As the youngest vice president at a Fortune 1000 financial services company, Lance Poole led the company’s product group through a revolutionary change in product development approach, increasing sales by more than 80% to over $2 billion. His strategy was deep in design-thinking theory, a skill he honed as a graduate of Stanford’s Institute of Design.
Poole is a demanded TEDx speaker on design thinking and has been recognized for his work in behavior design at Voya, Edward Jones and healthcare companies like Baptist Health Systems.
In 2015, Poole co-founded Maxwell, where he brought the principle of empathy to product design. During product development, the Maxwell team spoke to more than 1,000 mortgage professionals and homebuyers. Poole himself spent days shadowing loan officers and their teams, understanding their core pain points and where technology could relieve friction in the process.
Now, since its commercial launch in August 2016, Maxwell’s product has facilitated over $1.4 billion of loan volume.
WHAT IS ONE THING YOU WOULD TELL A YOUNGER VERSION OF YOURSELF?
One of the most important lessons I have learned involves having patience. At 25, it seemed like everything needed to happen now. At 36, it’s clear that most people (my younger self included!) underestimate what can be accomplished in three to five years and over estimate what is possible in the short term. Invest in the long term.
