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Rethinking traditional financial planning for the digital world.
Role
Design Lead
Platforms
Web App
Year
2019-20
A familiar name, a new opportunity
In 2018, Edelman Financial Services merged with Financial Engines to create a financial service that provided both in-person advisors and digital advising services. With over 1.2 million users, they wanted to democratize financial planning using technology.
This is a chance to not fall into past pitfalls, an opportunity to focus on every little detail and truly delight our customers and silence the detractors…I want our competitors to study our designs and envy our craftsmanship.
Alexander Yavorskiy
VP of Engineering
Pillars to stand on
Through our discovery and research phases we were able to develop fundamental experience pillars to help drive all future design efforts within EFE.
1. Lead with the big picture
2. Show your math
3. Clear and natural language
4. Progressive detail
5. Planner assurance
6. Net Worth first
Growing with their users
New and legacy customers are part of a larger journey, with common concerns at each stage. We broke down their journey to help us create a wide variety of concepts for each stage while ensuring the ultimate designs scaled across the journey.
Lead (<1mo)
Prospect (1mo)
New User (1-6mos)
Short Tenure (2-3yrs)
Long Tenure (5+yrs)
Evaluating financial planning services
“Why is EFE different?”
“How will this improve my finances?”
Considering our value
“Is this the right planner for me?”
Testing the waters
“Am I getting what was promised?”
Questioning the ongoing value of the service
“Are the fees worth it?”
“The market dropped, am I okay?”
“Can I do this myself?”
Advocate but can get spooked with change
“Am I in good shape if my planner leaves?”
Staying agile
We worked with EFE in a quick and agile sprint format that allowed us to work as an extension of their team, not just as a contractor. Through this process we were able to iterate quickly and deliver designs based on their established roadmap while further informing our understanding of their current and prospective users.
4
Deliver
Production design and documentation for delivery to the EFE Product and Development teams.
1
Diverge
Identify business and user needs before diving into rapid, divergent concept iteration.
2
Converge
Convergent design on identified concepts for testing.
3
Test
User testing sessions to inform refinements and next steps.
4
Deliver
Production design and documentation for delivery to the EFE Product and Development teams.
1
Diverge
Identify business and user needs before diving into rapid, divergent concept iteration.
From idea to reality
Through each of our 15 sprints, we were able to execute and deliver new product features, expanded design systems and further understanding of EFE’s users and needs. As we were working directly with their developers in an agile workstream, we were also able to quickly review and adapt work to support a quick release while maintaining the quality in design they expected.
Success internally
and beyond
A total of 15 sprints were conducted across a variety of customer facing products. The new portal was able to help onboard a higher number of customers through better hold rates at the prospect stage and beyond. The work was award the Best in Fintech at the 2020 San Francisco Design Week.
The work you are doing is the best UI work I have seen produced in this company in years and some of the past work was produced by yours truly. I really mean it!
Alexander Yavorskiy
VP of Engineering