In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer speaks with Bruno Monteiro, VP and Head of Digital Experience at HealthEquity, about what it truly takes to transform large organizations around customer journeys. From implementing journey management at JP Morgan Chase as a "Trojan horse" strategy to now leading an experience-centered transformation in healthcare, Bruno offers sharp, practical insights into how CX leaders can move from theory to enterprise-wide practice.

Bruno unpacks the challenges of scaling journey ownership, balancing business metrics with customer intent, and creating visibility through journey architectures. He dives into the need for shared accountability, behavior change, and empathy-building through real customer insights, beyond the limitations of synthetic data and dashboards. For anyone driving or scaling journey-based transformation, this episode is a masterclass.

Guest Bio

Bruno Monteiro is the Vice President and Head of Digital Experience at HealthEquity, where he leads digital transformation across web and mobile platforms to help millions of Americans manage their health and wealth. Previously, he was Executive Director and Head of Service Design at JP Morgan Chase, where he pioneered journey-based transformation using the "Experience Object Strategy." He is the creator of UNDesign, a mindset and methodology to dismantle legacy systems and drive systemic change. Bruno also teaches at SVA’s MFA in Design for Social Innovation and is a contributor to the Service Design Network.

Takeaways

• Journey Management Requires Real Accountability: Journey owners must have end-to-end decision-making power, not just titles.
• Balance Customer and Business Outcomes: True impact comes from aligning customer needs with measurable business value.
• Taxonomy is Foundational: Organizations need a shared language around journeys, jobs to be done, and experiences.
• Start Small, Then Scale: Begin with high-friction, high-volume journeys to prove value and gain traction.
• Design for Alignment, Not Just Execution: Orchestrating roadmaps across multiple teams and OKRs is key.
• NPS Isn’t Enough: It's useful for stakeholder buy-in, but real transformation needs layered metrics and operational data.
• Blueprinting Should Include System Decisions: “Service archaeology” reveals legacy constraints that block innovation.
• Don’t Just Show the Journey, Make It the Source of Truth: Create accessible, dynamic journey architecture systems.
• AI Has Limits in Empathy and Intent: Human insight is still essential for identifying emotional and contextual signals.

• Product Owners Must Evolve: The journey owner role is the next step in aligning teams around end-to-end outcomes.
• UNDesign Is About Dismantling to Rebuild: Bruno’s methodology encourages questioning, unlearning, and system transformation.

Chapters

00:00 Intro and the Trojan Horse at Chase

03:07 What it means to lead with journeys

07:33 Jobs to be Done vs. Journeys vs. Experiences

10:28 Journey architecture and taxonomy

14:10 Journey ownership and org structure at Chase

18:18 Accountability and the role of journey owners

21:34 Balancing business and customer outcomes

25:50 Coordinating the journey architecture

28:58 The evolution from product to journey management

34:33 Designing metrics that resonate with the business

39:37 Starting small and building behavior change

42:28 Selecting the first journeys to transform

43:41 Why NPS isn’t enough

46:00 Using layered metrics to reveal friction

50:04 Upskilling product owners for better discovery

51:40 Structuring research around journeys

55:27 AI’s limitations in customer empathy

58:16 Synthetic users and bias in design

01:02:29 AI can support, but not replace, deep research

01:05:27 Building empathy through real customer contact

01:08:16 Final advice and the vision of UNDesign

01:10:17 Where to find Bruno and follow his work

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