Creating Investec's private bank and wealth app
Rather than tagging on features or giving it a facelift, I convinced stakeholders to create a robust, scalable solution and future-proofed Investec’s most important digital touchpoint.
The challenge
My approach
Investec, a premier provider of specialised banking, investing, and wealth management, is renowned for its meticulous, bespoke service. Yet, its outdated private client app – central to a brand without physical branches – was falling short on this promise. Buggy, sluggish, inconsistent, and lacking key features that clients had come to expect, it tarnished Investec's reputation and risked client retention.
Leading the UX and product design, I used the findings of detailed user testing and a comprehensive audit which involved client services and engineering to convince stakeholders that adding more features would simply exacerbate the app’s issues. Instead, we needed a rework from the ground-up, to deliver a scalable, future-ready that delivered against Investec’s brand promise and would empower users to take control of their finances.
Working with engineering and product owners, I introduced a lean approach and established a robust design process. We prioritised rapid iteration and learning, implemented analytics, set up rigorous user testing, and aligned our priorities with overall strategic business goals and user expectations rather than the wishes of individual stakeholders.
While the engineering team built out a robust technical foundation, I led the global design team in creating shared design components and content guidelines (which would later evolve into a unified design system). I also established a Client Council, involving a large group of existing and potential clients in co-creation sessions and testing, allowing us to refine ideas before going public.
The first full release was fast, stable, visually coherent, and easily scalable. The perfect starting point to expand its functionality and add comprehensive financial management and insights tools.
The first release – enabling Investec to rapidly iterate and evolve the app's functionality and design.