Summary

Problem

There were already many systems supporting advisors with clients and investment management, including in-house custom built solutions. However, the full capabilities of the existing systems were not available to advisors.

Solution

Unlocking these capabilities meant auditing the systems, their functionality, and intuitively structuring all the systems together to support all aspects of investment management:  account updates, fee management, and model management and investment research.

Outcome

After research and ideation, a general direction for the final state of the systems was provided, including low-level concepts and low fidelity wireframes documenting the vision for the end solution.

Problem

Pain Points

• Multiple aspects of investment management across various systems
• Confusion caused by duplicated functionality within systems
• Building custom solutions for resolved, complex problems

Solution Values

• Compartmentalize aspects of investment management to the optimal system for each functionality
• Eliminating multiple systems with the same functionality
• Reducing developmental costs for problems already solved by third-party systems

This project had several categories involving investment management:  investment proposals and research, model management, and account and fee management (which had potential impacts to advisory agreement paperwork). Each category was considered, with the understanding that each was a separate initiative, and their details would be finalized during development.

Process

My Contribution

Audited current custom-built and third-party systems and their capabilities and usability. Created low-level concepts for the future direction of the project. Conducted working sessions to create a vision for the final state of the front-end user experience.

Investment Research (and Proposals)

Heuristic Analysis

I conducted a heuristic evaluation of the current system advisors used for investment proposals (DAT). (Advisors' investment research was currently provided to them in a separate library of documentation.) Additionally, I compared the heuristics for two of three other systems (the last being unavailable to evaluate). 

Research with advisors was also administered, which required advisors to use pre-selected "steps" to construct and explain their process of creating proposals. (Images unavailable.)​

Model Management

Semi-Structured Interviews

In collaboration with product, the team organized semi-structured interviews to learn more about how advisors wanted to group models (account-level grouping of investments) and strategies (sleeve/sub-account-level of grouping investment strategies, as they were only able to create models in Model Allocation Builder (MAB), a custom-built software.

An audit of another model management system was also conducted to determine the differences in capabilities between the third-party system and the current custom-built solution.​

Account Updates and Fee Management

Auditing

After I reviewed the number of functions in the custom-built system, the team organized an audit of a third-party system. I utilized the information to determine which system should be used for each function based on the system's capabilities for that function as well as usability. 

These functions were grouped by combining the function that fit into similar categories, as influenced by affinity diagramming process (see Solution section).

Solution

Ideation

Visions and Concepts

Vision for connecting aspects of investment management for different users

Concept for the general system to system architecture

Affinity diagram for similar functions and assignment of system ownership

User Environment Design (UED*) Iterations

Initial UED created from the visions and concepts

Digital UED showing the functions owned by each system

Final UED after a working session with product

*UEDs help provide a general low-level concept for the system and how it connects for users from a front-end perspective.

Wireframes

These mockups showcase the UED at a higher fidelity throughout the multi-system investment management platform.

Investment Research

Heuristics, interview insights, and survey feedback revealed advisors needed a system for proposals that could also perform deep research of investment performance

​Heuristics, interview insights, and survey feedback revealed advisors needed a system for proposals that could also perform deep research of investment performance. Advisors preferred to keep the bulk action functionality they already had in the custom-built model creation tool, meaning the ideal investment research system should launch from the model creation tool to view performance. 

---

Model Management (Individual Account)

Research and audits conveyed the importance of systematics in relation to an individual account's model management, supporting systematics creation on account view

Despite advisors' preferences for bulk actions in the custom-built tool, the audit revealed the third-party system had many of the necessary capabilities for account management, except for creating systematic contributions and distributions (C/Ds). Given the impacts C/Ds have when managing the models and strategies assigned to an account, I had to consider the most ideal system to own this function. Because the custom-built solution currently tracked inputted information in cases in Salesforce, I determined the best location for this function was using a case in Salesforce to create these systematic C/Ds.

---

Account Management

An audit confirmed the third-party system should be used for account management, but positioning these functions in Salesforce provided the best experience

Account Updates

The audit divulged the third-party system had more available functionality for individual accounts, but advisors still used Salesforce to manage households, which all individual accounts belong to. To expand functionality without breaking the schema for account management, I decided "framing in" the third-party system to the individual account in Salesforce was the best experience, allowing advisors to keep their households, accounts, and data in Salesforce. 

---

Salesforce data tracking was already being used for fee changes, so submitting a Salesforce case offered the most streamlined process for users, especially when creating a new client agreement

Fee Changes

Similarly to systematics for accounts, fee management used a custom-built system that tracked the data using a case in Salesforce, so I chose to use case creation for fee management as well. This also allowed us to have branches in the flow depending on whether the fee was lowered, which involved notifying the client, or raised, which required a new advisory agreement to be signed by the client. Given the recent launch of a new paperwork tool, this also could allow us to embed the paperwork seamlessly into fee changes.

Outcomes

1

Comprehensive investment management capabilities and system architecture.​

2

Provided a vision for the team about the end system goal.

3

Demonstration of the system without the interference of high-fidelity designs.

Future Plan

Prioritization

• ​Determine roadmap for the entire project implementation
• Focus on one function/system at a time
• Develop communication around the upcoming restructure

Discovery

• Determine permission sets and which to use
• Research each phase individually
• Agilely discover and implement each part of the project

Reflection

Focusing on the overall system structure and high-level flows enabled us to envision the system's end state. However, the project initially began with investment research and proposals. If the team had started with high-level research to define the system’s end state from the outset, earlier decisions about the most suitable systems for each aspect of investment management could have been more effectively guided.

Back to Projects