Prepare for an Investment Advice Session
Design a client intake and recommendation review flow for a regulated investment consultancy.
The brief
Understand the problem
Background
Investment advice depends on goals, time horizon, financial circumstances, experience, and tolerance for loss. Clients need to understand why information is requested and how a recommendation relates to it.
User context
Grace has received an inheritance and wants professional guidance. She hopes to buy a home within five years and is uncomfortable with large short-term losses.
Product problem
Long financial questionnaires can feel invasive or produce false precision. Recommendation documents are often dense, making risks, fees, and conflicts hard to compare.
Objective
Create the intake, adviser handoff, and recommendation review experience for a first-time client.
What to design
Define the experience
Required experience
- Progressive financial and goal intake
- Risk and capacity-for-loss review
- Secure adviser appointment preparation
- Recommendation summary with rationale, fees, and risks
Screens and states
- Goal setup
- Financial profile
- Risk review
- Appointment preparation
- Recommendation detail
Core user flow
Follow the critical path
- 01
Grace describes her goals and intended time horizons
- 02
She adds financial circumstances and investment experience
- 03
She reviews the resulting risk profile and corrects one assumption
- 04
She uploads requested documents and meets an adviser
- 05
She reviews a recommendation and records questions before deciding
Product rules
Requirements and constraints
Requirements
- Explain why sensitive information is needed before asking for it
- Allow users to save and return without losing progress
- Separate willingness to take risk from financial capacity for loss
- Connect each recommendation to the goals and assumptions behind it
- Disclose fees, conflicts, and major risks in readable language
- Support acknowledgment without turning it into automatic acceptance
Constraints
- Requirements differ by jurisdiction and client type
- Some financial values are approximate
- Documents contain highly sensitive information
- An adviser may need to request clarification before proceeding
Reality check
States worth considering
Finish line
What to deliver
- Design five responsive screens showing intake, risk review, adviser preparation, and recommendation comprehension.
Optional direction
Visual resources
Use these as a starting constraint if you want one. They are not part of the required solution.