Innovating flows for retirement and investment planning for Zugo's clients
My Focus: User Flows & Interaction Design
FinTech B2C
London
10-20
Problem
How might we empower individuals, with limited financial knowledge, to take control of their investments and plan for their retirement?
My Role
Translated insights from financial advisors into user-centered solutions, bridging the gap between advisor expertise and client needs.
Led a cross-functional team (front-end developers, project managers, and a UI designer), managing timelines, prioritizing features based on team bandwidth, and collaborating with the CTO on product roadmap planning.
57%
64%
5
Key Features
Demystifying Risk
By visualizing financial tolerance, we empowered users to make informed decisions, aligning with marketing principles of transparency and building trust.
Empowering Control
Providing easy access to account information like ISA allowance and fund distribution increased user engagement, applying marketing principles of reducing friction and enabling action.
Building Trust
Expanding Horizons
By showcasing both current and potential investments, we encourage users to explore new opportunities, applying marketing principles of cross-selling and up-selling in a user-friendly way.
Summary of my end-to-end process
As much as I would have loved to follow a linear double-diamond process, startup culture is geared more towards producing fast results and learning from mistakes. My process to adapt in this setup was "Fail fast, Learn fast" as I have for my previous experiences as well.
This method helped me produce two B2B SaaS products for our wealth manager clients, as well as the above B2C product for end-user clients in a span of 6 months.
Scoping the challenges for our potential clients (Wealth Managers & Financial Advisors)
Through stakeholder inquiries internally with our CFO and CEO (who are recognized as financial advisors by UK Government), I was able to find the top priorities for our clients.
Positioning Zugo's product had to be different than the existing ones in the market, like Revolut, Monzo, eTorro or Trading212.
Prioritizing customer pain points for MVP
Balancing business use case with the customer's pain points was crucial and was achieved by leveraging insights from AI-driven platforms as the primary goal for Zugo was building the MVP by Q1 2025. Enhancing the product with testing and research was pushed as an objective for Q3-Q4 2025.
How I adapted to the twists in the product journey
Initial Goal
Few of the business goals that were setup prior to my research had to be revisited.
Constraints
However, there were a few company challenges that had to be kept in mind as Zugo was only a seed-funded startup.
Updated Goals for MVP
However, there were a few company challenges that had to be kept in mind as Zugo was only a seed-funded startup.
Adapted Approach
Given the constraints, I had to adapt in my process and find ways to meet the updated goals.
Success Metrics
I had to setup the metrics with our CTO that would balance Zugo’s and the client’s goals.
Defining: Customer's Journey
Assumption: Customers who will use Zugo's product would have tried other investing platforms and may not be a returning user for those platforms/companies.
Our target was to ensure that new and returning clients objective are being met by keeping the business success metrics in mind, as defined above.
New User
Returning Users
Customer shares their goals
Most of the trading and investments apps like Trading212, Vanguard or Freetrade don't provide personalized care to their customers. Zugo's users will be provided with personalized journey to meet their goals.
Customer shares their financial health
Each customer will be provided with a list of fields to share as much financial information that they feel comfortable sharing with Zugo.
Customer can visually analyze their goal
Based on the financial data shared, each user will be able to visually notice a change in their projected financial future.
Instant feedback given to the customers
Zugo's AI will track and provide instant feedback to the customers.
Customers can perform actions to meet their goals
Zugo's AI driven by the financial expert's advice will provide steps to the customers to improve their financial health.
There were a lot of features that were pushed for Q2 - 2025 that targeted security measures, establishing communication for supporting customers, as well as expanding the fund lists by integrating APIs from various different clients.