In response to the rise of agile fintech platforms, Santander’s investment department needed a way to provide non-clients with a friction-less entry point.
My goal was to lead the design of an onboarding flow that massified investment consultancy while stripping away the bureaucratic complexity typically associated with traditional banking.
Investment is often perceived as a complex topic reserved for high-income individuals or experts. For Santander, the business challenge was to attract people who were not yet clients of the bank by offering investment services without the usual bureaucratic "tying" or contracts.
From the user's perspective, the primary friction points were a lack of perceived security and the overwhelming complexity of the process. My task was to bridge this gap between technical business requirements and a user-friendly, high-trust experience.
My approach as a "maker" is to turn messy problems into clear, actionable steps by bringing everyone—from engineering to stakeholders—into the process.
Discovery & Empathy: We began by conducting surveys, interviews, and competitive analysis to deeply understand user needs and existing market solutions.
Technical Feasibility: Consistent with my focus on engineering alignment, I held workshops with developers early in the process. This ensured the design was grounded in reality before reaching production.
Aha! Moment: The key insight was realizing that by collaborating with developers early, we could eliminate design-to-development friction and focus on validating assumptions through moderated and unmoderated testing with several users.
The project resulted in the successful release of an MVP optimized for both desktop and mobile devices. We successfully moved the onboarding journey from a bureaucratic task to a guided, accompanied process that prioritized clarity and user safety.
By delivering a simple process with easy-to-understand explanations, we provided a new solution for the bank to reach an entirely new segment of users in a highly competitive fintech landscape. After the release, we established a plan to monitor metrics and user feedback to ensure the experience continues to evolve based on real-world use.
