Project
Analyzing raw materials in cosmetic and jewelry end-products
I led the design of the LPL Financial Template Marketplace, enabling advisors to share and discover customized reporting templates, simplifying report creation. New advisors can easily save templates to their library, improving efficiency. This feature reduced report creation time by 30%, allowing advisors to spend more time on client relationships. By increasing advisor capacity by 15%, the marketplace contributed to an estimated $230K in additional annual revenue.
Info
Company
LPL Financial
Scope:
0:1 (New feature)
Duration
Two months
My role
Lead Product Designer
Team
2 engineers, 1 PM, 1 Researcher
Impact
Increase in advisor's capacity
15%
More time to spend with clients
30%
In additional annual revenue.
$230K
Business problem
Missed revenue opportunities estimated at $230K/year
LPL Financial advisors spend a significant amount of time manually creating client reports, reducing their capacity to engage with clients and grow their business. This inefficiency leads to slower client servicing and missed revenue opportunities estimated at $230K. Prior to the introduction of the Template Marketplace, advisors lacked a streamlined system to share or access pre-built reporting templates, limiting productivity.
People problem
Time-consuming process of building reports from scratch
Advisors, especially those new to the platform, struggle with the time-consuming process of building customized client reports from scratch. They lack easy access to best practices and efficient templates, leading to frustration and reduced time for client interaction. Without a centralized place to share or discover reporting templates, both experienced and new advisors miss opportunities to improve productivity and enhance the quality of their client service.
Design process
Data-Driven Solutions for Real User Impact
I design with data, work cross-functionally, and move fast. I believe design should go beyond visuals and screens. Engaging with real customers and experimenting based on their feedback and data is essential to drive user-centered design.
User journey map
Connecting experienced advisors with new advisors
Information Arhitecture
Exploring solutions
Brainstorm sessions
During the brainstorm session with stakeholders, we focused on identifying key pain points for both experienced and new advisors in the template creation process. Stakeholders, including product managers, developers, and customer success leads, highlighted the need for a more collaborative system to share reporting templates across the advisor network. We discussed features like hashtags for easier template discovery, personalized recommendations, and the ability to save templates to a personal library for future use. These insights shaped our initial design, emphasizing ease of use and scalability.
Research
Streamlining Report Creation for Advisors
Usability testings
10
with users
Usability testings
15
on usertesting.com
qualitative interviews
8
Hours
User testing
Advisors want to have more personalization
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Average Task Completion Time: 14.8 minutes
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Positive Feedback: Most advisors found the saving and customization features easy to use and helpful in streamlining their workflow.
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Areas for Improvement: Advisors requested more advanced search filtering, clearer hashtag categories, and personalized template recommendations.
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Overall Satisfaction Rating: 7.4/10
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Success Rate: 85% of advisors successfully completed all tasks.
Average task competition
14.8 minutes
Overal satisfaction
7.8/10
Success rate
85%
The final product
In the Template Marketplace, advisors can search or use hashtags to discover relevant templates. They preview templates directly in the marketplace, allowing them to assess layout and content suitability quickly. Once satisfied, they can save the template to their library for customization and use with clients.
Advisors can share templates by directly giving access to specific colleagues, copying a link to share externally, or publishing the template to the marketplace with relevant hashtags. This flexibility allows advisors to easily collaborate, control template distribution, and contribute to the wider advisor community for enhanced discoverability.
Reflection
Lessons Learned from the Template Marketplace
The development of the Template Marketplace highlighted key opportunities to enhance advisor workflows and increase collaboration. Through testing and feedback, several insights emerged that will guide future improvements.
• User-Centric Discovery: Clearer hashtag definitions and advanced search filtering are essential for a seamless discovery experience.
• Personalized Recommendations: Advisors value tailored suggestions based on their profile and past interactions to save time.
• Efficiency Wins: Streamlining the customization and saving process led to significant time savings, validating the feature’s positive impact on productivity.