FINRA × SCADpro
A SCADpro collaboration with FINRA, the regulator of every U.S. broker-dealer: a nineteen-person team auditing the brand and building the system that keeps it consistent.
Client work · under NDA
Selected materials shown
The Client
FINRA is the organization that regulates U.S. broker-dealers. Its brand lives across an enormous surface: public sites, investor education, member-facing portals, social channels, print. No single person could see all of it at once, which was exactly the problem.
The Brief
Build a flexible, cohesive system for applying the FINRA brand consistently across every digital and physical touchpoint, and hand it to the people who will run it.
What We Shipped
One research push, four deliverables built in parallel, one handoff: a brand and identity audit, a digital brand experience strategy, a brand asset library, and an internal communications toolkit. The research fed all four at once; nothing waited its turn.
The Audit · What We Found
The first deliverable read the brand as it stands, from every public touchpoint to how peer regulators present themselves. It closes on four areas of focus: what FINRA's brand needs most, in our own words. Accessibility ended up shaping everything downstream.
Communication
"Clear, human centered communication instead of heavy compliance language."
Cohesion
"A more unified digital experience that doesn't feel scattered or inconsistent."
Visibility
"Better public visibility, so people know what FINRA does before running into a problem."
Accessibility
"Accessibility for everyone, including multilingual and senior users."
The Strategy · What We Recommended
The second deliverable turns those findings into direction for the whole digital experience: how FINRA.com should be structured and voiced, and how every social channel around it should behave. For the website we argued three things: the value proposition belongs above the fold, one voice should carry across every page, and the narrative needs a clear hierarchy.
The Asset Library and the Toolkit
The last two deliverables answer the audit's hardest finding: consistency broke not because assets were missing, but because no one owned the moment of use. So neither one is a logo sheet. They are operating machinery: a portal that serves as the asset library's front door, and a toolkit that keeps feedback and kickoffs on brand.
01
Ready-to-go Design Portal
One searchable home for every template and asset, filtered by team and task. Nobody rebuilds a deck from scratch, nobody ships an off-brand one.
From the shipped asset library concept
02
Transparent Feedback Loop
A shared calendar where feedback has a deadline and a red dot, so review stops living in inboxes and brand decisions stop stalling.
From the shipped toolkit
03
Kickoff Kard
A one-card starter that hands any new project or new hire the brand essentials on day one: assets, guidelines, how-to, quick links, a person to ask.
From the shipped toolkit
My Part
One of the team's service designers, starting in the regulator track. For the audit I built user journey maps, service blueprints, and personas, the pages that chart how FINRA works on the inside, which is exactly why they stay off this page. I also carried a share of the website audit.
Most of my hands-on time went into the internal communications toolkit. When the team re-formed around deliverables after phase one, I moved with it, carrying research into synthesis and synthesis into production. On an engagement this size, that range is the job.
What I Took From It
"A studio brief holds still. A client brief moves: scope shifts, access is partial, the team re-forms mid-project. FINRA taught me to find the through-line anyway, to reconstruct what can be observed, to be precise about what can't, and to keep the work honest about which is which."
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