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This stealth startup originally approached Crowdlinker in 2022 to design a cryptocurrency trading platform aimed to help users make better investment decisions. At the time, we had built out a recommendation model to determine the price of Bitcoin 5 days out with a 70% accuracy. In 2023, in the midst of uncertain times in the cryptocurrency world, the founder pivoted to a user-friendly experience that gives users tailored and practical investment advice, regardless of the type of asset class.
Stealth Start-up
Fintech
Prototype
The pivot involved crafting a product centered around personalized experiences. We wanted to tailor the user experience based on risk tolerance, cash flow, market conditions and skill levels. As well, we needed to provide actionable information by using advanced data sources and AI in order to provide concise, accurate and customized insights. The solution needed to empower users by becoming their single source of truth and providing them with the tools they didn’t realize they needed, in order to place investments that made sense to them. Crowdlinker needed to keep these challenges in mind, all the while demonstrating desirability, feasibility, and viability through discovery and low-fidelity designs. This would pave the way for the founder to raise funds, essential to developing their a mobile app.
Data quality, integration and management was the main pain point we needed to solve. Financial data is often complex and voluminous, making it challenging to ensure that it is accurate, complete, and consistent. This type of data comes from various sources and in different formats, which can make it difficult to integrate and manage. As well, building and maintaining the infrastructure to handle, process, and store the data efficiently in order to ensure a robust foundation for the product can be very costly and resource intensive.
The other pain point we needed to tackle was the overall user experience. Financial information is not easily digestible by the average person, creating a significant barrier to entry for new investors. The complexity and difficulty in learning are compounded by overwhelming, poorly designed, or opinionated apps. Finding a trustworthy and reliable source of truth in the financial landscape is challenging.
During our product discovery, Crowdlinker opted to leverage insights from previous interviews with potential users and conducted thorough research on investment platforms, news sites, social media, forums, and YouTube to understand how users seek and consume financial educational information. We conducted a competitive analysis, evaluating different dimensions such as the expertise needed by users to understand the content, whether platforms were just educational or also transactional, the extent of the education provided, etc. We also held product positioning workshops to align internal and external stakeholders on key objectives. The team built two user personas to guide the product strategy, focusing on long-term engagement and higher user involvement. These activities culminated in the development of a feature board and strategic roadmap aimed at launching a minimum viable product that would propel growth.
In the technical discovery phase, we extensively researched potential data sources, assessing factors like ease of implementation, trustworthiness, and reliability. Our focus extended to evaluating coverage across asset classes (e.g., stocks, ETFs, mutual funds), considering monthly pricing and integrating a News API. We also prioritized startup-friendly solutions. After narrowing down to two providers, we delved into analyzing possible use cases and strategizing data aggregation for our app. Finally, we explored the feasibility of ingesting diverse data sets and using AI to summarize information. This approach aimed to provide personalized and digestible interpretations based on user preferences set during onboarding and in account preferences, enhancing the overall user experience.
During the design phase, we created low-fidelity designs meant to help the startup raise capital to fund the continuation of the design and development phases. We began the design phase by conducting "Crazy 8’s" workshops to foster creative brainstorming. Our designer then crafted wireframes, exploring diverse creative directions and organizing them into user flows. We placed a significant focus on developing customized onboarding flows and features, ensuring a tailored app experience aligned with users’ preferences, goals, and expertise levels. For example, the home page was strategically designed to feature a customized daily digest, offering users a succinct overview of pertinent information. Other functionalities such as the ability to explore the app before signing up, markets, watchlists, and filters for different investment types were incorporated, enhancing user engagement and providing a seamless and personalized investment experience
As our client said, “Crowdlinker embraced our Fintech mobile app as their own, bringing passion and meticulous care into every aspect. Their product management team did an impressive job at translating our unique needs, goals, and vision into a concrete, well-researched and user-validated plan.
Our client was extremely satisfied with our efforts, stating “Crowdlinker stands out not just as a top-tier product studio, but as a true partner deeply invested in our project. Their flexible resourcing model was ideal, allowing us to align the right talent at the right time to ensure that every billed hour was optimally utilized. I highly recommend Crowdlinker for their experience, talent and dedication – it's refreshing to work with a vendor that cares about your success as much as you do.”
Our efforts resulted in mid-fidelity designs and the selection of a data platform crucial for the product's success. The research and design efforts position the startup to raise funds from investors in order to deliver a user-centric product that meets diverse user needs.
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