Client
We were contacted by a French/Canadian startup with the request to conduct a discovery phase for the investors’ platform. They had a brand book and a unique vision for their product and wanted to assess the viability of their product on the market before the development phase.
Project Description
The software serves as an investment platform for those who are willing to make their first steps in this craft, as well as for their experienced peers.
For a wide range of investors all over the world, from companies to professional and retail investors who seek to make reliable and independent data-driven investment decisions, our customer wanted to create a website that can provide investors with comprehensive financial and alternative data.
That way investors make informed and data-driven investment decisions that lead to long-term success. Unlike similar platforms, this one has a simple design that allows the users to quickly understand the features, even if they have little experience in the subject area.
The end product should not scare people about the complexity of investing and is aimed to guide and educate investors in tracking financial assets very simply.
The user doesn’t need to visit the site every day: he is not actively involved in managing his portfolio. The user can do that once a month or once a year depending on the strategy.
The company will provide important information via the comprehensive newsletter.
Challenges
Business Objectives and Success Metrics were given to us by the customer, and they could be summarized as follows:
- Provide investors with simple and comprehensive financial data, enabling them to make informed and data-driven investment decisions that lead to long-term success.
- Show if the user invests in the long term, he is more likely to succeed in his financial goals with the help of removing the human factor in investment decisions with the use of quantitative models that are fully automated.
- Provide an easy experience for the user: easy to register, and to become a paid customer in a few clicks. After visiting a website, the user can quickly understand the purpose of the platform, leave his/her s email, and leave all the things to do for the software.
Our team was challenged with the following tasks to be completed at the first stage of cooperation:
- Provide all the features that are planned to be delivered to the customers
- Ability to launch the product in the steps agreed
- The page load speed should align with the non-functional requirements
Process
The team used Kanban methodology for the discovery phase as the simplest way to work.
Also, the developers investigated Webflow technology for its further usage and developed an architecture diagram with AWS services
Stage 1: Discovery phase with outcomes from below:
Vision & Scope describes an overall concept of what the team is about to work on and what the final output should look like as per business need and user requirements;
Product Backlog – a prioritized list of features or other activities that a team may deliver to achieve the project goals;
Amplified and Revised Project Estimate that allows to create a project plan and accurately track project efforts and control the budget;
Development Roadmap – a plan of actions with specified timelines and dependencies for main project aims;
Clickable wireframes - high-level mockups.
Architecture diagram, data flow diagram, and user flow diagram.
Solution
Our team conducted research and estimations, and completed the discovery phase for the website, which can provide investors with comprehensive financial and alternative data.
As for now, the future website/platform is supposed to consist of nine modules and have the following set of functions:
Module 1: General Functions
Homepage, about us page. Contacts, cookies, subscriptions
Module 2: Log in Functionality
Authorization and authentication
Module 3: Subscription Plans Page
Buy and observe subscriptions
Module 4: Legal Information
Terms and conditions, policies
Module 5: Help Page
Module 6: Blog
Module 7: Subscription Section
Rules, news page, account details
Module 8: Payments Integration
Module 9: Admin panel
User management features
Results
We have completed the discovery phase. The end result of our work is a clear vision and scope of the product and more or less detailed extended documentation.
We are waiting for the readiness to start the development phase from the client. From the discovery phase, it’s clear that the product, if executed properly, will have success on the market as it сould have distinctive features that allow them to look more promising than the competitors.
New budget allocation is awaited at the moment so that our development team can start execution of what we delivered in the documentation.
As for now, the overall concept has been studied, the product backlog executed, the project has been estimated, and the development roadmap has been delivered.
Our customer received high-level mockups, architecture, data flow, and user diagrams.
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