HSBC's mutual funds platform has an outdated, ineffective onboarding process that fails to properly educate and guide investors. This misses major opportunities to increase engagement, activations, and revenue.
Redesigning onboarding presents a chance to leverage contextual, automated messaging to reach both novice and experienced investors. Tailored content can boost financial literacy, platform adoption, and most importantly - mutual fund conversions.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of HSBC.
The challenge was to create a seamless onboarding experience that catered to both novice and expert investors, addressing their unique needs while simplifying complex financial concepts.
Key to success was leveraging data triggers and investor insights to deliver relevant information at the right moment, enabling users to maximize the platform's potential. The goal was to design an adaptive experience that evolved with users, driving engagement and growth for HSBC's mutual funds business.
Need guided handholding to start investing confidently
Novice investors need clear, handholding guidance and education on investing basics to overcome their limited experience and feel empowered to confidently make their first purchases.
As a novice investor, I want simple explanations of investing concepts so I can understand the basics.
Need efficient tools to build portfolios
Experienced investors need efficient tools and easy comparison capabilities to analyze funds, in order to identify specific investments that will help build their portfolios.
As an experienced investor, I want to screen funds by multiple criteria so I can identify options to diversify my portfolio.
Worry about data privacy and AI trust
Business stakeholders have concerns about data privacy, customer trust in AI, and their team's lack of skills for building sophisticated recommendation algorithms.
As a business stakeholder, I want to ensure customer data protection so we maintain trust.
Our goal was to enhance onboarding by leveraging advisor relationships and curating personalized content. Keeping this opportunity in mind, we established four key principles:
By mapping the end-to-end investor journey in workshops, we identified barriers and changing motivations across touchpoints.
This revealed opportunities to reduce friction through tailored messaging. For example:
Analyzing user mindsets and pain points at each stage allowed us to design targeted content improving education, reassurance, and guidance across the journey.
The customer journey analysis was essential for tailoring messaging to address friction at different touchpoints.
Analyzing motivations revealed opportunities for tailored messaging:
Understanding evolving mindsets enabled targeted content at key moments, establishing relevance throughout the investor journey.
"Put your extra funds to work. Our robo-advisor makes investing your cash easy."
"It's never too early to start planning for retirement. Let our funds supplement your nest egg."
"Education costs can really add up. Get a head start by investing for future tuition."
"Times of volatility can generate opportunities. Connect with an advisor to discuss strategies."
"Idle cash loses value to inflation over time. Invest today to aim for higher returns."
"Invest regularly to grow your savings for the retirement lifestyle you want."
"Grow your education funds tax-efficiently. Explore our 529 college savings options."
"Have a long-term focus. Ride out market swings through diversification."
After much preparation, we successfully launched the new messaging experience, accomplishing a smooth release - an impressive feat for the team involved.
Even in its early stages, the solution surpassed expectations, driving significant increases in platform visits and engagement.
While positive, feedback also showed opportunities to further educate users on mutual fund investing concepts. Achieving full accuracy will take time as the system continues learning.
But the messaging capabilities have already proven a valuable addition to the investing experience. I look forward to seeing how continued refinements make the solution even more effective in the future.
