StashAway
Optimising for higher and more frequent investment deposit at StashAway
Company
StashAway
Industry
Wealth Management
Role
Full-time
Year
2022-2023
About the Business
StashAway is a wealth management startup that aims to help anyone to build generational wealth through persistent and long-term investments. The investment platform serves hundreds of thousands of investors, operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE, across native mobile apps and responsive web application.
Objective
I was part of the squad responsible optimising for higher deposit and lower withdrawal from the investment fund. The squad was made of 1 product manager, 1 product designer and a team of 5 software engineers across Singapore, Malaysia, and Europe. My time as a mid-level product designer on the 15+ people Product & Design team was split between:
Optimising Deposit, Reduce Deposit (70%) - We worked in 2-weeks sprint. I worked closely with the Product Manager to prepare and refine the backlog. Conduct research whenever necessary. Refine design iteratively, while keeping the software engineers in the loop for technical feedback. I also took responsibility of my own design by QA-ing my own work during and post development to ensure high-quality of work before the features are released to the hundreds of thousands of users across regions. Some of these squad projects include the roll out of a new deposit method (direct debit) across multiple regions, and incremented changes to prompt investors for better investment habits and ultimately higher deposit amount and frequency.
Product Design Process (30%) - As a member of the (once) 8-people Design team, I was expected to contributed to the team’s design process, from suggesting improvements to user research processes, reviewing the work of my peers, initiating L&D sessions, to maintaining and upgrading the design system routinely. Though these work weren’t too hard, thanks to the bricks laid by the product designers who have been part of the team.
Solution
Some of the most memorable and impactful projects I’ve lead in a capacity of a product designer over my 1.5 year stint at the wealth management startup were:
Shipping Direct Debit in Singapore - Supported the launch of an essential deposit method in their largest market (in terms of wealth available). This also includes the subsequent enhancements roll-out immediately after the new deposit method was shipped. We immediately hop onto implementing quick add-ons to address frictions that are beyond our control.
Shipped Direct Debit in UAE - Different partners involved. Different status quo compared to Southeast Asia. Supported the design work of an all-new deposit method in UAE (Lean FastTransfer). Including last minute support of late-stage sudden reiteration to tear the ideal design and flow down to a Minimum Viable Product.
Deposit optimising experiments - Led an experimentations group of colleagues from cross-functional departments to look into implementing experiments that can help us to drive long-term recurring deposit and direct debit adoption. From planning, organising, facilitating to designing, data projecting and impact estimation.
Deposit status tracking and timeline - unbeknownst to most people, human front-line still matters a lot in the robo-advisory space. After all, it is essential for a human touch that gives comfort when this go wrong for investors who have entrusted their hard-earned funds to the platform. Frustration with the duration of deposit became one of the loudest complaints from the users, overwhelming the customer experience team with enquiries. With direct access to these unhappy users and I conducted a research and subsequently explore and develop concepts on a more transparent communication of deposit timeline. This lead to the recently released deposit tracking feature that enables users to track the status of their funds as it goes from their bank, to our bank, and eventually converted into the investment assets, finally reducing users’ anxiety.
Some other contributions include Manual Fund Allocation to allow users to (as described 😅) manually allocate funds that were sent to StashAway without specific instructions. Blue sky exploration of a Pot of Fund feature, where users can store spare cash temporary and set up recurring transfer over to their investment portfolio consistently overtime, to pick up the dollar-cost average investing strategy that StashAway preaches.
Results and Impact
Some of my proudest achievements, with numbers included:
Shipped Direct Debit Deposit Feature in Singapore - In Singapore, the direct debit deposit feature facilitated a total of SGD 20+ million in deposits in the first 3 months post launch. This demonstrated the effectiveness of the feature in increasing investor deposit. (See “A tale of third-party integrations - learnings from our eGIRO launch” by my close colleague Patrick!)
Shipped Direct Debit Deposit Feature in UAE - Similarly, in the UAE market, the direct debit deposit feature garnered considerable traction, with USD 246,000 deposited within the first week of its introduction.
Lead and launched 5 deposit optimisation experiments within 6 months - Drove a data-driven approach to feature experimentation, to increase investor deposit, specifically via recurring deposits. One notable experiment involved implementing subtle nudges to encourage users to set up recurring deposits. This initiative resulted in RM37,000 in deposits within the first week, showcasing the impact of strategic interventions on user behaviour.
Contribution to StashAway's Design System - Actively contributed to the enhancement, optimisation, and maintenance of StashAway's Design System. Some notable improvements include web app components rebuild and visual “table of content” for the expansive component library.
Learnings
StashAway is especially memorable for me, as it where I first witness the product development carried out with diligence and care, as mentioned earlier. It was also a big step coming from being the only product designer to a team of 8 product designers with a wide range of experience.
I am thankful for the environment cultivated by the Product Design team over the years. I benefited greatly from the solid foundation laid by my predecessors. The collaborative support from various departments including product managers, customer experience, UX writing, product design, marketing, and data analysis has been invaluable.
Thanks to the unwavering support and confidence extended by my team and colleagues were pivotal in guiding me towards my decision to transition into the role of an independent contractor.
Note 💬
If you’re a business or hiring manager, this project is summarised and may not have dug into the details you might be looking for. I’d love to share more about any specifics of this project that may relevant to your context process, drop me a message and let’s chat!