HSBC
Engage Funds Customers
HSBC's mutual funds platform has an outdated, ineffective onboarding process that fails to properly educate and guide investors.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.
My Role
As UX lead, I drove research uncovering investor needs and onboarding pain points. This informed core principles for personalization and control.
I explored options before designing website messaging and a walkme widget guiding novices. My team iterated extensively based on usability studies.
Facilitating workshops, I spearheaded a tailored messaging system personalized by data triggers.
Collaborating cross-functionally, I oversaw tailored experiences for novice and expert investors.
Post-launch, I analyzed performance and continued refining the approach.
The Challenge
The ideal solution uses data triggers and investor insights to deliver the right information at the right time. This empowers all customer types to fully utilize the platform's capabilities.
The goal is an intelligent onboarding experience that evolves with users to unlock the platform's full potential and drive growth for HSBC's mutual funds business.
Target Audience
Novice investor
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.
Experienced Investors
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.
Business Stakeholders
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.
How might we…
... enhance onboarding experience by leveraging the trusted connection between financial advisors and customers, while curating relevant and timely content?
Defining Success
Our goal was to enhance onboarding by leveraging advisor relationships and curating personalized content. Keeping this opportunity in mind, we established four key principles:
Customer Control
Don’t Spam
A Human Touch
Contextual Recommendations
Customer Journey Map
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:
Simplifying jargon during research to avoid overwhelming users.
Offering encouragement during first purchases to mitigate anxiety.
Providing ongoing performance analytics to increase engagement.
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.
Content Types
Analyzing motivations revealed opportunities for tailored messaging:
Awareness - Welcome guides demystify investing for novices.
First Purchase - Tips demonstrate investing idle cash.
Ongoing Use - Calculators project retirement savings.
Market Volatility - Notifications advise responding to shifts.
Life Events - Milestones nudge starting an education fund.
Major Purchases - Tools recommend allocating windfalls.
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."
"Idle cash loses value to inflation over time. Invest today to aim for higher returns."
"It's never too early to start planning for retirement. Let our funds supplement your nest egg."
"Invest regularly to grow your savings for the retirement lifestyle you want."
"Education costs can really add up. Get a head start by investing for future tuition."
"Grow your education funds tax-efficiently. Explore our 529 college savings options."
"Times of volatility can generate opportunities. Connect with an advisor to discuss strategies."
"Have a long-term focus. Ride out market swings through diversification."
Exploration
Physical Branch Experience
Welcome kits for new investors explaining basics of funds
Workshop series covering topics like goal-setting, asset allocation
Meet-and-greet with fund managers for Q&A sessions
Portfolio reviews with advisors at key milestones
Mobile App Experience
Push notifications for onboarding reminders/tips
Document upload and ID verification in-app
Guided tutorials for using app features
Chatbot for assistance when stuck
HSBC Website
Provides general education and awareness about investments
Allows prospecting customers to research and learn about HSBC funds
Goal is to attract new customers and guide them to open accounts
Chosen Solution
Personalized Messaging On Website
The Launch
27% increase in platform visits
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.
