E*TRADE:
ADVISOR CONNECT
PRODUCT DESIGN + USER EXPERIENCE ENGAGEMENT
THE ASK:
This project was prompted by a desire to retain existing ETRADE Advisors and stay current & competitive in the trading marketplace. KPIs included hard launch date, a user satisfaction % and building off of an in-progress Design Language System. It was a unique experience that allowed me to work alongside E*TRADE in-house folks to build a new internal platform for their Financial Advisors & Traders from scratch using limited tools and a fast moving go-to-market strategy.
Participation
UX/UI Design
Design Language
UX Research
Client
E*TRADE
Year
2021
THE CHALLENGE:
As this was intended to be an internal-facing tool, we had our user base at our fingertips; or so we thought. As we dove into the research, we found that this was meant to be a trading advisor retention tool which was meant to keep the current traders a platform that is modern and meets their needs while also intended as a shiny new promotable product to lure competition from other trading houses.
This meant we had to accommodate for building a Best-In-Class product along with making sure that not only E*TRADE folks were satisfied, but that it was appealing enough to coax in outside Advisors with their book of business.
THE PROCESS:
Another challenge was using piloting Adobe XD in a Sketch environment. Due to budget challenges & project constraints, our Team Lead requested that our team use only Windows PCs with XD for the prototyping aspect which would enable us to do iterative testing on the cheap. This meant we did not have assets or components ready for the other designers doing in the project. As such, I rebuilt their entire existing DLS from Sketch Library to Adobe CC Libraries in 2 weeks as the project ramped up to prepare properly.
As we gained traction, we iterated several early comps based on whiteboard sketches and LoFi wires. We established a group of SMEs to test and vet our work via 1-Week sprint cycles to ensure that our thinking was on track and make iterative adaptations on the fly. While the project progressed, we built a regular cadence of these reviews into the Agile sprint cycles for key stakeholders to participate in & provide feedback.
As we neared completion, we maintained a massive clickable prototype that spanned across hundreds of comps and clickable elements. This enabled us to pull specific areas to be tested without impeding the master prototype that linked across several XD Cloud files. Testing showed we were well within our KPIs & goals while we remained on-track for delivery.
THE RESULTS:
The linked prototypes below showcase the amount of work that went in while simulating the user journeys we needed to capture.
Due to the recent acquisition of ETRADE via Morgan Stanley, the Advisor Connect project was put on indefinite hold and our project shelved.
So, why show a product that never went live? I felt that the work and how it was done is worth discussing. Sometimes we have clients run out of budget and/or limited time-to-market. Team leaders and project managers must make sure that everyone has the tools they need & a full understanding of the project scope before any kind of design work can start. Use Estimation & Discovery as a tool to get an accurate assessment of scope alignment with your client as soon as possible.