Professional
Altruist
Optimizing navigation for financial advisors on a modern custodian platform.
Industry
Fintech, B2B Saas
Role
Product Design Intern
Team
PM, ENG, Legal
Time
Jun - Aug 2025 (3 Months)
What is Altruist?
Altruist is an all-in-one modern custodian platform for financial advisors, bringing trading, portfolio management, and billing together in one place.
Problem
As the platform expanded rapidly, new features and pages were layered onto an aging structure. Advisors were struggling with fragmented workflows, requiring excessive clicks to perform daily tasks efficiently.
My Contribution
I led mixed-methods UX research with 200+ financial advisors to uncover workflow friction and translate insights into user-centered, scalable design improvements.
Result
31%↑ in navigation satisfaction score
3x faster to complete common workflows
The Process
Discovery
User research, competitor analysis, and current system audit.
Ideation
Information architecture, empathy mapping, and low-fidelity sketches.
Build
High-fidelity visual design, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.
Testing & Handoff
Usability testing, iteration, and developer handoff documentation.
User Research
Understanding the financial advisor workflow.
To uncover advisor friction, I led a comprehensive research combining quantitative data, qualitative interviews, and behavioral analysis. This revealed workflow gaps, mental model mismatches, and key opportunities for improvement.
I approached the problem through four key angles:
#1. User-Reported Friction
110 survey responses
captured broad pain points across roles and firm sizes.
Key insight:
Frustration with excessive clicks, lack of hierarchy, and a non-actionable dashboard.
#2. Market Landscape
5 competitive analyses
benchmarked navigation and dashboard patterns in legacy vs. modern platforms.
Key Insight:
Legacy platforms often overwhelmed users with dense menus, while newer tools prioritized task-first navigation.
#3. Behavioral Patterns
6 user behavior audit
investigated how users actually moved through the platform.
Key Insight:
Key actions spanned up to 7 tabs and advisors were switching contexts constantly to complete workflows.
#4. Mental Models
13 card sorting interviews
understand how advisors categorize and prioritize tasks.
Key Insight:
Advisors think in workflows, not product categories—highlighting an IA misalignment.
Design Process
Balancing user needs with business goals.
Given the project scope and team capacity, I prioritized a set of high impact design opportunities aimed at improving efficiency, clarity, and speed—while also supporting business goals like increasing engagement, reducing support volume, and building a scalable foundation for future growth.
Brainstorm
Piecing together workflows, behavior data, and feedback like a jigsaw puzzle.
Workshop
I led a cross-functional ideation session to shape solution directions.
Prototype
Built testable concepts to validate direction with real users and workflows.
Final Product
Smarter navigation, built around actual advisor behaviors.
Feature 1.
Enhanced
Search Bar
Research showed that 1/4 of the advisors relied on search when navigation fell short.
The redesigned search bar goes beyond basic discovery. Advisors can now initiate high-frequency actions directly from search results, turning search into a powerful command tool—a faster, smarter alternative to traditional navigation that reduces clicks and helps advisors act with intent.
Feature 2
Actionable Widgets
95% of advisors said they want a faster way to complete everyday tasks.
Advisors can now tailor their workspace using modular widgets. Each widget highlights something an advisor needs to see—or do—like pending rebalances, low cash alerts, or new deposits. With one tap, they can jump into action, saving time and eliminating the need to hunt across modules.
Feature 3
Customizable Dashboard
Interviews revealed that advisors, admins, and firm owners all start their day differently.
Users can now drag and pin widgets based on their roles and needs,eliminating unnecessary clicks and surfacing key actions up front.
Impact & Learnings
Clarity unlocks confidence and efficiency
Better navigation reduced confusion, cut down friction, and brought core workflows to the surface. Advisors moved faster and with greater confidence, showing that task-first design drives both satisfaction and efficiency.
Because navigation touches nearly every part of the advisor experience, this work had far-reaching impact and received standout recognition from teams and leadership.
Post-concept testing vs. baseline
Based on walkthrough and feedback
Improved task accessibility
My Learnings
Working with and having my work reviewed by some of the industry’s most talented individuals was the highlight of my time at Altruist. I am grateful for all the amazing people I interacted with and for how they expanded my horizons!
Storytelling as Strategy
Crafting a good design is only half the battle. Clear communication is essential to make design decisions resonate.
Collaboration Multiplies Impact
Working with Altruist’s 14-person design team taught me how to build on others’ ideas through sparring sessions, critiques, and shared ownership.
Feedback is Superpower
I learned the most by watching how other designers embraced feedback—welcoming ideas of all sizes with curiosity and care. It taught me that great design is built through openness, not ego.
