Schwab Stock Slices

Support an MVP launch of a new product – Schwab Stock Slices. Originally named stock bundles, are multiple fractional shares grouped by theme that Schwab retail clients can purchase in any self-directed trading account, including custodial accounts.

Create a Messaging Guidelines document to describe how to talk about the bundles in a way that is both clear and compelling, for an audience of grandparents to children, a greater age range than other Schwab offerings. The Messaging Guidelines will lead to and inform a campaign, and will specifically speak to many pre-defined elements of that campaign.

Establishing a way of communicating the appeal and value of bundles as well as the concept and functionality with enough clarity that the diverse audiences can understand and act.

There is positioning, both for gifting and for individual purchase, that the messaging should use that as a north star. It is the function of the messaging to: bring out the promise of the positioning and start to make it real. Both can be summed up as Schwab Stock Slices is an easier way get started investing.

We wanted to satisfy targeted demographics, demographics critical for strategizing the design process. To do so, we established a value proposition as “An easy and affordable way to begin investing”. We did some user research, and evaluated phases which users would experience and the touchpoints. Next we considered audience values, geographic influences which enabled us to define a target audience and preliminary messaging.

This exercise captures the experience of a user before and during the interaction with Stock Slices. The focus was on the grandmother Susan, as she considers a graduation gift for her granddaughter Lily. The journey map describes her feelings, thoughts, what she could experience while interacting with the product.

Demographic established for the gifter:

• Average age of 60
• Grandparents do actually make the gift giving decisions
• Grandparents are obsessed with their grandkids
• Possible tension between parents and grandparents
• Need to consider the conversation between the parent and the grandparent – “stop buying stuff”
• Goals: Sticky product and create warm leads

To better understand the user, we created user maps for three emerging personas. The explorations forced us to acknowledge and discuss awareness, triggers, users actions, and their outcomes. The user maps helped get the team on the same page, assign ownership, and show how every individual role directly impacts the customer experience, which was critical for forward momentum, problem-solving.

A question showed to be better at priming the collective intelligence of the group than a problem statement. We used challenge mapping to re-frame the problem in a way that engaged the group to think on and take action. By answering How might we…? questions, offered an easy way to refine the problem we were trying to solve through a few iterations.

• Create teachable moments (Legacy/Educational)
• Create a millennial-style marketplace (Recipient – Self-Purchaser)
• Make it simple and engaging (Simple)
• Launch a revolutionary product (Schwab Brand)
• Make a guided/joint product that doesn’t feel like a burden or focus on the product’s shortcomings (Guided/Joint Experience)
• Make this fulfilling for grandma and engaging for the recipient/kid (Engaging/Fun)

We planned concept testing to discover users thoughts and determine product-market fit. By asking participants what they think about the concept, we mitigated the risk of releasing an experience that doesn’t meet customer expectations. We conducted both moderated and unmoderated testing. Moderated testing were conducted with clients and allowed us to follow up on questions, and elaborate with the participants answers. The unmoderated testing allowed us to see if the concepts solved real life problems that prospects are experiencing.