Investment Vertical
DBS STRUCTURED PRODUCTS
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DBS STRUCTURED PRODUCTS *
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Structured product is an investment instrument for investors who are seeking tailored investment solutions that align with their investment objectives, risk tolerance, and market views.
• SP’s are typically higher risk products, for more savvy investors• Structured products are complex and typically requires expertise to use
• Highly customized for individual customers
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Team: 1 Product Manager, 1 Product Owner, 2 Product Designers, 1 UX Researcher and a team of 7 Software Engineers.
Client: DBS Bank, Wealth Management Division
Project Duration: March 2024 - Present (10 months)
Role: Wealth Product Designer, As a UX designer for structured products, I worked alongside anther designer in my team and we’re responsible for crafting seamless user experiences for investors navigating complex financial flows, making it accessible to a broader international audience while maintaining high levels of customization to scale across multiple regions, including Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
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Structured Projucts are typically higher risk products, for more savvy investors. They are complex and typically requires expertise to use, it can be highly customized for individual customers according to their risk appetite.
Challenges
Current Structured Products process is heavily manual and can’t scale to increasing sales volumes.
Hypothesis
Digitising the as-is customer journey would help us scale the service, increase self-service rates, thus, serve more clients.
Goal
Identify and evaluate opportunities to digitise the customer journey of buying and using Structured Products through digital touchpoints. Elevate the way how customers experience Structured Products.
Understand as is process; Identify pain points and opportunities; Propose definitions for the to-be based on insights.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Outlining potential painpoint of purchase experience
Investors navigating structured product investments often face complex, fragmented, and unintuitive flows, making it difficult to understand risks and make informed decisions. The lack of a streamlined, transparent, and user-friendly interface leads to confusion, inefficiency, and potential missed opportunities.
How might we design a well-structured investment flow such that it provides confidence for the user to execute their investment?
• Service design tools
• Customer personas
• Outline key findings
April 18 – Discovery
The discovery phase lays the foundation for a structured investment product by identifying market needs, investor profiles, and potential opportunities using service design methodologies.
Research & Insights – Leverage service design tools such as stakeholder mapping, journey mapping, and qualitative interviews to understand investor pain points, behaviors, and expectations. Analyze macroeconomic trends, competitor offerings, and regulatory landscapes.
Define Customer Personas – Develop customer personas representing key investor segments (e.g., risk-averse retirees, high-net-worth individuals seeking yield, institutional investors). Map their investment goals, risk tolerance, and decision-making behaviors.
Outline Key Findings – Synthesize insights into actionable opportunities, highlighting gaps in the current market, unmet investor needs, and product feasibility. Identify critical success factors for structuring and delivering a compelling investment solution.
Outcome: A clear strategic direction with investor-centric insights, guiding the next phase of product ideation and prototyping.
• User testing and research with RMs (Relation Managers) and clients
• Scope of product (Business requirements)
May 9 – Define
The define phase translates discovery insights into a clear product framework by refining investor needs, validating concepts through user testing, and establishing business requirements.
User Testing & Research – Conduct targeted sessions with Relationship Managers (RMs) and clients to validate initial concepts, gather feedback on risk-return preferences, and assess comprehension of product mechanics. Iterate based on insights to enhance clarity and alignment with investor expectations.
Scope of Product – Define the business requirements, including investment objectives, target investor segments, product structuring (e.g., capital protection, yield enhancement), regulatory considerations, and operational feasibility. Align key stakeholders across investment, risk, and compliance teams.
Outcome: A validated product framework with defined features, user-driven refinements, and clear business requirements, ready for rapid prototyping.
USER NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS
Expert Clients
Expert customers demand more and more transparency, real-time monitoring of the performance and product details.
Evaluation and pricing is a competition against other SP providers. Experts are well aware of the price points and timing of the execution.
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Non-Expert Clients
Difficulty in understanding the complexities and risks involved in structured products.
Customers require more engagement and guidance in addressing queries and concerns.
Important product ideas may be overlooked or missed.
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DBS RM (Relation Managers)
ARM’s and RM’s are spending lots of time to explain the product to each of the potential customers on how it works. Customers are price sensitive and may explore for better deals. RMs aim to negotiate favorable prices for customers.
Their needs and what they say: “Product monitoring and customer support is highly manual, and we need to adapt with customer preferences.”
“We have difficulties to onboard new clients because our staff is busy serving the existing investors.”
