Stride
Category
Fintech · Product Design · UX/UI · UX Research
/
/
Turning an investment questionnaire that feels like screening into the start of guided onboarding.
From Screening to Guidance
Stride is a fictional budgeting app with 150,000 users that wants to move into investing. The brief asked for an experience that feels like a personal coach, not a bank form. I had six hours to find out what was going wrong and design the way forward.
Interest Was There. The Experience Lost Them.
In the pilot, 38% tapped the investing banner, but only 11% of them finished the profile questionnaire. The people who dropped off weren’t uninterested. They felt sorted, not helped.
Research
I reviewed five products, from Acorns and Betterment to Blink and RiseUp, two Israeli apps I know firsthand, and went through Blink’s flow end to end. Mapping them against three barriers showed the gap: the operational one is solved, and no one is solving the emotional one.
Three Users, One Journey
The guidance seeker, the partly experienced and the cautious curious want the same outcome at different speeds. So instead of three flows, I designed one journey with three paces.
The Problem I Chose
How might we turn the profile step from screening into the start of guidance?
The questionnaire is required, and competitors place it in the same spot. The problem isn’t where it sits but how it feels: it takes, doesn’t explain, and gives nothing back. And Stride already knows 8 of the 15 answers.
The New Journey
Seven steps from an insight card to a first portfolio. Three of them carry the idea.
Start With What We Already Know
The profile opens with the user’s own budget data, prefilled and easy to correct. One confirmation instead of eight questions, in ranges instead of exact numbers.
Goal First, Then Percentages
The mix opens with “Home fund, 5 years,” explains why it fits, and shows a bad year next to a good one. The fee is shown in money, about $9 a year, not as a percentage.
The Moment the Money Moves
Everything in dollars, one sentence on where the money is held, and a short handoff screen before the bank app so the transfer doesn’t get stuck.
How I Used AI
Claude helped with research synthesis, questionnaire mapping and microcopy. Figma Agents helped build the design system and the range-chart prototype. The choices stayed mine. One I turned down: a “Required by law” tag on the regulatory questions. Transparent, yes, but it would put users right back in an exam.
What I Take From It
A required questionnaire doesn’t have to feel like a test. It can be the first conversation with a coach.
