Fidelity Customer experience

Team Goal

The Alternative Investment product area has been in existence for 5 years. Initially, Fidelity provided Alternative Investments through manual processes. The primary objective for our team was to transition this manual process into a digital one, aiming to provide our users with a seamless experience.

What I do

My role: UX Designer, UI Designer

Tools: Figma, Miro, Jira

Team: Alternative Investment squad at Fidelity

Design Process

Within an Agile team, mutual support and collaborative knowledge-building are paramount. As a designer, my role revolves around comprehending user experiences, identifying pain points, and devising solutions to ensure a seamless experience. Throughout this iterative process, we receive requirements from the business side, and I collaborate closely with developers to define project scopes and deliver effective solutions.

User Flow

We segment the user journey into three categories: pre-login experience, subscription experience, and post-subscription experience. This holistic journey enables users to check eligibility and qualify, fund their accounts, make changes to their purchases and account maintenance, and receive ongoing assistance from an advisor throughout the entire process.

Key steps for Digital Experience

In total, there were 6-8 key steps for the user to purchase a new fund/subscribe. The manual process involved constant communication between advisors and customers, paperwork, and manual approvals. The objective of transitioning to a digital flow was to alleviate the workload for our advisors and empower users to navigate their own fund purchase experience autonomously.

Home Page

About "Alternative Investments": This section provides an overview of what Alternative Investments entail, offering users a brief introduction to the concept.
Categories:
- Home: This is the landing page of the website, providing users with an overview of the available content and navigation options.
- Program Overview: This section offers a comprehensive overview of the Alternative Investments program, including its objectives, benefits, and features.
- FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions section where users can find answers to common queries related to Alternative Investments.
- Glossary: A glossary of terms used in the context of Alternative Investments, providing users with definitions and explanations of key terms.
Your Investment Section:
- This section displays users' previous investments and a list of available funds. Users can view their investment history and explore additional investment opportunities.
New Opportunities:
- Users can access this section to discover new upcoming investment opportunities. This area provides information on the latest offerings and allows users to explore and potentially invest in new opportunities.

Program Overview Requirements:

Progress Indicator: Include a progress indicator to visually guide users through the program overview section, indicating their position within the content and allowing them to track their progress as they navigate through the information.
Fund Information:
- Fund Offerings: Provide details about the available funds within the program, including their names, types, and investment objectives.
- Fund Managers: List the fund managers responsible for overseeing each fund, along with their credentials and experience.
- Offering Highlights: Highlight key features and benefits of each fund offering, such as potential returns, risk levels, and investment strategies.
- Fund Video: Include videos or multimedia content that provide additional insights into each fund, featuring interviews with fund managers or animated explanations of investment strategies.

These elements will enhance the user's understanding of the program and its offerings, providing valuable information to support their investment decisions.

Account Selection Requirements:

Eligible Account List: Provide a comprehensive list of eligible accounts from which users can invest. This list should include various account types such as individual brokerage accounts, retirement accounts (e.g., IRAs, 401(k)s), trusts, and other applicable account types.
Account Descriptions: Include brief descriptions or tooltips for each eligible account type, explaining the features, benefits, and limitations of each account option. This information will help users understand which account type best suits their investment needs and financial goals.
Account Eligibility Criteria: Clearly outline the eligibility criteria for each account type, specifying any requirements or restrictions that users must meet to open or invest through each account.
Account Selection Process: Provide a user-friendly interface or step-by-step process for selecting an account from the eligible list. This process should guide users through account selection, ensuring they understand their options and can make informed decisions.

Subscription Details Requirements:

Investment Amount Input: Provide a field where users can input the amount they want to invest. This field should allow users to enter the desired investment amount based on their preferences and financial goals.
Investor Details Section: Present users with a series of yes/no questions in the Investor Details section to proceed. These questions should gather relevant information from users to assess their investment preferences, risk tolerance, and eligibility for the subscription.
Fee Waiver Option: Offer users the option to waive the subscription fee by answering a set of questions and providing the required information. Users who meet certain criteria or eligibility requirements may qualify for a fee waiver, which can be processed upon successful completion of the questionnaire.

By implementing these features, the Subscription Details section will enable users to customize their investment amount, provide necessary details to proceed with the subscription, and potentially waive the subscription fee based on their responses and eligibility.

