Problem

The investing journey on BMO.com is fragmented, resulting in a confusing journey for users and impacting our KPIs.

Process

We employed a number of research methodologies, such as user interviews, competitive analysis, usability studies, and secondary research. We compiled a research document which we referred to often when we were in doubt. The research document can be accessed here

Outcome

Redesigned over 92 pages with over half of them from scratch.

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Research methodology

• User interviews: Conducted 8 Sessions to find out current investing behaviours

• Front-line staff interviews: Interviewed 6 BMO Staff to have a better understanding of user journey & uncover common pain points

• Competitive analysis: 16+ Institutions to discover how our competitors are approaching investing

• Secondary research: to close some of the information gaps we might have, looking at different segments and how they might approach investing

• Tree testing: to uncover if the proposed Information Architecture makes sense to the user

• SEO Research & Site Audit: so that we can better situate ourselves and make informed decisions

Key findings

1. Keeping an eye on the target(s): Users often have more than one investing goal and they focus on achieving their goals and not necessarily on investing products, account types etc. 

2. We provide a lot of information, without telling them why causing decision paralysis this is leading to users taking the easiest step: which is no step at all, effecting our KPIs.

3. Structure: How users search vs. how we are structured don’t overlap making it difficult to compare and find products. We are also competing against ourselves as well as our competitors. Users that land on retail investments couldn’t figure out how to open an account online.

Guiding Principles

1. Introduce a goal based journey. Especially important for those who are new to investing, millennials and potentially new comers.

2. Make it easy to compare between different investment options, clearly communicate differences and benefits to the customer to help the decision fatigue

3. Revisit the structure: Regardless of line of business, users should be able to learn about a product, and open an account in their preferred method.

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