Atlas is an advanced interest rate hedging analysis tool originally designed for experienced users, now enhanced to serve a broader audience, adopted by over 2,000 GS clients, and recognized by the 2023 Adam Smith Award—finance’s most prestigious award.
DESIGN PROCESS
Team Solo Product Designer, Business Stakeholders, Dev Team
My Role Solo Product Design, User Research, Data Visualization
Tool Figma, Pen and Paper, Jira
Timeline Mar 2022 - Jul 2024
Problem Overview
IB Marquee Capital Markets Atlas (Interest Expense Management) is a risk analytic tool designed to help corporates analyze interest rate hedging opportunities and decisions. It offers basic tools to show the sensitivity of capital structures to interest rates and demonstrates how derivatives can mitigate this risk. Initially developed for experienced users, the business team now aims to expand the risk analysis features and update Atlas to be more user-friendly for a broader set of clients, including those with less risk management experience.
My Responsibility
As the sole Product Designer from March 2022 to July 2024, I led the 2-year end-to-end redesign of Atlas. My responsibilities included user research, data visualization, and solo product design, ensuring the tool met the evolving needs of a diverse client base.
The Challenges
Limited User Access: Due to internal policies and compliance, direct access to end-users for research and testing was restricted.
Lack of a Product Manager: The absence of a dedicated product manager required me to take on additional responsibilities to drive the project forward.
Approach to overcome these challenges, I implemented the following strategies:
Stakeholder Collaboration: Engaged with business stakeholders to understand high-level contexts, expectations, and limitations.
Usability Testing: Analyzed the current platform to identify usability issues through internal testing and discussions with stakeholders and the development team.
Workshops and Research: Hosted workshops to decode business jargon and gather insights, while researching similar market platforms to inform design decisions.
Prototyping: Created low-fidelity and high-fidelity interaction prototypes, iterating based on feedback from stakeholders, developers, and colleagues.
Process Management: Established recurring meetings, prioritized discussion items, documented design updates in Jira, and maintained regular syncs with senior management to align with high-level goals and release timelines.
Outcome
The redesigned Atlas launched in 2023, featuring an intuitive onboarding flow and advanced risk visualizations. It successfully expanded its user base to over 2,000+ institutional and corporate clients and resolved critical usability issues. A standout achievement was a client utilizing Atlas to win the 2023 Adam Smith Award, highlighting the tool’s significant impact and excellence in the finance industry.
SELECTED DESIGNS
New User Flow
An onboarding feature to navigate user to add instruments and build a base portfolio for analysis.
Risk Mitigation
Risk detail pages with data visualization and variables for user to hedge the current instruments and generate a new portfolio to manage their risks.
Confidential:
If you are interested in Atlas, email me and let's chat about cases and details!