Charles Schwab - Schwab Advisor Center (SAC) Storefront
Background
Charles Schwab is a San Francisco-based investment services firm that was founded in 1971 by Charles Schwab. Over the years, the company has grown to become one of the largest brokerage firms in the United States, with over 29 million active brokerage accounts and $7.7 trillion in client assets as of September 2021.
In addition to serving retail clients, Schwab also provides services to financial firms and advisors that manage funds for their own clients. The Advisor Services team at Schwab is dedicated to developing products and solutions that help advisors manage their clients' finances more efficiently.
As a member of the Advisor Services team at Schwab, I worked on the Schwab Advisor Center (SAC) portal. One of the key products that I contributed to was the Investment Storefront, or simply Storefront. Storefront is a powerful tool that helps advisors find and implement investment solutions for their clients.
Storefront offers a wide range of investment options, including mutual funds, ETFs, and separately managed accounts. Advisors can use Storefront to research and compare investment products, build customized portfolios, and monitor performance. Storefront also offers powerful analytics and reporting tools that help advisors track their clients' progress and make informed investment decisions.
Research Challenge
The year before this research study was conducted, the UX Designer and Content Strategist worked with the product owners and stakeholders to put together a concept for the investment Storefront. Once they had some requirements, the UX team built a concept prototype that they hoped would be the foundation for the Storefront. Before this new product could be developed, the goal was to get advisor feedback to determine the feasibility of the concept and uncover any pain points therein.
Problem Statement
The current Advisor experience makes it difficult to navigate to Schwab’s differentiated strategies on SAC. Through the creation of an Investment Storefront on SAC, we hoped to increase awareness and drive incremental NNA to the differentiated strategies. This research endeavor was created to focus on testing the prototype of the concept designs of the Storefront to evaluate possible solutions and discover areas of opportunity.
Goals
Gain an understanding of users’ experiences with seeking information about investment products, such as seperately managed accounts and third party model portfolios.
Gather user feedback and evaluate their understand of the Storefront concept, focusing on the Overview Page, Model Market Center (MMC), Model Market Center - Model Market, and the Schwab Personalized Indexing (SPI) page.
Assess whether the design and content of the Storefront align with user expectations and needs.
Methodology
The user experience research methodology for this project involved conducting user interviews during the discovery, or generative, phase of the project. The approach chosen was qualitative research aimed at gathering insights about the current process and the user’s needs and goals for investment solutions.
The UX Designers had already forged a prototype design, so the focus of the interviews was to get feedback on the concept design and see how it aligns with the users’ current processes outside of SAC. The other area of focus was to gain a better understanding of the users’ relationships and expectations for a product that focused on investment solutions.
The methodology used in this case study includes the following steps:
Conduct User Interviews
Ask General Questions
Walkthrough the Prototype
Gather User Feedback
2. Analyze Feedback
3. Synthesize Feedback
4. Refine Prototype Design
User Interviews / Prototype Walkthrough
Conduct User Interviews
In this phase, the I conducted user interviews with several users to gather qualitative data about their current process, wants, needs, and goals for investment solutions.
General Questions
I started by asking general questions about the firm's strategy for investment solutions and which qualities the user was looking for when selecting those solutions. This helped to establish a context for the user’s investment preferences.
Prototype Walkthrough
Following the general questions, I opened the prototype in InVision and walked the users through the Overview page, Model Market Center (MMC), Model Market Center - Available Models, and the Schwab Personalized Indexing (SPI)
Gather User Feedback
During the interview and walkthrough, user feedback was gathered on the layout, ease of use, and overall impression of the pages. The users’ feedback was recorded and used to refine the prototype design.
An excerpt of feedback notes from users.
Analyze Feedback
Once the interviews were completed, I analyzed the feedback gathered and identified key themes and patterns. This helped to identify areas of the design and experience that needed improvement.
General Feedback
Methods for Finding Investment Solutions
Word of mouth.
3rd Party Investment Firms:
City National Rochdale.
Aperil.
Various others.
