Vice president, head of emerging strategic partnerships
In Stephanie Schultz’s role heading up emerging partnerships within American Express's Digital Labs unit, she must incubate ideas that will touch customers’ lives in a meaningful way. One area that was of particular interest was the rapid growth of digital peer-to-peer payments and the potential positive experience it could create for Amex cardholders.
Schultz noted that the starting point of any P2P transaction already existed within the Amex cardholder base, in that one person was already using a card to pay for a shared meal or shared experience. The only thing missing was the ability to get paid back for the shared purchase. It was an opportunity for Amex, since some customers were already using third-party platforms to collect P2P payments.
This observation led to the “Send & Split” initiative, which Amex launched in partnership with PayPal.
It was Schultz’s job to conceptualize how the product would work, pitch it to PayPal (which owns the Venmo P2P app) and strike a partnership.
“The main challenge of Send & Split was that it was so novel, never having been done before — we didn’t know what to expect or the challenges we would be facing as we rolled it out to customers," Schultz said. "However, we did know it was something that our customers would value.”
Being a competitive gymnast in high school, specializing in the vault exercise, Schultz saw similarities between the sport and her leading partnerships in digital innovation: There’s always a sprint to the vault, as there is a sprint to striking a deal, and then that’s where the work begins in both the partnership and the gymnastic exercise. The product rollout is simply “sticking the landing," she said.
While the concept of splitting a payment into a P2P transaction sounds straightforward, the complexity extended beyond the physical mechanics of making it happen. It required striking a balance between two different companies with unique cultures.
Stephanie stands out by leading with an external perspective and bringing others along with her while she is motivating and influencing change … Along the way, Stephanie focuses on driving collaboration across teams to build commitment and buy-in for novel ideas.
One challenge Schultz has observed in working with many digital innovators is having to achieve the balance in design and approach. Startups and other tech companies often have the design attitude of “move fast and break things” vs. a more established company such as Amex, where customers have an expectation of stability.
“Innovation is hard,” said Schultz. “If it were easy everyone would be doing it. The most rewarding aspect of innovation is seeing when the customer starts using your idea.”
The process of creating Send & Split took two years from start to finish. It required a deep integration within the Amex mobile app that first allowed a cardholder to split a transaction with friends and family, and to request funds. The second step was enabling the Send portion, which moved sent funds to the American Express card as a statement credit instead of the funds staying in the Venmo wallet.
The new feature also allows a cardholder to track who’s paid and who still owes money, which is key when it comes to P2P payments.
Now with the new feature having been rolled out, the company has observed that Send & Split users are twice as engaged as the average mobile Amex user. Having stronger engagement leads to a host of positive cardholder attributes such as lower attrition rates and stronger utilization.
Nominating executive:
Doug Buckminster, vice chairman and group president, global consumer services group
What he says:
“Stephanie stands out by leading with an external perspective and bringing others along with her while she is motivating & influencing change … Along the way, Stephanie focuses on driving collaboration across teams to build commitment and buy-in for novel ideas. By applying these leadership behaviors, Stephanie has unlocked industry-first products and partnerships (e.g., Send & Split).”
