Case Study
A strategic partnership integration that automated referrals, connected systems, and increased completed deals.
I led the product strategy and execution for New American Funding's partnership with Uqual, designing a seamless referral experience that connected customers, internal teams, and an external strategic partner. The solution automated referrals, integrated internal and external systems, and created a scalable customer recovery process that generated thousands of referrals each month and increased completed deals.
Every month, thousands of customers began a transaction but ultimately weren't qualified to move forward. Once they exited the process, there was no scalable way to help them improve their financial readiness or reconnect them with New American Funding when they became eligible.
New American Funding partnered with Uqual, a financial wellness company specializing in debt consolidation and financial coaching, to help these customers improve their financial health. The challenge was creating a seamless experience that automatically connected eligible customers with Uqual while keeping internal teams informed throughout the customer's journey.
The goal was to create a connected referral experience that benefited customers, internal teams, and both organizations while recovering opportunities that otherwise would have been lost.
I worked closely with Strategic Partnerships, Sales, Uqual, Engineering, and Data Services to understand how referrals were managed, how customer information moved between both organizations, and where friction existed throughout the process.
I met with Uqual multiple times each week to understand their business processes, technical requirements, and product roadmap while partnering with internal stakeholders to define a solution that aligned with both organizations. Together, we mapped the data exchanged between systems, defined the API requirements, and designed referral workflows that supported both automated and user-initiated referrals.
This discovery process helped define a product that not only connected two systems, but created a seamless experience for customers, internal teams, and our strategic partner.
My goal was to make the partnership feel like a natural extension of New American Funding's existing customer experience rather than a separate process.
I designed the referral workflows, defined the product requirements, and collaborated with both organizations to ensure customer information moved seamlessly between internal systems and Uqual's platform. This included mapping data between our microservices architecture, Strategic Partnership Services (SPS), Uqual's APIs, and Salesforce.
As the partnership evolved, I continued identifying opportunities to improve the customer and internal user experience. This included embedding referrals directly into the application experience, integrating Uqual updates into our internal CRM, creating dashboards to measure partnership performance, and expanding the platform to support additional referral workflows.
The partnership was designed to create a seamless experience for customers who weren't yet ready to complete a transaction while giving internal teams visibility into every step of the referral journey.
Customers who met specific qualification criteria during the application process were automatically offered the opportunity to connect with Uqual. Referral information was securely transferred between both organizations, eliminating manual processes and creating a frictionless customer experience.
Internal users could initiate referrals directly from the CRM and monitor customer progress without leaving the platform. Real-time updates from Uqual gave teams visibility into each customer's journey and helped them re-engage customers as they became qualified.
I designed the data mapping and product workflows that connected New American Funding's internal systems, Strategic Partnership Services (SPS), Uqual's APIs, and Salesforce. This ensured customer information remained synchronized throughout the referral lifecycle while minimizing manual effort for both organizations.
I partnered with our Data Services team to create shared reporting dashboards that gave both organizations visibility into referral volume, customer progress, and partnership performance. These insights helped measure the success of the partnership while identifying opportunities for continued growth and optimization.
4,000+
Referrals per month
~20%
Customer recovery
~240
Completed deals per month
~50%
Internal referral process adoption
One of the biggest lessons I took away from this project is that visibility creates trust.
Early in the partnership, internal teams had very little insight into what happened after they referred a customer. By integrating Uqual's progress directly into our CRM, they could see where each customer was in their journey and when they were ready to re-engage. That visibility gave teams confidence that their referrals were creating value, which ultimately encouraged greater adoption and increased participation in the partnership.
This project reinforced that successful partnerships aren't built through integrations alone. They're built by creating transparency, aligning incentives, and designing experiences that benefit everyone involved.