Case Study:Edward Jones – Starting Point Application
The Starting Point application is one of the outcomes of a cross-functional Client Experience (CX) Design Thinking engagement internal to Edward Jones and facilitated by the design firm, IDEO, during which our small CX team developed a handful of concepts that we tested with prospective clients over several rounds of iteration. As part of my responsibilities during this phase of the engagement, I leveraged the Sketch UI toolkit for our internal design system, AXIOM, to rapidly prototype multiple rounds of application screens for various concepts and interviewed users to gain insights and feedback to inform subsequent iterations.
One concept in particular sought to address a problem space that surfaced with significant frequency in early rounds of interviews with investors. Time and again, we heard that people either didn't know what financial advisors did, didn't know how or if an advisor could help them, or if they were even "qualified" to work with an advisor. Following several rounds of iteration and testing, we honed our concept for an application that would consider an investor's family, lifestyle and financial details and provide them with a list of financial steps that might benefit them and, critically, how an Edward Jones financial advisor might assist them in pursuing these steps. Upon completing the questionnaire, investors would be supplied with a place to start in a conversation with an advisor, and we named the tool Starting Point.
As the Design Thinking engagement neared its end, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of Edward Jones branch locations. A small number of promising Virtual Business Enablement product concepts developed by the CX teams were selected by company leadership to enter into an accelerated Minimum Viable Product phase, one of which was Starting Point.
During a two-week sprint, I partnered with IDEO Designers, Engineers and Data Scientists to build the MVP. We moved the design prototype into Figma to accommodate IDEO and I assisted in establishing fidelity to the Edward Jones Brand and AXIOM design system standards, as well as the design language developing in the concurrent edwardjones.com redsesign project. I developed and styled the Vue.js components used to compose the front end page templates which would integrate with the Python back end logic.
Following the success of the MVP in helping to connect prospective clients to Edward Jones financial advisors during a time of unprecedented upheaval, the firm stood up a dedicated product team to move the application from Vue / Python to a React / Java application.
As of Autumn 2024, Starting Point has created over 3,000 new Edward Jones client relationships, each bringing an average of over $190,000 in assets under care into the firm.
Visit the live site: Starting Point