Investing together
Stockpile, launched in 2008, was one of the first trading applications that allowed users to buy/sell fractional shares of stock. Since that time, competitors such as Robinhood, Stash, and Acorns have all entered the investing space. I joined Stockpile to help the company redefine their mission and product from the ground up. Leveraging the existing fractional trading technology, we wanted to change the way people invest.
**THE PRODUCT HAS NOT HIT GENERAL RELEASE YET. THEREFORE, THE SCREENS SHOWN HAVE BEEN APPROVED AND ONLY A FRACTION OF THE FULL PRODUCT**
OUR GOAL
Our goal was to redefine, redesign, and rearchitect the product within 6 months.
We wanted the next version of Stockpile to be a platform for individuals to feel comfortable investing, regardless of their experience level.
MY ROLE
I was the lead designer for this initiative and worked closely with/ mentored another designer on the team.
I was responsible for:
Working with leadership to implement a design process
Discovery research
Interaction design
Visual design
Creating and maintaining the design system
Prototype testing
defining our mission
As a company, we knew that we wanted to build a new investment platform; however, we struggled with aligning on a mission. I planned and coordinated a week long design thinking workshop with the leadership team and business stakeholders to address this challenge.
Outcome of workshop
We explored different directions to take the new product while leveraging the existing technology that Stockpile had. We aligned on three main principles to guide us.
“make investing accessible to all”
“investors not traders”
“make investing comfortable and long-term”
understanding barriers to investing
Fear of failure
One of the biggest barriers to investing is the underlying fear of failing. When speaking to individuals across multiple income brackets, this was a common theme. This fear stemmed from the worry of making poor decisions and in turn, cause embarrassment.
FEAR OF COMMITTMENT
Another barrier we discovered was commitment. We learned that people generally put their money into sure things. Investing in the stock market, on the other hand, has no guarantee of success. Not having this guarantee deters them from committing money to the stock market.
we decided to build a platform to allow people to invest together
We quickly realized that we could tackle these barriers to investment by enabling friends and families to invest together. With a team of investors, failure becomes easier to handle and a shared responsibility. Additionally, as a group you make decisions together and the commitment to a particular decision is shared.