Agree to terms Requirements:

Consent Process: Users must consent to each document individually by opening them manually and scrolling to the bottom of each PDF to proceed. This ensures users acknowledge and agree to the terms outlined in each document before continuing with the experience.
Challenges Faced: Designing the Agree to Terms page presented several challenges, particularly with the functionality. Issues included difficulty in navigating and understanding the consent process, as well as concerns regarding accessibility compliance.
User Feedback: The feedback received from users highlighted confusion surrounding the requirement to scroll to the bottom of each document. Additionally, there were concerns raised about the accessibility criteria, prompting the need for adjustments to ensure compliance.
Improvements Needed: To address user concerns and enhance the usability of the Agree to Terms page, improvements such as clearer instructions, simplified navigation, and enhanced accessibility features should be implemented. This may involve redesigning the consent process to make it more intuitive and user-friendly, as well as ensuring compatibility with assistive technologies for users with disabilities.

By addressing these challenges and making necessary improvements, the Agree to Terms page can provide users with a smoother and more transparent experience, ensuring they fully understand and consent to the terms outlined in each document before proceeding.

Next Steps Requirements:

Subscription Processing Details: Provide users with a clear overview of how their subscription will be processed. This may include information on payment processing, account setup, and timeline for fund allocation or investment activation.
Expectations: Communicate to users what they can expect next after completing the subscription process. This may include confirmation emails, account verification steps, or any additional actions required from the user's end.
Subscription Details: Display a summary of the subscription details, including the investment amount, selected funds or investment options, and any associated fees or charges.
Consented Documents: Present users with a list of documents they have consented to during the subscription process. This ensures transparency and allows users to review the terms and conditions they have agreed to.

By providing users with clear guidance on the next steps, as well as a summary of their subscription details and consented documents, the Next Steps page ensures a smooth and transparent post-subscription experience for users.

Target Asset Management Tool

Project Need:

The tool aims to assist users in targeting their goal investments effectively. By utilizing this tool, users will gain insights into their exposure to multiple funds, allocate their investments based on their risk tolerance, and simplify their financial picture.

Key Objectives:

Goal Targeting: Enable users to set and track their investment goals, whether it's saving for retirement, purchasing a home, or funding education expenses.
Portfolio Diversification: Provide users with a comprehensive view of their investments across various funds, allowing them to assess their exposure and diversify their portfolio accordingly.
Risk Assessment: Offer users tools to evaluate their risk tolerance and tailor their investment allocations to align with their risk preferences and financial objectives.
Financial Simplification: Streamline users' financial landscape by consolidating investment information and presenting it in an easily understandable format, facilitating informed decision-making.

By addressing these objectives, the tool aims to empower users to make informed investment decisions, optimize their portfolio, and progress towards their financial goals effectively.

Learning Agenda:

By following these steps, individuals or teams can effectively identify learning needs, set actionable goals, and create a structured plan for continuous growth and development. This exercise fosters a culture of learning and improvement, enabling individuals and organizations to stay agile, adaptable, and competitive in their respective fields.

Problem Statement

I am an advisor with a client who:

Is qualified to own alternative investments
Does not own any alternative investments today
They may benefit from owning alternative investments and I am trying to help this client strengthen their financial plan.

But, GPO does not have a way for me to easily and simply show this client the benefit alternative investments could bring to their financial plan. I am unsure how to best position these investments in client conversations and I'm worried I'll just create confusion for the client.

The consequence for Fidelity is that our Alternatives offering is not being positioned to clients in the context of their financial planning goals during advisor-client conversations, limiting the investment guidance that advisors can confidently provide.

We believe that by enabling a scenario comparison experience in GPQ that includes hypothetical projections with and without alternative investments will allow advisors to have deeper conversations and create more personalized investment solutions for clients.

I am a client who:

Is qualified to own alternative investments
Does not own any alternative investments today
May benefit from owning alternative investments and I am trying to strengthen my financial plan.

But, GPQ does not have a way for my advisor to easily and simply show me the benefit alternative investments could bring to my financial plan.I am unsure how these investments could benefit me and my specific financial situation and I'm worried these types of investments are just too complicated for me to understand.

We believe that by enabling a scenario comparison experience in GPQ that includes hypothetical projections with and without alternative investments will enable clients to have deeper conversations with their advisors and receive more personalized investment solutions.

Hypothesis

We believe that by adding an experience that allows advisors to easily and confidently present a plan with alternatives included will enable our customers to make an informed decision to purchase alternative in the Fidelity platform. This will provide our customers with the confidence to purchase alternatives but will also create a deeper relationship knowing that Fidelity is providing the most options available to the client.

We will be able to track the number of clients that are provided with the

TAM with Alternative, we will then be able to track over a span of 30/60/90 days if the clients portfolio that have purchased Alternatives leading to a direct correlation to presentation of the TAM.

Final Product