I am thrilled to announce that the Getting to Know series is sponsored by TEC Services Group. TEC Services Group is the leading technology and professional services firm in the credit collections industry offering both leading industry solutions along with unrivaled, unbiased, and experienced support. TEC is now extending its services by offering proven, industry-leading technology solutions alongside of our Professional Services to help Clients feel confident in their technology decisions. Learn more at ww.tecsg.com.
Friction isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to helping consumers make financial decisions, Shannon Brown has learned. It’s one of the many insights she has picked up during a decade spent at TrueML, where she uses design to help consumers and their financial well-being while also trying to dispel the belief that this industry and a good user experience are mutually exclusive. Read on to learn more about Shannon, her true feelings about Slack, and her unflinching love of KDramas.
Name: Shannon Brown
Job Title: Director of User Experience
Company: TrueML
Length of time at current company: 10 years
Length of time in industry: Also 10 years
How did you get your start in the industry?
I was drawn to the industry because it presented a significant challenge. I wanted to transform a historically stressful, low-trust financial space into a transparent, consumer-centric experience.
What is your career highlight so far?
At TrueML, my career highlight has been restructuring our design philosophy to balance automated machine learning with human-centered trust. We shifted our strategy to implement intentional friction for high-stakes financial decisions. By slowing users down during critical verification steps, we significantly reduced user error, increased successful repayment, and built measurable trust.
When or how are you most productive?
Early mornings before Slack becomes a contact sport. Give me quiet, earl grey tea, and zero notifications and I can solve almost anything, The afternoon is for collaboration, unblocking the team, and pretending I enjoy back-to-back meetings. 🙂
Which industry professional do you admire most?
The legal team at TrueML! Lauren Valenzuela, Kelly Knepper-Stephens, and Katie Neill are consumer-centric and deeply collaborative.They understand that compliance and user experience are not mutually exclusive. They help me balance regulatory requirements with transparency and trust, ensuring our products protect both the business and the consumer.
What is one thing you do better than everyone else?
Translating ambiguity into clarity. I can walk into a room full of competing opinions, a fuzzy problem, and three stakeholders with three different definitions of done, and walk out with an actual plan. It’s basically a superpower. A very niche, very PowerPoint-adjacent superpower.
What do you like most about this industry?
It is one of the few spaces where better design can have a tangible, immediate impact on someone’s financial well-being. When you get the experience right, it doesn’t just convert, it actually helps people.
What is one thing you wish you could change about this industry?
The assumption that our industry and a good user experience are at odds. In reality, clear, empathetic design almost always drives better consumer outcomes and better business results.
If you weren’t in this industry, what would you be doing?
I love behavioral science and understanding what makes people tick, so I’m interested in a role where I get to decode the patterns of human decision-making. Maybe criminal profiling or anthropology? Though honestly, if those fell through, I’d gladly pivot to analyzing the precise psychological breaking point of a KDrama audience to predict when they’ll succumb to second lead syndrome.
Describe a typical work day.
It usually starts with a review of what the team is shipping or stuck on, moves into a mix of 1:1s, cross-functional syncs, and design reviews, with pockets carved out for strategic thinking or writing. No two days are identical, which is mostly a feature, not a bug.
What is your guilty pleasure?
KDramas. Unapologetically and enthusiastically. The production quality, the slow burns, the dramatic pauses, honestly better UX storytelling than half the products I use.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
“Done is better than perfect,” but the full version: Ship it, learn from real users, then make it better.
What are you currently reading?
“Stiff” by Mary Roach (shout out to Get Lit!) and “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans
What is one fact you’d like everyone in the industry to know about you?
That bringing UX into our industry isn’t a novelty, it’s a necessity. The people navigating these experiences deserve the same design rigor that goes into any world-class product. Also, I will absolutely bring up the K-Drama equivalent of your product’s user journey if given the opportunity.
Who would you like to see answer these questions?
Asten Buckles or Thomas Overton
