WealthTeamWork
Evolving an Ad-Hoc MVP into a Consistent, Trustworthy Financial Experience
Fintech
Web Application
Product Design
Context
What is WealthTeamWork?
WealthTeamWork is a financial platform that enables households, financial advisors, and other professionals to collaborate on finances in one secure place.
The Problem
WealthTeamWork’s platform lacked the polished experience and streamlined workflows required to gain the trust of high-net-worth users and institutional investors. To secure the platform’s future, the app needed to evolve from a developer-built MVP into a sophisticated, high-trust financial tool.
My Impact
As the lead designer for this early-stage startup, I drove the redesign of the core web application. I simplified high-friction workflows and modernized the interface, creating a cohesive, professional user experience designed to foster trust and facilitate rapid scaling.
Discovery
Identifying Pain Points
Through a UX audit and user feedback, I identified four critical friction points:
Visual Noise & Incohesion
Inconsistent styles and "table-heavy" layouts (sometimes 5+ per page) created cognitive overload and undermined professional trust.
Navigational Imbalance
The global top menu was almost entirely focused on advisor tools, while household users saw only “Home.” This imbalance made it difficult for non-advisor users to find relevant features and understand their place within the system.
Administrative Friction
Onboarding a single household member required 15+ input fields, making the process tedious and prone to drop-off.
Fragmented Communication
Communication was split between sidebars and record-level comments, leading to duplicate threads and lost context.
Process
The Visual Identity
Trustworthy products require trustworthy brands. We moved away from a dated "legacy" feel, adopting a new identity inspired by yin-yang principles. This symbolizes the balance and partnership between households and advisors, using a modern palette to convey reliability and innovation.
The Design System
To translate this identity into a functional product, I chose MUI as our foundation. Customizing this system allowed me to:
Scale at Speed: Build a library of reusable components that let us iterate quickly without losing visual integrity.
Ensure Consistency: Eliminate the "visual noise" found in my audit by standardizing every interaction.
Bridge the Brand: Turn static brand elements into a living, interactive UI that feels cohesive across the entire platform.
Navigation
To fix the navigation, I wireframed several layouts to balance advisor and household workflows. By testing hierarchy and category organization, I identified conflicts between global and role-specific actions, leading to a streamlined two-tiered navigation structure.
User Management
I focused on a cohesive Household Management screen to clarify relationships between users, firms, and professionals. Through low-fidelity wireframes, I streamlined the flows for adding new users. This reduced friction and allowed advisors to manage complex account structures with ease.
Communication
I explored consolidating fragmented communication by testing various panel placements and record integrations. I ultimately styled record comments like a traditional comment section rather than a message thread. This change clarified context and reduced confusion when managing multiple conversations on a single screen.
Low-fidelity messaging (left) and comment (right) views.
Moving Forward Independently
When operations suspended during the mid-fidelity stage, I chose to complete the redesign independently. Reaching a high-fidelity state six months later, I applied a fresh perspective and an updated skill set to refine the experience:
Typography: Updated to a cleaner, professional typeface for better readability.
Contextual Messaging: Dedicated threads to each record to keep discussions focused.
User Management: Simplified relationship visuals and streamlined member onboarding.
Unified Navigation: Introduced a single sidebar and a persistent header for clearer orientation.
These refinements transformed mid-fidelity logic into a polished, modern experience that finally matched my original vision.
Household Overview and Net Worth
A walkthrough of the household overview and net worth, showing how users can review their finances and adjust included records.
Manage Household
Accept, update, and invite users and firms in the household.
Record Management
Creating a new record and setting custom access permissions.
Messaging
Coordinating with household members through direct and record-based messaging.
Takeaways
Beyond the Shutdown
My time at WealthTeamWork was my first experience working at a startup with a structured product team. While the project did not conclude as we had initially anticipated, it was an incredibly valuable experience. I strengthened not only my design skills but also my ability to advocate for and communicate the reasoning behind my design decisions. I learned how to move quickly and adapt in a startup environment, where every day brings new challenges and priorities are constantly shifting.
Although this project doesn’t have measurable impact metrics, the team and leadership were very pleased with the direction of the redesign. My managers expressed gratitude for the state of the project when operations were paused, knowing they could showcase the redesign to investors to generate interest and support for the company.