My Role
From January to June of 2021, I worked at FCAT, the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology - Fidelity's fintech incubator. Collaborating with a team of five interdisciplinary co-ops, my role was as the product owner, leading the team from ideation to MVP. Working with our design lead, Catherine Titcomb, I facilitated user research along with product testing and refinement to build a data-focused mobile application. Given that the product is still in the early phases of production at FCAT, I am unable to provide photos or details about the app itself. However, I would love to talk more about my experience.

Opportunity
Our team was given a brief that outlined a core problem: SEC EDGAR data forms are hard to use. EDGAR data, made publically available by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), are forms that detail stock market transactions and disclose (legal) insider activity which may provide important insights to investors. As they exist today, it is nearly impossible for the average investor to understand what or who to look for, and more importantly how to use this information to their advantage. As an interdisciplinary team comprised of a designer, data scientist, two software engineers, and product owner, we were tasked with creating a data product that used these forms to drive value to customers.
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Our team worked in two-week agile sprints led by our agile expert, Tess Wilde. We utilized JIRA to create stories and plan our work, presenting our progress to our board of advisors at the end of each sprint. As the product owner, I ensured that we had a steady flow of work within our development pipeline and that our research and insights were core components of our user experience and final product. Empathize During our first month, we dove heavily into research and competitive analysis to better understand the landscape of financial mobile applications and how other companies were using this SEC data. After conducting empathy interviews, speaking with subject matter experts, and using competitive products ourselves, we were able to gain the perspective needed to build this product.

Here's what we found.

1. This data provides the most value to intermediate/advanced investors
When trying to identify who we were building this application for, we found time and time again that this would not be a useful tool for novice investors. Given that the data were best understood within the context of current market trends, forecasting, and other basic metrics of a company's financial health, it was paramount that an investor using this platform had a solid financial education foundation. Fidelity prides itself in promoting responsible investment and we had to ensure that our target audience fell in line with the level of risk and hands-on trading associated with our data product. Through talking to participants in our initial interviews, we found that more seasoned investors could identify pain points in current tools and were curious enough about trading individual stocks to take the leap.

2. Current products lack inclusivity and are too complicated
As a team, we saw that many financial products on the market were so focused on data and less focused on successful data visualization. We recognized a need to go beyond the bare minimum of accessibility guidelines and design a product that simplified metrics and clarified key concepts in an inclusive way that benefitted all users.

3. Trust, Trust, Trust
When reading industry reports, understanding the current financial app market, and talking to users, it became clear that there is a lack of trust in financial institutions. Many interviewees expressed frustration with finding, navigating, and applying an overload of stock information, let alone understanding how these insights could influence their own strategies and decisions. We knew that we needed to be transparent and concise with how we presented our data so users understood the sources and timing of each metric.

Define
After a month of research, design thinking sprints, and empathy-driven interviews, we were able to define our ideal user, create core personas, and map out a user journey that would guide our phases of ideation, prototyping, and testing.

Ideate
This phase of my co-op was my favorite part, as I learned how to lead and work in a truly agile environment. My team and I utilized Mural to complete countless design thinking sessions, working through several frameworks including a one-week Google design sprint. I was responsible for leading the product vision, working most closely with our designer Catherine Titcomb to translate the user experience into an interface on UXPin before handing off wireframes to our developers. I relied on our data scientist, Shubhanshu Gupta, to clean the data and translate its complexities so I could better visualize and understand how it would translate to the customer. I also worked side by side with two developers, Dylan Burati and Alex Thammavongsa, to ensure we were integrating the right APIs and that the backend was linked to our data pipeline that would feed into the platform. Speaking for the product, it was imperative that I understood the full scope of the project and how each task would contribute to the final product. We often had to ask ourselves why we were doing things to ensure that we put the user at the forefront of all of our development.

Prototype
We used UXPin to prototype our ideas. We found ourselves constantly referring back to our user journey and site map, both of which adapted as we learned from our research, testing, and advisors. Catherine Titcomb took lead on presenting designs to various FCAT design teams and I was responsible for sharing our progress to our board of advisors, alongside my team. We went through countless iterations but always referred back to our value proposition and opportunity statement. Fidelity encouraged us to be customer-obsessed and I learned a lot about human-centered design and how to apply these concepts to complex data sets. Our user journey had three main components: explore, discover, and manage. We ensured that our decisions always centered around these ideas and that features and components fit into the experience. I took lead in prioritizing stories and making sure the team stayed on track to meet goals and expectations.

Test
Testing was an integral part of our product's development, as it always informed the next stage of work. We were lucky to test quickly and test often, letting our findings guide changes and pivots. We conducted several rounds of informal testing through interviews and guided prototype walkthroughs. Taking internal biases into consideration, I was then responsible for designing a Maxdif study alongside my team, working with an external vendor to get quotes, draft participants, and create the content for the study. These results were extremely informative and allowed us to narrow in our focus for the remainder of our time at FCAT. Once we had reached our MVP, I crafted a screener for the next round of testing and I was able to hand this off to the next team when our time ended.

Final Thoughts
This co-op was extremely unique and allowed me to have many creative liberties and leadership opportunities. Each day, I was overwhelmed with decisions to make and findings to consider, pushing me to develop my project management and human-centered design skills. Working with 4 talented individuals in completely different roles, we all wore many hats and encouraged each other to collaborate across disciplines; I attribute our clear communication and willingness to compromise to our overall success. From financial literacy to inclusive design, I was able to expand my knowledge on a plethora of topics and contribute to a product that I believe customers would love. Our product being pushed to the next phase of development serves as a testament to this notion.

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