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Vivek Sagale

CASE STUDY 02 · HSBC · WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Cutting a 90-minute investment meeting to 65 by moving the paperwork out of the branch

At HSBC, Premier customers came to a wealth meeting to talk about their goals and spent most of it on forms, disclosures and repeated questions. We redesigned the end-to-end sales journey across digital and branch, so customers could prepare before the meeting and relationship managers could spend it on advice.

MY ROLE
Senior UX Designer in a three-person core team pairing service design with UX. Owned Customer and RM journey mapping, Investor Profile concepts, IA and wireframes.
TEAM
Service design and UX core team, working with wealth design, legal design, risk, distribution and business teams
TIMELINE
9 months of design (Aug 2023 – Apr 2024), then phased launches through 2024
MARKETS
Premier and mass wealth customers in Hong Kong and Singapore, plus their relationship managers
90 → 65

minutes for the end-to-end wealth sales process

80%

less time spent by RMs on suitability checks

3

releases across two markets in 2024

Wealth Hybrid Sales hero visual

01 · CONTEXT & CONSTRAINTS

A regulated sales process, split across two channels that did not talk to each other

Premier customers explored investments online and bought them in branch. In between sat a long suitability process: risk profiling, financial profile, knowledge and experience checks, disclosures and recorded acknowledgements. None of it could be removed. All of it was being done in the meeting.

It was also the first time the bank's service design and wealth design teams had worked on a project together.

200+

customers served by a single relationship manager

4

challenge areas found across the journey

6

service principles agreed with stakeholders

2

markets with different customer habits

WHAT COULD NOT CHANGE

  • Regulatory suitability and disclosure requirements
  • Staff systems that were not integrated with each other
  • Different market rules and habits in Hong Kong and Singapore

02 · THE PROBLEM

Customers expected a conversation about their goals. They got an assessment, and relationship managers spent their time on formalities instead of advice.

IN THEIR WORDS

“It felt like a product sell, rather than trying to understand my needs better.”

— Premier customer

CUSTOMER PAIN

Multiple entry points and no guidance on where to start. Repetitive questions, even when nothing had changed. Too many T&Cs and recordings with no explanation of why.

RM PAIN

Each RM served 200+ customers, re-entered the same data across unconnected systems, and felt mistrusted by the recordings.

HOW WE KNEW

Existing customer research and personas, journey analytics, current-state maps for both customers and RMs, a competitor review and cross-functional workshops.

THE FINDING THAT CHANGED DIRECTION

Mapping the RM journey alongside the customer's showed the meeting itself wasn't the problem. Everything before it was. Customers were happy to complete details ahead of time to save time in branch, but nothing told them what was expected or let them do it. The brief shifted from shortening the meeting to preparing customers for it.

03 · ALIGNING THE ORGANISATION

Six service principles, agreed before any screen was drawn

With global and local business, distribution, frontline and risk teams in the room, we agreed what good looked like, then used it to prioritise solutions with senior stakeholders across four challenge areas.

Explain in simple language

Plain words customers understand first time.

Flexibility and modularity

Let customers explore and narrow down on their own.

Empower decisions

Tools and pathways for self-directed investors.

Visibility into the process

Say what is needed and why, before the meeting.

Personal, holistic guidance

From product-centric to goal and life-stage based.

Build trust

Disclosures that inform, not just protect the bank.

Six service principles, agreed before any screen was drawn

04 · KEY DECISIONS

Four calls that shaped the journey

D1

Move the paperwork to before the meeting

We designed a pre-meeting briefing, sent by email with an in-app meeting guide, that tells customers what to expect, how long each step takes, and lets them book and leave notes for their RM.

TRADE-OFF

Ease vs. completeness. With pre-meeting details optional, some customers may skip them or arrive with them half-filled.

PROOF

In testing, most participants valued seeing the estimated time and steps, and saving time in branch was their main motivation to prepare.

D1: Move the paperwork to before the meeting

D2

One Investor Profile instead of scattered forms

We created a single Investor Profile on the wealth dashboard for risk profile, financial profile, knowledge and experience, and investment preferences. Customers can review and update it on their own, and the bank can nudge them as items expire.

TRADE-OFF

Effort vs. consistency. Consolidating the flows into one place required extra development, which teams initially resisted before getting on board.

PROOF

The Investor Profile and Net Worth launched on mobile in Singapore in Q3 2024.

D2: One Investor Profile instead of scattered forms

D3

Four ways in, matched to how customers think

We restructured wealth navigation around four pathways: a starter guide, goal-based exploration, product-based exploration, and guidance from an RM. Each lets customers narrow options on their own before a meeting.

TRADE-OFF

Redundancy vs. access. Three pathways now have multiple entry points, adding slight redundancy but making them easier to reach.

PROOF

This was handed over as an IA recommendation and taken forward for upcoming releases.

D3: Four ways in, matched to how customers think

D4 · WHAT TESTING CHANGED

The change made after customer testing

Testing surfaced two key issues. Some customers felt there were too many required details to fill in before the meeting, so we made them optional. Others didn’t discover the additional flows hidden behind a swipe gesture, so we surfaced them upfront.

TRADE-OFF

Simplicity vs. discoverability. Making required details optional and surfacing hidden flows meant a slightly busier screen, but a smoother journey.

PROOF

Stakeholders responded strongly to the revised approach.

D4: The change made after customer testing

05 · THE SOLUTION

Concept to launch, one market at a time

Low-fidelity service concepts were turned into high-fidelity designs with an external agency, tested 1:1 with customers in Hong Kong and Singapore, then refined with business, legal design and tech teams for a Day 1 MVP.

Q2 2024 · HONG KONG

Pre-meeting briefing email and in-app meeting guide

Q3 2024 · SINGAPORE

Investor Profile and Net Worth on mobile

Q4 2024 · HONG KONG

Knowledge and experience, and investment preferences on mobile

Briefing email: what happens at the meeting
Q2 · HKBriefing email: what happens at the meeting
Investor Profile: four sections in one place
Q3 · SGInvestor Profile: four sections in one place
Experience and investment preferences
Q4 · HKExperience and investment preferences

06 · OUTCOME

90 → 65 min

end-to-end wealth sales process

80%

less RM time on suitability checks

3.92 / 5

prototype satisfaction in customer testing

1:1 sessions in Hong Kong and Singapore

Customers in Singapore, who were more digitally confident, wanted to complete their profile even when they met their RM regularly. In Hong Kong, digital-first customers were the keenest.

Beyond the product outcomes, the project set a lasting model for service design and UX teams to co-create from discovery through launch. The work also received special recognition from HSBC’s Global Head of Retail Banking & Customer Experience.

07 · WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY

Extending omnichannel to every step

We cut in-branch time significantly, but bottlenecks remained. Disclosures still took long and sat in a separate, branch-only application. An omnichannel approach could unify the experience and shorten the investment journey even further.

What happened next

Beyond the Investor mobile app, the team adopted our recommendations for the Disclosures section, making one of the slowest steps in the journey faster and easier to complete.

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viveksagale31@gmail.com