I was accountable for partnering with product and engineering leadership to define business outcomes and deliver those outcomes through a best-in-class user experience.
Shipped a
new onboarding experienceto support a new platform initiative.Shipped a
0-1 mobileonboarding experience.Shipped across
10+ investing account types.Built
20+ design patternsso additional business lines would feel consistent and approachable.I
proactively introduced the triad(PdM, Eng, UX)I
improved review culturewith executives and stakeholders from legal, compliance and marketing.1 designer
promoted.
Questrade built its business on being a brokerage only and wanted to expand. Questrade needed a new portal to support this expanding portfolio which included mortgages, investing, trading, and insurance.
Onboarding was a key experience area to support this expansion, so the business decided to invest substantial resources to rebuild this experience.
In my role as UX manager at Questrade with 7 product designers, I was accountable for delivering 4 experiences as part of this business expansion (web and mobile). I led the cross functional design team for each of these initiatives which included user research, content design, and visual design.
Platform signup & onboarding for investing across 10+ account types. (This case study)
Platform design including navigation and multi-business line features.
(Go to case study)Reimagine investing experience in new platform
Building design patterns for an organization of 50+ product designers and design system designers
I wanted to align design, product, and engineering around a shared vision for a unified onboarding experience from the get-go.
What I Did
Aggregated existing research across the organization and directed new research to be conducted to inspire and inform the team. As a result this kept the team grounded on where to put their focus.
Facilitated alignment workshops with cross-functional leaders from marketing, sales, product management, engineering and compliance to define success metrics.
Led the creation of design design principles. I split them up between “Content” and “Interaction” so they could be more specific & impactful.
Gained buy-in from executives through shared presentations with engineering and product leaders.
When I joined Questrade I noticed a lot of broken communication, design was a scapegoat during presentations, and different partners were not part of the process.
What I did
I took the initiative to setup the first triad system between product, engineering and design. I facilitated meeting rituals from backlog prioritization to innovation sessions
Revamped our review process with non-product stakeholders from compliance, legal, marketing and sales by involving them earlier in the process.
Reset ownership and presentation expectations so the triad would present the solution together instead of design receiving all the feedback on their UI.
Insight: A key pain point in our previous onboarding flow was the complexity of our questions.
Approach: I knew this wasn’t just an interaction design problem, but a content one. I supported the content designer when working with Legal / Compliance teams to balance regulation needs, but deliver a simplified experience. Below is a before and after of one of many key areas users were dropping off previously.
Content Design Highlights
Introduction of "Why we ask" on every question to provide clarity
Removal of unnecessary questions while streamlining existing ones
Approachable, clear and conversational questions to remove technical jargon
Insight: I had new Usability testing conducted and collected metrics from our marketing team around drop-offs. It showed users were confused being brought back to a landing page when completing one of many sections which resulted in high drop off rates or long completion times. (23 minutes)
Before/Early Exploration: Each section had it’s own wizard, and users were brought back to the home screen. Multiple questions per page resulted in confusion and longer times at each stage.
Design Highlights:
Every question had it's own dedicated page. Although this made more screens, usability testing showed it was clearer and reduced drop-offs.
Percentage indicators to inform the user how far they are in the section.
Users had visibility to sections they still needed to complete. This allowed users to have time to find critical information that is often found in their wallets or other locations (ie: SIN Number).
Before: Before I joined, junior designers were support designers for other senior members. With only 2 senior designers I knew this wouldn’t scale for all four of my initiatives.
After: I needed to enable the junior designers to own their own design work, research, triad relationships and presentations to stakeholders. For the onboarding initiative the junior designer flourished to deliver onboarding for native mobile (iOS & Android). Due to this opportunity and performance he was promoted.
Challenge: Investing was the first business line to adopt the new onboarding design. I then oversaw its rollout across additional lines including Banking, Insurance, Trading, and Mortgages to ensure consistency and quality as the platform scaled.
What I Did
Led visual and product design across business lines to create 20+ patterns.
Created a central design reference site for 50+ designers to access shared patterns.
Partnered with design system engineers to prioritize and scale key onboarding components.
Led governance meetings with product lines (banking, mortgages, insurance) to align on needs and ensure pattern adoption.
Advocated for consistency and unblocked designers facing cross-team pushback.
Shared updates through department meetings and Slack channels.
Outcome: New business lines launched with cohesive, accessible onboarding experiences consistent with the investing standard, while tailoring design choices to fit their unique needs.
I was accountable for partnering with product and engineering leadership to define business outcomes and deliver those outcomes through a best-in-class user experience.
Shipped a
new onboarding experienceto support a new platform initiative.Shipped a
0-1 mobileonboarding experience.Shipped across
10+ investing account types.Built
20+ design patternsso additional business lines would feel consistent and approachable.I
proactively introduced the triad(PdM, Eng, UX)I
improved review culturewith executives and stakeholders from legal, compliance and marketing.1 designer
promoted.
