PASQUALE RUSSO

"Pasquale has been fantastic to work with. As a product manager, I often knew what I wanted to convey to clients, but not always how to best say it. This was where Pasquale came in. He would take the time to understand the rationale behind the content and was not afraid to ask questions as needed to make sure he truly understood. Without his expertise in this area, I believe our products would not have been nearly as successful."

Scott Thomason, Product Management Leader, Problem Solver, Visionary

Pasquale and I worked on an Agile team for a high-profile redesign of the client-facing website at TD Ameritrade. He played a key role in transforming a cumbersome workflow for moving funds in and out of brokerage accounts into one of the most recognized and successful redesigns firm-wide, winning praise from clients for its clarity and ease of use. The redesigned product received not one, but two awards from Corporate Insight, a competitive research firm.

Throughout our collaboration, Pasquale wordsmithed the content to make it clear and concise. He very professionally liaised with the legal team to eliminate confusing and wordy legal and financial jargon. He is knowledgeable about user experience best practices and knew exactly how to improve pages even further. He always had great ideas and was the perfect sounding board for the whole team.

Because content often dictated the layout of the digital workflows, our teamwork was especially critical, so we often worked on the copy and the design in unison. He was one of the best teammates I’ve worked with, always clever and witty, and the great synergy was evident in the results of our work. I would love to work with Pasquale again, and highly recommend him.

Ingrid Gabor, UX/Product Designer

Rethinking Money Movement. Client feedback drove the redesign of the deposit and transfer features at TD Ameritrade. The re-engineered solution led to easier asset transfers , timely account information and simplified ACH transfers for the company’s clients, as well as industry recognition for our hardworking Agile team. Curious about how we introduced these important features?

Take the product tour

A Rewiring Strategy. Thanks to apps like Zelle and Venmo, cash transfers are everyday occurrences. Wire transfers, however, are typically high-value transactions that seem complicated to novices. Unclear steps can raise anxiety about the potential for costly mistakes. When we started work on TD Ameritrade’s new responsive platform, it was time to clarify the process so that users knew exactly how to make a wire transfer.

Read my mind

There’s an App for That Too. Freelancers and their business clients can use this app to set up, manage and communicate about shared projects. As we prepared for a design review from the product owner, my UX design partner sent this initial draft of the screens used to set up accounts and create projects. My job was to flesh out a content strategy with our Figma software. The strategy had to consider the needs of users with different comfort levels with technology (based on user personas), be clearly worded, suggest needed changes to the design flow, and spot anything the designer missed. To keep the product owner well informed, it also had to mention research that could improve the app or point out coding issues we might encounter.

Here’s my plan

A New Card Game. Not so very long ago, any company that wanted this bank’s commercial credit card was forced to fill out lengthy paper forms for each employee—yes, paper. Thankfully, the bank developed a successful app that’s reduced processing time from days to hours. Customers lined up to run the software through its paces during pilot tests. Since the early tests were encouraging, we shifted our focus to supporting customers who wanted an even faster method: uploading data about 50 cardholders in a single file.

See our card trick

Digital Marketing Copy

"Pat was fantastic to work with. Not only are his writing skills superb, but his creativity and ability to ‘think outside the box’ are truly refreshing. I had the pleasure of working with Pat on one of the earliest electronic customer newsletters from a large corporation. Due to Pat's skills and determination, the subscription rate reached several hundred thousand in less than a year and the retention rate was quite high. Pat brings the perfect mixture of expertise, knowledge, and humor to any task he's given."

Scott Brenner, Online safety expert, email marketing pro, web strategist, web designer- developer, and digital marketing specialist

"Pat Russo is a talented writer... He is extremely creative and has a way of writing web content that is interesting, clever, and understandable. I personally value his opinion and run my own online marketing copy by him for insight and ideas all the time. He's not only gifted and kind, but he's also detail oriented analytical, resourceful and always ahead of deadline. He's a rare gem."

Cat Sommer, VP, Social media digital marketing, Wells Fargo Home Lending

I Know What You Did That Summer. The design and the wireframes were finished. What Prudential needed was copy—and quickly. The ambitious timeline gave me only a few months to write value propositions for a consumer and three business-to-business landing pages (institutional, advisor, and employer), along with multiple sections for each, and get them all approved. I thrive on deadlines; it was an enjoyable few months of writing.

View Employer pages

My Other Claim to Fame. It was hard to believe, but I checked. Hardly any life insurance firms had a way for someone to file an online claim back then. Prudential planned to be one of the first, and they wisely upped the ante by pairing this new online service with copy that gently addressed the practical needs of beneficiaries. I researched, planned and wrote content on funeral planning, emotional support and other helpful items. I only wish it had a better name (this one wasn’t my idea).

Meet the Survivor Center

The Wells Fargo Wagon. When Wells Fargo merged its mortgage and home equity businesses, I led a small team rewriting 500-plus webpages. We struggled toward an overly ambitious deadline while learning new design templates and struggling with new style and voice guidelines. Somehow, I also contributed a baker’s dozen of these tutorials to guide a consumer’s home-financing journey.

Tour the Renovation Center

Digital Troubleshooting. Too many of the people we turned down for home equity loans had the same problem: they didn’t understand what a lender wanted in an application. The solution—which we tested, revised and retested—put a speed bump in the application process by explaining the requirements simply, along with access to a few helpful tools.

Meet the loan arranger

Launching an Early Digital Newsletter. In the heyday of AT&T’s new corporate website, I enjoyed writing and managing the monthly editorial calendar of a fledgling email newsletter that promoted emerging tech and consumer services. It was a fun job that also involved inventing the promotions that built a 100K-subscriber base in two years.

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