FinTech Investor Maturity Model
Morningstar, LLC
ROLE
Lead Designer
DESIGN
Qualitative research
Content testing
Data analysis
Service design
Understanding our retirement savers
Challenge
The Managed Accounts service focused on provider clients, but overlooked the needs of the retirement savers they serve.
Our team asked: Who are these savers considering the Managed Accounts service? What patterns exist in their financial traits, mindsets, salaries, or ages? Additionally, why do savers opt out after 12 months, and what motivates this choice?
By answering these questions, we can effectively address investor challenges, improve enrollment and retention, and create better communication strategies to ensure retirement savers feel confident in their plans.
Approach
Identifying existing channels and moments for insights
We then leveraged the user journey to identify touch points and ways to collect feedback and data. Due to challenges with getting access to participant data, our team had to get creative with the avenues and channels to gather that feedback.
Our team worked to collect insights through the following ways and channels:
Created surveys for eligible retirement participants through Survey Monkey after digital webinars, and enrollment sessions of the service.
Partnered with Morningstar to triage AskHR questions submitted by employees concerning their retirement
Surveyed recently hired US-based Morningstar employees on their own decision-making factors after attending New Employee Retirement Overview session.
Went on-site to observe enrollment sessions on-site with our sales team in the Mid-West area.
Evaluated over 5,000 customer support emails and phone records from the last four years. Reference Data Driven Insights for that effort.
Formulating investor sentiment
Once we had an understanding of the questions and feedback our team was able to form a hypothesis of the segments that encompass all retirement savers presented with our Managed Accounts service option.
To prove and evolve our hypothetical segments, I conducted additional research efforts that focused on validating qualitative and behavioral traits of these retirement savers through:
Surveying eligible retirement participants through Survey Monkey
Surveying US-based Morningstar employees on the adoption of managed accounts
Leveraging research from our internal product and behavioral science teams.
Conducting guerrilla testing with retirement participants in the Chicago area.
Solution
Sub-header
Once all insights were consolidated and mapped, My manager and I worked to leverage this model to reposition our communication strategy for the Managed Accounts service. Our strategy took a more personal approach to emphasize connecting participants to their investor type and the value proposition of the service.
Using familiar language and acknowledging those behaviors and traits, retirement savers can then self-identify what investor type they are and feel more confident when choosing between Managed Accounts or another retirement option.
These insights and model helped our marketing and design teams be more empathetic and mindful of what eligible participants are going through during the journey and decision making process.
Evaluate existing content and collateral touchpoints
From here we could evaluate existing content, but also create new content and collateral that would better resonate with each investor segment.
Impact
Sub-header
This model can help identify and triage those motivated investors that may be dissatisfied or on the verge of opting out of the service. Also, identify those eligible participants that really can benefit the most from the Managed Accounts service. Various efforts include:
+ Created a one-sheeter for sales, and provider reps to hand out to participants newly enrolled in the Managed Accounts service and through Retirement Manager.
+ Revised scripts with segment-familiar nomenclature and FAQs for customer support and sales.
+ When migrating emails over to Sengrid, our team redesigned the content leveraging the segment sentiment and nomenclature.
+ Presented to provider clients. This resulted in our team consulting for clients such as T.Rowe, Schwab, Merrill Lynch.