Investment One-Stop-Shop Requirements
Basic facts about the investment firm.
Information about the manager
Investment model reports.
Investment history.
Information about the investment team.
Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) or some other kind of investment qualifier.
Navigation
The concept supposed that the Storefront solution would have its own tab within the L1 (main) section of the SAC’s navigation. Part of the research study was to determine if this was preferable for advisors and easy for them to discover. The second part of the navigation problem revolved around the nomenclature to be used to represent the Storefront in the navigation. Participants were given 5 pre-determined options to chose from, and from there we would solidify the navigation name for the Storefront.
Five out of six participants selected Investment Solutions as the appropriate category, noting that it was a good fit for their mental model of managed accounts and alternative investments.
One participant selected Portfolio Solutions, suggesting that there may be some ambiguity or confusion around the distinction between the two categories. All participants, however, agreed that Investment Solutions should be its own top-level tab in the navigation. They expressed concern that if it were nested under an existing tab, users might have difficulty discovering it and accessing its content.
Overall, the participants' feedback suggests that Investment Solutions is a natural and intuitive category for managed accounts and alternative investments. It also highlights the importance of clear and prominent navigation design to ensure that users can easily find and access relevant content.
Overview Page
The Overview page serves as the entry point to the Storefront tool. Users were presented with the concept page and asked a series of questions to assess their initial impressions, understanding of the purpose of the page, and gauge their expectations of the page’s functionality.
The general consensus was that the website was easy to navigate and had a clean interface. However, some participants expressed confusion due to duplicate navigation items in the main navigation and the cards below. Despite this, the duplicate items were not considered a significant issue.
Most participants believed that the website was intended for viewing Schwab's different investment solutions. However, they also expressed that the usage of the site would be needs-based, catering to the needs of their own clients. Additionally, users appreciated that there was a link to launch iRebal, an investment management software.
Model Market Center (MMC)
The Model Market Center page was designed to give advisors a glimpse of what they could do with models, and this is accomplished with screenshots of iRebal and other model related tools. The idea was to drive advisors deeper into the model solutions for more information.
While the page was designed to provide advisors with an overview of the models available and what they could do with them, participants in the study expressed that the content on the page was not actionable, and it seemed to be more about marketing. Some believed that the screenshot images attached to the cards were actionable, which suggests that incorporating more interactive elements could improve user engagement.
Additionally, participants noted that not having actionable items on the page was a waste, and further burying the list of models was similar to how things were, at the time, buried under the Research tab in SAC. This feedback highlights the importance of making information easily accessible and ensuring that users do not need to navigate through multiple pages to take action.
Model Market Center - Available Models
After advisors landed on the Model Market Center (MMC) page, their only call to action (CTA) was to click on the “Explore Available Models” button. By clicking this button, users were taken to a page where a table contained all the available models from Schwab and they could see some information about the models before diving deeper. While on the Available Models page, advisors were able to use six card filters to drill down to models that held the specific information they were searching for.
Users expressed that the Available Models page was what they expected to see on the MMC page. They also expected to see a more comprehensive set of fields on the page and noted that the existing fields were not enough to give them an accurate snapshot of the model. The comparison to the screenshot on the MMC page highlighted this discrepancy, given that the example held many more fields.
One of the main concerns raised by participants was with the "Strategist Fee" field. They felt that if this fee is being paid to the manager, it should be labeled "Manager Fee" for greater clarity.
Participants appreciated the card filters but felt that additional filters were necessary to allow them to get very specific with their search criteria, thus avoiding endless scrolling. There was some confusion over the "Mixed" filter, and participants expressed a desire for more clarity on what exactly it referred to.
Schwab Personalized Indexing
Schwab was looking into breaking into the Direct Indexing space for investment solutions; Schwab Personalized Indexing was their answer for that. The idea was to incorporate SPI into the Storefront so that advisors had easy access to this new product, could learn about it, and could enroll if they felt that SPI would suit their clients’ needs.
