow challenges, volume, and SLA risk before defining requirements.

2
Refine the Backlog

Translated discovery findings into INVEST-aligned user stories with clear acceptance criteria and prioritized the backlog for delivery.

3
Build & Validate

Delivered the MVP incrementally across sprints, with UAT performed after each sprint to validate functionality and identify gaps early.

4
Demo & Iterate

Demonstrated sprint increments to stakeholders, captured feedback, and refined the product and backlog through continuous iteration.

5
Sign Off & Launch

Completed final UAT, secured business stakeholder signoff, and coordinated the production launch.

6
Warranty & Measure

Supported the post-launch warranty period for defects and enhancements, while using Grafana reporting to monitor adoption and operational results.

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