Alternative Investments: Fund Lifecycle/Journey

In order to effectively design for complex use cases, designers must fully understand the user journey, the actors involved, and what they are trying to accomplish at any given point in time. Through use of the user journey artifact we have a visual representation of all these pieces--a snapshot to consolidate volumes of information and subject-matter expertise. This snapshot enables the easy consumption of complex material and facilitates a shared understanding across design, engineering, product management and key stakeholders. When I joined the InvestorVision (IV) team, this artifact did not exist. I read a textbook provided by the product owner and then endeavored to consolidate vast amounts of information to portray the fund lifecycle and user journeys. I presented the user journey to the PO and IV designers for input and feedback. This was a valuable tool to remind the product team of the user’s goals and pain-points and how we can best focus our efforts on helping them achieve those goals. In addition, new comers to the world of alternative investments at Intralinks will benefit from this summarized view and its ability to quickly bring them up-to-speed.