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CIBC
GoalPlanner

Updating and improving a budgeting tool for high-affluent clients; CIBC's online white-glove service.

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OVERVIEW

Project Type

UX Research and Prototype Testing

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Role

Designed and conducted interviews and A/B test surveys to strengthen product design and user experience in collaboration with 1 other UX Researcher, 2 UX designers, 1 UX Writer, and 2 Product Managers

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Skills Development

Interview, qualitative research, A/B testing, surveys, business presentation, moderated interviews, unmoderated interviews, dot voting, secondary research, historical analysis, competitor analysis

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Duration

February-September 2022

THE CHALLENGE

Business wanted to update and modernize the CIBC GoalPlanner, specifically ironing out the user flow, improving findability, and minimizing drop-off. At project start, the tool was experiencing an 80% drop rate from the first three pages alone.

SUMMARY

We performed multiple overlapping sprints to achieve all the goals set. From iconography, to findability, to verbiage, we explored every element of the product to streamline the user journey. Our research had a major impact on the UX design and content for the tool. We also employed a wide variety of strategies to share research results with our designers, writers, and product managers.

"I have an idea of what this will involve, but this page doesn't tell me anything about what I'll need to have on hand to fill it out."

Interviewee via UserTesting

February-May 2022

PROTOTYPE TESTING

Methods: Surveys, moderated interviews, unmoderated interviews, secondary research

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Tested:

  1. Multiple iterations of customer-facing prototypes

  2. Back-end Financial Advisor intake tool

  3. Copy variations

  4. Icon preferences

  5. Verbiage A/B testing

 

Insights:

  • The initial page did not clearly explain what users needed in order to complete the user journey through the tool - the tool asks for income, expenses, partner's financial information, and goal setting, much of which users did not have on hand or they wanted their partner to be present for

  • Icons for goals were unclear and types of goals felt limited; some wanted an option of a custom goal

  • Some were wary of sharing so much information through an online tool and preferred to do so in person with their advisor

  • Advisors found that the tool didn't always capture information accurately, citing incidents of secret accounts, undeclared accounts, "fun" accounts, and ballpark numbers rather than exact amounts; thus they needed to verify everything and often found that easier to do in one meeting with their client rather than confirm and correct

  • Users didn't really have a good idea of what the tool was meant for; as verbiage was tested and clarified, users had a more positive view of the tool

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June 2022

FINDABILITY

Methods: First-click testing, A/B testing, unmoderated interviews, competitor analysis

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Prototypes

  1. Top banner

  2. Side menu bar

  3. Email

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Insights

  • Users found top banners looked like ads rather than something on a to-do list for them to complete before their next appointment

  • If their Financial Advisors tell them to complete it and send them the link through email, about 80% of users said they would click the link

  • Majority of users noted that they would not seek out this tool on their own without the prompting of their Financial Advisor

  • If told the tool name, all users tried to look for it through the side bar menu first before looking anywhere else on the bank home page

July 2022

PROTOTYPE TESTING

Methods: Interviews, HMW questions, survey, unmoderated testing

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Prototypes

  1. Front Page

  2. Overall Flow

  3. Income Page

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Insights

  • More people understood the purpose of tool and what they needed to complete the questionnaire properly, based on the first page. Having a short list of what they should have on hand helped immensely

  • Users were more comfortable with the flow now that they knew the purpose of the tool and why it was asking it questions it was

    • One thing to note was that there was still a friction point between filling out this questionnaire and the Financial Advisor's intake of the new high-affluent customer

  • The income page still required some tweaking in terms of how people categorized their income and expenses (e.g., should they be putting gross numbers or net?)

"No matter how accurately the client inputs their information, we always have to verify it, as part of our process, and to the customer it's like doing the same thing twice.”

Financial Advisor Interviewee, Internal CIBC Tester

August-September 2022

REFINEMENT & LAUNCH

Methods: Interviews, HMW questions, dot voting, surveys

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Prototypes

  1. Income Page

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Insights

  • People's instinct is the put their gross income into the calculator, but it leads to inaccurate results - however, getting their net income requires them to have their income taxes on hand, and could still result in inaccuracies if they receive a raise or bonus

  • HMW questions were used to determine ways to mitigate this

  • At the end of the day, an info box was added as a quick fix to this conundrum, with more research to be done in the next initiative towards further refining this tool

  • With the refined wording and updated pages, the product relaunched

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