Initial Public Offering (IPO) | Upstox

OVERVIEW

Upstox launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO) product in 2018. It is the 3rd largest player in the IPO space because of its loyal user base. IPO contributed X% to Upstox’s revenue.

But new users starting their investment journey preferred competitors like Groww, and PayTM Money because they had a simpler and novice-friendly UX.

We were tasked with analyzing and fixing the IPO customer journey across touchpoints to ensure that we maintained our position among existing users and were the preferred choice of new users.

BUSINESS GOALS

  1. Reduce dropoff at the IPO application stage

  2. Reduce customer support issues raised during live IPOs

TEAM

1 Product manager, 1 designer, 2 engineering manager, 12 engineers, 1 tester, 1 technical expert

MY ROLE

Design and research lead

TIMELINE

May 2022 - Feb 2023

Redesigned IPO app flow

IMMERSION

The first thing we did was sit with different teams and stakeholders in the IPO pod and understand the lifecycle of an IPO. We realised that IPO is complex and for the end user experience to be smooth, we need to identify intervention areas across the user journey.

The lifecycle of an IPO (very different from other investment assets)

A mindmap to understand the various moving parts of IPO

We did a heuristic analysis of the Upstox app and looked at data from customer support teams to identify app areas where we need to work on. We identified IPO application flow and waiting period as 2 key problem areas. The application flow was confusing for a lot of first-time users. The waiting period (between IPO opening and listing) of 5-10 days was causing anxiety among users and increasing the burden on support teams.

User pain-points in the app based on customer support data and usability studies

Our product was not at-par with the market players. Our users couldn’t apply during off-market hours or before an IPO was about to open. These features were possible through the backend so we invested in upgrading our backend. We also didn’t have important decision-making parameters like subscription data on our app so we integrated with NSE to bring it inside the app.

OPPORTUNITY AREAS

After looking at the IPO experience, we found several gaps in the user journey. Vivek Choksi [IPO Product manager] and I prioritized what items to pick and got leadership buy-in on our roadmap.

  1. Optimize the experience for first-time investors: In the last 3 IPOs, 30% of investors were first-time users who were struggling with learning about the IPO process as well as applying through the app

  2. Design contextually to solve customer issues at each step of the IPO journey: Customers had different queries at different stages of the IPO journey. We can handle them smartly by design.

  3. Build pre-apply and 24x7 features to stop losing users to other apps: Users should not need to worry about when to apply, Upstox should take care of it

DESIGN PHASE

We started working on user flows and prototypes after identifying our opportunity areas. There was an existing design system that we leveraged to build and test our ideas quickly.

TESTING NEW SCREENS AND FLOWS

We were planning on introducing big changes during the application process, especially how content was being leveraged, the application workflow, and in-app support. Together with our research team, we created a research exercise to understand how these prototypes performed with users. We recruited Upstox users as well as external users via agencies through clearly defined criteria. The testing sessions happened remotely.

We iterated upon the designs after the testing report and got internal approvals. We planned the release cycle together with the engineering team and shipped all updates in 5 consecutive releases. We monitored usage data (Mixpanel) and bugs (Instabug) and made incremental changes to improve the experience and make the experience more delightful for our investors over the next few months.

IMPACT

We accomplished the following during the time I was leading the pod:

  1. Reduce dropoffs: 22% decrease in IPO application funnel

  2. Reduce customer support tickets: 70% reduction in user tickets within 6-8 months of launch

Discoveries from our research also led to new business objectives and impact:

  1. Brand consistency: We aligned marketing, content, support, and app teams to use the same brand and messaging across all our touchpoints

  2. Top of the funnel: 14% increase in IPO visibility on Upstox

EXPERIMENTS

2021 was a mega rush for IPOs. Everyone wanted to do an IPO. Upstox wanted to ride on the hype as well. We tried out a couple of experiments that mostly bombed but they helped us in learning about our user journey a lot.

The WhatsApp experiment didn’t improve our customer acquisition metrics. But our PR folks had a field day. Our IPO bot got featured in Mint, Economic Times, The Hindu, Business Standard, and more.

It also helped us to look at our IPO product with a new lens: how can a user apply for an IPO 1 step at a time, what’s the sequence of events, how do we manage branches, how do we handle error cases, how do we keep users engaged. It was a good learning experience.

Another even more interesting idea came through conversations with a startup that was scheduled to go for IPO in 2022 [the IPO is still not done]. We made a plug-and-play SDK solution for IPO. Any company can plug in the SDK into their app to enable its users to apply for its IPO! We worked out the authentication piece and white labeling as well. But it didn’t fly with regulators. So we shut it off. But while we were working on it, we really felt that we were on something exciting.

CHALLENGES AND LEARNINGS

  1. UX is not just the app but it is the user’s experience across the app, social media, marketing, and all other touchpoints.

  2. Testing with users can help with refining the product details.

  3. Content design plays a crucial role in Consumer apps. UX should focus on UI and content to create a delightful experience for users.

  4. Stakeholder involvement and feedback management are crucial in large teams. Design’s role is not to come up with the best idea in the room but to ensure that the end customer gets the best idea in the best execution.

  5. Design systems are immensely helpful in ensuring consistency but sometimes context can be more powerful than consistency.

  6. Good products are never launched in one go, they are achieved over multiple iterations.