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HYPOTHESIS CONCLUSION
Based on research and identified opportunities, our hypothesis is validated:
Information Overload & Complexity
• Lack of clarity on risk vs. reward: Investors may struggle to compare different products due to unclear risk-return profiles.
• Confusing terminology: Structured products often have complex jargon (e.g., knock-in, knock-out, autocall) that can be overwhelming.
Issue 1
Inefficient Product Discovery & Comparison
• Unclear performance projections: Difficulty in visualizing potential returns under different market conditions.
Issue 2
DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES
✓ Enable online application
Enable a fully self-service flow for expert customers to apply and monitor structured products.
• Streamline the process of developing and sharing a new product idea with RM’s
• Make it easy for the client to go through the final product details
• Make it easy for the client to confirm the product offer
✓ Scale learning & guidance
Provide meaningful guidance for non-expert customers to better understand structured products.
• Help clients to understand complex product offerings without need for assistance
• Reducing the need for valuable resources such as RMs or customer support staff
✓ Efficient & simplified transactions
Create a simplified journey efficient for both expert and non-expert users to navigate.
• Remove potential investment jargons that could create confusion
• Make it effortless for user to navigate through the steps proceeding to submission
RAPID PROTOTYPING
Minimum viable product, User testing (affirming solution defined in problem statement)
July 20 – Develop
The rapid prototyping phase transforms investment concepts into testable models for validation. After the team has identified investor needs, market gaps, and product structure.
We now move on to building of prototype – our goal is simple, to develop simplified financial models, payoff structures, and dashboards.
Test & Refine – Conduct backtesting, gather stakeholder feedback, and iterate.
Validate & Align – Ensure regulatory compliance, technical feasibility, and investor fit.
Outcome: A refined, market-ready prototype for structured product development!
Responsive design based on React for mobile and desktop, Build, iterate & repeat
October 28 till present – Deliver
The delivery phase ensures the structured product is fully developed, launched, and integrated into the market with a focus on compliance, operational readiness, and investor engagement.
Finalize Structuring – Confirm financial terms, underlying asset selection, and payoff mechanics. Secure legal approvals, regulatory compliance, and documentation (e.g., term sheets, prospectuses).
Build & Integrate – Develop and test pricing models, risk management frameworks, and operational workflows. Ensure seamless integration with trading, settlement, and reporting systems.
Go-to-Market Strategy – Create marketing and educational materials for investors and advisors. Train sales teams and establish distribution channels (e.g., private banks, wealth managers).
Launch & Monitor – Execute issuance and ensure efficient trade execution. Monitor performance, market conditions, and investor feedback for potential refinements.
Outcome: A fully structured and operational investment product, ready for investor participation, ongoing management, and performance tracking.
An overview of the flow
1. LANDING PAGE
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After launching our MVP, we gathered user feedback through testing and identified key areas for improvement. We iterated on the structured product screen by refining usability, optimizing information hierarchy, and addressing pain points highlighted by users. Each iteration focused on simplifying navigation, enhancing clarity, and aligning with user expectations. Through continuous testing and stakeholder input, we arrived at a final design that balances functionality, ease of use, and a seamless user experience.
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A landing page in a structured products investment flow serves as the entry point for investors and has several key purposes:
• Educate and Inform: Provides a clear overview of structured products, their benefits, and risks.
• Ensure Compliance and Transparency: Displays disclaimers, risk warnings, and regulatory disclosures.
Explorations
Justifications
<Build your product> Card banner
• The main call to action for starting the investment journey is in this card. After testing multiple designs, user feedback revealed some iterations felt unintuitive, and that the card did not stand out enough on the landing page.
• We aimed for a card that was both concise and attention-grabbing. The final design combines an icon, header, and description to engage users while keeping it brief.
↳The final signed-off design:
We began by considering the user’s mental model when landing on this page. Should we immediately highlight the key action they need to take, or first introduce what a Fixed Coupon Note (FCN) is?
Looking back at our target audience—primarily seasoned investors—we determined that placing a prominent call-to-action, such as "Build your own product now", at the top would effectively guide users toward the main action. Meanwhile, positioning the explanation of FCNs below ensures long-term clarity and sustainability.
We also conducted internal testing with Relationship Managers (RMs), leveraging their firsthand experience with customers to evaluate the design’s effectiveness. As the front-facing team, they provided valuable insights on usability and potential areas for enhancement, ensuring the interface aligns with real-world user needs and expectations.
