FIDELITY FINANCIAL TOOLS
The Brief
Fidelity wanted to increase engagement and market share with the younger demographic (typically their audience consisted of the older more established adults age 55 and over.) In order to understand and reach this audience, my team and I researched their behaviors, wants and needs through surveys, focus groups, and secondary research on trends.
What we found was surprising, but also understandable. Younger people, even those that were on top of most other areas of their life, were often were ignoring their financial picture because of fear of the unknown. So much of financial literacy, tools and marketing is targeted towards a more informed and engaged consumer, and this was where we found a gap in the market.
We evaluated Fidelity’s existing tool set that is used in financial education and management and found them difficult to use and often redundant. In order to combat this and craft an entire experience for our younger audience we strategized a new type of tool that would engage and respond to the user on a much more personalized, curated and proactive way. What also really differentiated our offering from the rest was that it integrated a personal and emotive communication style based on the data about the consumer’s frame of mind and personality. To support this kind of execution, we also crafted a CRM plan which included the types of data that would be needed to be collected.
The final result of our efforts were videos that illustrated the new tools and how they would integrated into the lives of our younger consumer. These videos were shown to Abby Johnson, CEO of Fidelity Investments, and were extremely well received and initiated deeper work in the area.
Role: Associate UX Director (Lead & Oversaw: Content Audit, Brainstorming Sessions, Experience Journeys, Wireframes, Creative Direction)
Direct Reports: 2 UX Designers, Creative Director, Technologist
Year: 2012
Understanding the User
It’s not just about what what needs to be said, but about how it needs to be said.
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Fidelity’s methodology remained the same in how to repond to a trigger event. For example, if you were 26 and get a windfall of money from an inheritance, Fidelity will suggest that you diversify how you invest that money. This is did not change whether you were a Confident Collaborator or an Expert Independent Investor.
How Fidelity delivered Guidance supporting that methodology needed to change based on who the user is. A Confident Collaborator may need to have dialogue with a rep to be able to better understand and know how to act whereas the Expert Independent Investor may want to see Fidelity organize funds into a set of diverse categories based on aggressiveness and ratings.
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Emotionally based needs and goals told us how to best tailor Guidance to a user.
Integrating with the Site
Integrating our dynamic tool into a site that was fairly static and had very inflexible navigation paths was going to be a challenge. Â In order to prime ourselves and our stakeholders for this, we broke down the strategy for a more modular approach into comparisons on the market. Â Also, knowing that change would not happen over night, we created a plan for a phased rollout
Designing the Product
