Heather Johnson: The Power of Client Empathy and Digital Innovation That Turns Small Ideas Into Global Platforms

As a part of our series about “Women Leading The Finance Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Johnson.

Heather Johnson is a Director in Digital Strategy at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. She is responsible for overseeing digital strategy and innovation including product management & execution, user experience, and digital adoption amongst the Field. Prior to joining Merrill, Heather worked in digital strategy for Capco, a management consulting firm.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the finance field?

I ended up here in a very roundabout way. My first love was studying Mandarin Chinese, which landed me in Shanghai, China after I graduated college. While I was there, I began working with an English language-learning app start-up, called Liulishuo, where I created and recorded English language content. It was there that I first recognized the power of technology and digital tools to transform the way that people learn, do business, and engage with the world. After a couple of years, I set my sights on working in NYC. I was fortunate to land a job working in digital strategy at a boutique consulting firm. There I was exposed to working with firms in the midst of total digital transformation, firms in the wealth management and insurance industries. One day, I received a phone call about an opportunity to work in digital strategy at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and I jumped at the chance.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

In 2018, the founder of Liulishuo called me and invited me to attend their IPO at the New York Stock Exchange. It was such a surreal moment. This language-learning app that a handful of us worked on around a kitchen table in Shanghai now had over 50 million users in over 175 countries! It made me realize, that when you design and build something that speaks specifically to what your clients want, the potential of your product is endless. It is so important to have empathy for your client, to understand what it is they are missing in their current experience and try to provide that in your product. The beauty of digital innovation is that is doesn’t always require a huge team, sometimes all it takes are a few people with a good idea and the drive to execute it.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are working on so many exciting projects at Merrill. In 2020, we rolled out a new advisor platform to 22k+ users at the same time that our entire workforce was moving to a work-from-home environment. Our new platform not only works well on laptops and iPads, but it allowed our advisors to achieve greater efficiencies in managing a high volume of client calls. It was a total game-changer.

This year, one project I’m especially excited about is our new advisor mobile app, which will be designed to help advisors quickly pull up critical client information such as real-time account performance and balances from their mobile device. We also will be expanding our “Client Insights” program that utilizes artificial intelligence and taps into our extensive database to allow advisors to provide highly personalized advice to their clients. It’s exciting to see Merrill truly becoming a leader in building advisor technology and using artificial intelligence and machine learning to bring extra value to our clients.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

2020 was an incredibly challenging year for our entire company. For my colleagues and I, we went from being an close-knit team that got lunch together every day, to now having gone almost an entire year without seeing each other face-to-face. However, through all of this, Bank of America and Merrill have been incredibly supportive. From sending masks directly to our homes, giving us weekly updates, providing child-care and leave benefits, and ensuring we had the right digital tools to do our jobs, the company has taken many proactive steps to take care of its workforce.

Some of my favorite stories have been watching my colleagues support each other. This year required everyone having to learn something new, whether that was hosting a client Webex for the first time or transitioning to using our advisor platform on an iPad. I have seen so many advisors and client associates teaching each other. One client associate started hosting a weekly Webex, where she taught her colleagues how to use all of our different digital tools and shared her best tips and practices. This type of “can-do” attitude across our entire field has been inspiring to watch.

Wall Street and Finance used to be an “all white boys club”. This has changed a lot recently. In your opinion, what caused this change?

As a young woman joining this industry right out of college and working specifically in a STEM role, I certainly have seen my fair share of “boys clubs.” However, one of the things that drew me to Merrill was the diverse representation across its leadership and commitment to making diversity a top priority. I think firms have realized that pursuing diversity in their workforce is about more than checking a box — diverse teams perform better. My role requires an immense amount of creativity, problem-solving, and thinking “outside of the box.” I’ve seen first-hand that a more diverse team leads to increased access to different ideas, solutions, and innovations.

When Merrill’s Chief Operating Officer, Kirstin Hill first accepted the role, I sent her a note saying how exciting it was to see a woman with a “seat at the table.” She wrote back and said there was a seat for me as well, and to “pull up a chair.” I am very fortunate that women before me have knocked down so many barriers, so that I don’t have to face the same challenges. I’m expecting my first child in July, a baby girl, and it’s suddenly become even more important to me that I pave the way for the women that will follow in my path.

Of course, despite the progress, we still have a lot more work to do to achieve parity. According to this report in CNBC, less than 17 percent of senior positions in investment banks are held by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/or c) society to support this movement going forward?

Give Women Access to Growth Roles: I think one of the most important things companies can do is actively seek to hire women into growth roles. If we’re not giving women roles that allow them to expand their responsibilities or manage large-scale, high profile projects then we’re not giving them that chance to prove they can be leaders.

Hire from Outside Your Network: I think it can be so easy to continuously fill roles from an established network that may be lacking in diversity. I remember I spoke to a friend once who was looking to fill a role and had reached out to several people on LinkedIn.I asked him if he had reached out to any women, and he admitted he hadn’t, mostly because he thought they might feel uncomfortable with a person they didn’t know reaching out. I told him, reach out to the women too! It might feel strange at first, but pushing past your comfort zone is absolutely critical for achieving parity in our workforce.

Men should Mentor Women too: While women mentoring other women is absolutely crucial, I think that men should also feel comfortable mentoring a woman. I have been in many positions where all of senior leadership on my team were men. I am so grateful for the men that have mentored me and given me access to roles that have allowed me to grow in my career.

According to this report in Fortune, nearly two-thirds of Americans can’t pass a basic test of financial literacy. In your opinion or experience what is the cause of these unfortunate numbers? If you had the power to make a change, what 3 things would you recommend to improve these numbers?

I think people are often too intimidated by investing to explore it further or they might think it’s too risky for them and not worth taking the chance. The good news is, Americans today have a wealth of financial information at their fingertips and also access to incredible technology that will help them save and invest their money. For people new to investing, I encourage them to:

Read about it online: Just like we can teach ourselves how to fix a sink on YouTube today, there are so many resources online that can teach you the basics of investing and finance! We have terrific free information on our Merrill website about all sort of financial topics, including tax tips, a 2021 financial checklist, and even investing in clean energy initiatives.

Check out a robo-advisor: Not everyone is up to the task of picking out investments and actively managing them. If this is the case, I would highly encourage you to check out a robo-advisor. A robo-advisor will help you determine your risk tolerance, investment goals, and expose you to different investment strategies. For example, our robo-platform, Merrill Guided Investing, can match you to a portfolio with companies that are doing environmental and social good. Your portfolio is then actively monitored and rebalanced by a team of portfolio managers from our Chief Investment Office.

Create a Personalized Financial Plan with help of an Advisor: Often, the older you are the more complex your financial world can become. In that case, sometimes it’s helpful to discuss your financial needs and investing priorities with a financial advisor. Our financial advisors utilize our digital planning tool, Merrill Personal Wealth Analysis to help you define and prioritize goals, take stock of your full financial picture, and evaluate trade-offs to create a personalized financial plan. The benefits of a personalized plan are, if your situation changes, your advisor can help you update your plan so you’re always staying on track to meet your goals.

Thank you for these excellent insights!