2. PAYOUT SCENARIOS
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Generating payout scenarios in a structured products flow helps investors see how their investment will perform under different market conditions. By using key price levels—initial price, call price, knock-in price, and strike price—the system can:
• Show Potential Gains/Losses – Investors can see what they might earn or lose based on market movements.
• Explain Risks Clearly – It highlights when the product might autocall, suffer losses, or provide payouts.
• Help in Decision-Making – Investors can compare different products and choose the best fit.
• Ensure Transparency – Makes complex products easier to understand with clear payout visuals.
Explorations
• During our initial exploration, we structured each event as an independent section. However, after engaging with multiple users, we realized that this approach made the interface overly lengthy and complex, leading to excessive scrolling.
• To enhance usability, we consolidated all events into a single chart with an interactive feature that allows users to spotlight specific events as needed. This streamlined the experience while maintaining clarity and accessibility.
Payout Scenarios and Charts
Justifications
↳The final signed-off design:
This final iteration you see on the left was the eventually signed off because it effectively balances clarity, usability, and efficiency, which are crucial for an investment platform catering to seasoned investors.
Alongside business and design team, this layout made sense from both a user experience and business perspective namely:
Improved Readability & Usability – By reducing excessive scrolling, investors can quickly grasp all payout scenarios in one view, leading to a more intuitive and efficient experience.
Enhanced Comparability – A single chart allows users to easily compare different payout events side by side, aiding in better-informed decision-making.
Streamlined Information Hierarchy – Presenting all events in one place prevents information overload and ensures key insights are accessible without unnecessary complexity.
3. QUOTES TAB
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A quotes page in the context of structured product investment flow serves as a key reference point where investors, issuers, and financial intermediaries can access real-time or indicative pricing on structured products. Its primary purposes include: Facilitating Trade Execution, Comparing Investment Opportunities and Facilitating Trade Execution.
Explorations
Justifications
Quotes Tab
• Our initial exploration for the Quotes tab focused on enabling users to prioritize their preferred underlyings, ensuring they could easily access meaningful quotes. Sorting was identified as a key mechanism to achieve this, but multiple approaches were considered:
Permanent Removal: Allowing users to delete quotes from the list entirely. However, this approach was ruled out as it would prevent future reference.
Favoriting System: Introducing a "heart" feature to let users mark preferred quotes, which would then be stored in a dedicated Favorites tab for easy access, or within a dedicated category.
Reordering Within the List: Allowing users to move preferred quotes to the top. While simple, this method lacked clarity in explicitly differentiating prioritized quotes.
• Ultimately, the final design needed to strike a balance between flexibility, clarity, and long-term usability.
↳The final signed-off design:
Favouriting system! ♥ This was the eventual design because it provided the best balance between usability, clarity, and long-term flexibility. Unlike permanent removal, which risked losing valuable quotes, and simple reordering, which lacked clear differentiation, the Favorites tab offered a structured way for users to curate and easily access their most relevant quotes. This approach aligned with both user needs—allowing investors to personalize their experience—and business goals, ensuring engagement without restricting future opportunities to explore different quotes.
4. COACHMARKS
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Coachmarks are guided tips or highlights in an app or website that help users understand how to use features. They serve to:
• Onboard New Users – Show key functions step by step.
• Improve Usability – Highlight important buttons or workflows.
• Boost Engagement – Encourage users to explore and interact.
•Reduce Confusion – Provide quick explanations without long tutorials.
Justifications
The UX team introduced coachmarks to streamline onboarding for seasoned investors by providing targeted, non-intrusive guidance. While we thought experienced users may be familiar with structured products, platform-specific workflows, pricing tools, and custom investment options can vary.
Coachmarks ensure:
Efficient Navigation – Quickly familiarizes users with key platform features without overwhelming them.
Feature Discovery – Highlights advanced tools, such as payout scenario simulations and custom structuring options.
Frictionless Experience – Reduces trial-and-error learning, allowing investors to make informed decisions faster.
By offering contextual, dismissible guidance, coachmarks respect user expertise while enhancing usability, ultimately leading to higher engagement and smoother transactions.
Reflections
Designing the structured products flow has been a rewarding journey, with each iteration bringing us closer to an intuitive and user-centric investment experience. With the project set to go live in May 2025, I’m eager to see its final impact and how users will engage with it.
I feel privileged to have contributed to this project, which has been one of the most dynamic and fast-paced endeavors I’ve been part of. The experience taught me invaluable lessons in adaptability and collaboration.
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