Product design that grows the business.

Executive Director, Experience Design, Wells Fargo

70%less time to fund

15%+more account opens a year

+7%higher conversion

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From the campaign to the open account.

I started in agencies, leading design at R/GA, SMITH and Organic for brands like Microsoft, Nike and Verizon. Now I lead product design at Wells Fargo, covering everything a customer touches from first hearing about an account to opening it. I still design in Figma myself, and I’m quick to pick up agentic tools like Claude and Codex.

When I’m not designing, I’m making photographs, like the ones on this page.

How I lead

Designers I lead get promoted, and people I’ve hired now lead design at Capital One, Xbox, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Product leaders come to me for the view across projects and for what executives need to see before they approve.

“Delivering quality with Mark is always a question of when, never if.”

Andrew P., Lead Content Designer, Wells Fargo

“He’s a great mentor to designers and the guy you want at every pitch.”

Michael Holzer, former EVP of UX, HubSpot

Work that moved the numbers.

70%

Less time to fund. I led the design of an automated funding flow for new accounts, which contributed to 15%+ more weekly new funded accounts.

15%+

More account opens year over year. I provided design leadership for the daily testing pod behind it.

+7%

Higher conversion. I brought every team that touches account opening together to fix where customers dropped out.

+41%

More agent searches for American Family Insurance, after my team moved Find an Agent from 7th to 1st on the contact page.

$7M+

Raised for Feeding America in 6 weeks from 15,000+ donors, in a drive my Organic team built for Wells Fargo.

Gold Stevie^®

For LifeSync, the bank’s financial planning platform.

Trusted by

Product design with its roots in brand thinking.

Wells FargoExecutive Director, Experience Design2021–present

Designing account opening for an app with 33.7M active users.

At Wells Fargo, Executive Director is an officer title. I report to an executive, 2 levels below a Senior Vice President.

Account opening70% less time to fundI set the standard for digital account opening across Consumer and Business Banking, where 50% of consumer checking accounts now open digitally.

Credit Close-UpMy team designed a free FICO^® Score and credit report that now appears across the app.

LifeSyncGold Stevie^® winnerLed experience design for the bank’s financial planning platform, from start through launch and 2 major releases.

Experimentation15%+ more account opens a yearDesign leadership for a daily testing pod. The simpler version kept winning.

Debt-to-incomeMy team made debt-to-income easy to read, with each customer’s numbers already filled in.

Shewmaker ConsultingPrincipal Consultant2015–present

From startup concepts to the strategy that became LifeSync.

Wells FargoCarried the service concepts I started at Organic into experience concepts for the Emerging Affluent segment. That strategy became LifeSync once the bank hired me.

LifelinesShaped the product vision and experience for a digital wellness startup, working directly with Melissa & Doug founders Melissa and Doug Bernstein.

West MarineLed customer research and field studies as a player-coach, shaping the experience strategy for a new digital services platform with senior leadership.

WeatherBugLed the redesign of the iOS and Android apps, hands-on with the developers and product managers, and helped build the in-house design team.

OrganicExecutive Creative Director, UX2015–2020

Ran the same bank’s agency account, from campaigns to products.

Wells Fargo$8M+ a yearRan design for the bank’s agency account across 5 lines of business. My teams delivered its nationwide digital campaigns and designed products like Daily Change.

Feeding America$7M+ in 6 weeksBuilt the Wells Fargo Foundation’s Feeding America drive: 15,000+ donors gave $7M+ in 6 weeks, about 34M meals.

American Family Insurance+41% agent searchesEmbedded with AmFam’s in-house teams, my teams ran a monthly test-and-learn program and launched new sites for 189 agencies in 4 months.

Teams2 officesLed experience design across San Francisco and Detroit.

AIHelped create Synthetic, the agency’s division for AI-driven work, and taught clients how to use AI for their customers.

Prior leadershipSMITH · R/GA · Walmart eCommerce

Built design practices that shipped for Verizon, Microsoft and Walmart.

SMITH · Chief Experience OfficerSat on the executive team and brought 4 agencies together as one design practice, for clients like Microsoft and Honeywell.

R/GA · Executive Creative DirectorLed customer acquisition for Verizon Wireless and FiOS, and the global launch of Microsoft Surface.

Walmart eCommerce · Executive Creative DirectorOn loan from R/GA as in-house Executive Creative Director, leading creative from inside the business.

Talks

Velocitize Talks · The Human Side of AI · 2021

Recognition

Gold Stevie Award, 2024 · New Product of the Year, Financial Technology, for LifeSyncWells Fargo’s LifeSync announcement ↗

Chair, Creative Judging Committee, American Business Awards, 2014

Judge, American Business Awards, 2016–2019

Judge, Creativepool Annual Creative Awards, 2020

Great egret standing in teal and copper water reflections

Feet dangling above an arched wall against a turquoise sky

Kayaker silhouetted on an orange bay below a dark hill

Ionic columns on the Acropolis against a turquoise sky

People sitting on grass beneath palm trees by the water

Photography@markshewmaker on Instagram