OBJECTIVE

Define a single platform which would support diverse workflows across different asset classes within the investment portfolio

GOALS

Provide a single source of trusted data for monitoring and managing the portfolio

Reduce usage of disparate systems, email, and xls

Improve ability to use the data to quickly explore investment opportunities and adjust portfolio strategies

Increase efficiency in completing time sensitive regulatory requests and portfolio monitoring activities

Define a design system to ensure a consistent experience within the platform and accelerate development

APPROACH

DISCOVER
Understand + Emphatize

Conduct user research to understand users currrent experience, workflows and friction points in order to guide design scope and ideation.

Results of user research were shared with key stakeholders to focus discussions on users needs as well as business goals.

DEFINE
Ideate + Shape

Explore new portfolio management experiences through collobrative ideation workshops with key stakeholders and SMES. 

Based upon an agreed design scope, inital concept and visual design treatments were reviewed, refined and approved by the team

DESIGN
Evolve + Refine

Working closely with SMES from each asset class, the design evolved to meet user needs but remained true to the vision and established design system. 

User feedback sessions throughout the design process ensured the designs met their needs and increased workflow efficiencies.

Inital engagement
Over a six month period we conducted user research and defined the experience for Municipal Bonds (MUNI) which layed the foundational navigation framework, interaction model, and design system for the platform.

Extended engagement
While the designs for the MUNI asset class team were in development, we ramped up additional designers and resources to design cohesive experiences for the other asset class teams based on the work that was done for MUNI. 
 

INITAL ENGAGEMENT

Understanding the Current Experience

We conducted user research and workshops which included key stakeholders and users to review, refine and understand how the Investment Portfolio team managed their Portfolio across the asset classes. We defined experience wheels which we referenced throughout the project to help us keep in mind the goals of each persona as we designed the workstation to support efficient worksflows to help meet those goals.

Concepts

Explorations of the new Investment Portfolio experience started with initial concepts and visual design treatments leveraging the experience and workflow models we developed with the Investment Portfolio team. Once these were approved, an interactive prototype was created to begin to gather feedback from target users, drive user story generation, and design refinement

Design System

A design system was developed based on on early visual explorations to establish a standard for the development of the front-end presentation layer for the content, data, and charts on the platform. This system continued to grow and evolve to address the designs for different workflows and needs of various asset class teams.

EXTENDED ENGAGEMENT

DESIGNS

Dashboard
A customizable dashboard was designed to address individual needs to monitor and track specific deals, trades and portfolio overall performance.
This was role-based with a set of default charts displayed for each investment department.

Deals List supports tracking of potential deals and deals initated by the MUNIS team. The intial design of this list provided the foundational interaction model and data display framework which was reused to define a Deal List page specfic to workflow and needs of the other asset-class teams.

Working with the Structured Products SMEs we identified the need to evolve the Deals List page design to support horizontal scrolling by including the ability to lock in certain columns and an option which allowed for horizontal jumping to grouped/categorized columns within the list. This became the standard for all list within the platform going forward.

Muni's Deals List

Structured Products Deals List

DEAL FOLIO
Based on our user research we identified the need to view a deal from anywhere within the workstation which encompassed all necessary details and relevant historical communication. This reduced the need to always navigate to the Deals area or dig through other tools to have a wholistic view of a Deal.

The original folio designed for the Muni's team evolved as we explored investment type specific data needs of each team. Specifically, the size of the modal was made wider and sub navigation added increasing flexibility to display a variety of content within an easy to scan layout

Muni Deal Folio

Structure Products Deal Folio

Workflow
Display of single to multiple types of workflows demonstrates the flexibility of the design system and ability to support tracking of workflows which were currently lost in emails or other tools.
The platform allowed users to initate a workflow within the platform which would alert users within the workflow to their tasks as the workflow progressed.

Municpal Bonds Deal Folio

Structured Products Deal Folio

Corps Deal Folio

Portfolio Strategy Analysis (PSA)
Portfolio Analysts are focused on creating strategies and exploring possible scenarios for those strategies to forecast it's impact on their portfolio. We were able to quickly reuse components from other design efforts and quickly establish an interaction model to address the specific needs of this team and the flexibility to define data models for varies scenarios to enable comparions views critical for defining strategies each quarter.

OUTCOMES

Designed a single “source of truth” platform which reduced manual processes, connect teams and promote transparency & collaboration

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Created single Investment Portfolio platform which balances the use of consistent patterns of behavior and process across asset classes while considering their unique data characteristics and process requirements

Development team was able to rapidly launch the platform for MUNIS ahead of schedule and in parallel with continuing design efforts

Developed design system to help accelerate both design and development

Demonstrated value of UX design and strategy, built confidence that UX can facilitate teams of  SMEs

Design Sprint approach allowed team to focus on the prioritized user stories

"You were a key part of our transformational journey!!"
Engineering Manager/Project Sponsor

"Your partnership was integral in helping us on our journey, and we wouldn’t be where we’re at without you guys! In all honesty, you helped us better ourselves in how we think about ‘Design’, and everyone has appreciated and nourished the value from that!"
Product Owner/Project Manager

"We received positive feedback from every engagement you worked with us on from MIP, Munis, Structured Products, Corps and finally the PSAI analytics. Your expertise and execution strategy got us one step closer to reimagining our business process …"
Project Sponsor