Feedback on the SPI page indicated that users that it was more focused on selling them something rather than informing them about the tool. Participants described the entire top section as "fluff" and suggested that it should be moved below the second section or removed entirely. They believed that the information provided was too basic and didn't offer them anything actionable to work with. Due to the layout and copy on the page, users were unaware that the top section laid out the steps necessary to get started with SPI.
Participants also mentioned that the industry commonly refers to the feature as "Direct Indexing" and that only Schwab employees would use the term "Schwab Personalized Indexing." This feedback suggests that the language and terminology used on the page may not be aligned with industry standards and may need to be adjusted to improve user understanding and acceptance.
Overall, the participants' feedback highlights the importance of providing clear and actionable information to users while avoiding unnecessary "fluff" or sales-oriented content. It also emphasizes the need to use language and terminology that is widely recognized and understood within the industry.
Synthesize Data
Taking the feedback from the participants, I crafted a User Journey Map that summarized the experience, emotions, steps, and quotes that resulted from the interviews. While users stated that they would definitely incorporate Schwab’s Storefront into their investment strategies once the product was live on SAC, the concept had some strong pain points for them that were concerning. These pain points mostly revolved around the Storefront appearing as if Schwab were trying to sell something to advisors and the numerous clicks and pages they needed to pass through to get to content and information that they can act upon.
“If I click on Investment Solutions and there are cards that are duplicated, and then I click on others and it is screenshots and white papers, I would be frustrated. How do I get to the meat of it?”
Recommendations
Advisor feedback was mixed with both positive and negative reactions. Overall, users are intrigued by the idea of a Storefront, but they need it to be informative and actionable.
By implementing these recommendations, Schwab can improve the user experience for advisors and make it easier for them to service their clients’ investment needs.
Navigation & Nomenclature
Name the feature Investment Solutions:
Participants expressed that this name was intuitive and aligned with their mental model of managed accounts and alternative investments. Using this name will help to improve user understanding and acceptance of the feature.
Make Investment Solutions its own navigation tab in the L1 section:
All participants agreed that Investment Solutions should be a top-level tab in the navigation to ensure that it is easily discoverable and accessible. This is an information architecture issue that should be considered by the team responsible for IA in SAC.
Model Market Center (MMC)
Merge the Available Models page with the main MMC page:
Participants expressed that the Available Models page felt disconnected from the main MMC page and was difficult to find. Merging the pages will help to improve the user experience by consolidating the information and making it easier for users to find what they are looking for.
Consider renaming MMC to something without "Market" in it:
Participants felt that the term "Market" led them to believe that Schwab was trying to sell them something, which was not the case. Consider using a term like "Model Center" to better reflect the purpose of the page and reduce confusion among users.
Model Market Center - Available Models
Add more specialized filters:
Participants expressed that the card filters were useful but that more specialized filters were necessary to help them find what they were looking for.
Consider adding filters that allow users to filter by investment type, asset allocation, and other relevant criteria to help them pinpoint their searches.
Clarify the meaning of "Mixed":
Participants expressed confusion over the "Mixed" filter and what it means in terms of models.
Clarify the meaning of "Mixed" and make sure that it is clear to users.
Add more fields to the All Models table:
A desire for more information about the model would help users make better-informed decisions.
Consider adding more fields to the All Models table, such as performance history, risk metrics, and other relevant data points to help users evaluate the model.
Schwab Personalized Indexing (SPI)
Make the content actionable and informative:
Participants stated that the information provided on the SPI page was too basic and didn't give them anything actionable to work with.
Consider adding more detailed information about how SPI works and how it can benefit users.
Remove marketing or sales-like content:
Participants felt that the top section of the SPI page was more about trying to sell them something than inform them about the tool.
Remove any marketing or sales-like content and focus on providing useful information that helps users understand what SPI is and how it can benefit them.
Emphasize that SPI is Schwab's answer to Direct Indexing:
It was mentioned that the industry refers to this feature as Direct Indexing and that only Schwab calls it Schwab Personalized Indexing.
Emphasize the correlation between SPI and Direct Indexing by adding explicit tag-lines that point out the relationship.