PROTOTYPE
STRAND FINANCE
/ UX CASE STUDY · 2026
01 / 23 — HERO
EMPOWERING THE MODERN RELATIONSHIP MANAGER

From two hours
to thirty seconds

ROLE
Senior UX/UI Designer & AI Strategist
CLIENT
Strand Finance — Private Wealth
TIMELINE
24 weeks · 2026
TEAM
1 Product Manager · 2 Software Engineers · 1 Power BI Developer 1 Data Scientist · Me (UX Designer and AI Strategist )
PLATFORM
Enterprise Web + Responsive PWA
TOOLS
Figma · Angular · Power BI · SAAS
STATUS: SHIPPED · Q1 2026 PARTH PAREKH · DESIGN LEADERSHIP REVIEW
02 / OVERVIEW
THE SOLUTION AT A GLANCE
EXECUTIVE PREVIEW

A unified command center for the modern RM.

strand.finance / rm / command-center
PREVIEW MODE
03 / STRATEGY
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
UX STRATEGY

Workflow before data. Every screen earns its place.

PRINCIPLE 01
Workflow before data.
Every screen earns its place by serving a moment in the RM is day.
PRINCIPLE 02
AI augments, never replaces.
AI handles synthesis. The RM owns the relationship.
PRINCIPLE 03
Trust through transparency.
Every number shows its source, its timestamp, and its confidence.
BEFORE WORKFLOW
AFTER WORKFLOW
04 / CONTEXT
WHY NOW
INDUSTRY CONTEXT

Four forces reshaping wealth management.

FORCE 01

Fee compression.

Robo-advisors at 25 bps are squeezing traditional 1% firms. Survival means serving more clients without sacrificing quality.
→ AI lifts capacity per RM by ~40%.
FORCE 02

The Great Wealth Transfer.

~$84T passing from Boomers to Gen X and Millennials over 20 years. The next generation expects native digital experiences.
→ Mobile-first PWA is table stakes.
FORCE 03

An aging RM workforce.

The average advisor is 55+. Tools must be intuitive enough that younger RMs can ramp up in months, not years.
→ Ramp time cut from 18mo → 6mo.
FORCE 04

Alternative-asset explosion.

Private equity, crypto, direct real estate — now part of HNWI portfolios, but the data is unstructured chaos.
→ AI normalizes capital-call PDFs in seconds.
05 / RESEARCH
200+ DATA POINTS
METHODOLOGY

Six methods. 100+ participants. Twelve pain points out.

METHOD 01
Stakeholder Interviews
12 RMs · 3 Compliance · 2 Heads of Wealth
Workflow themes, vocabulary, mental models.
METHOD 02
Contextual Inquiry
6 full-day shadowing sessions
Tool-switching map, real prep rituals observed in situ.
METHOD 03
Client Surveys
85+ HNWI & mass-affluent clients
Emotional gap, fee perception, statement comprehension.
METHOD 04
Heuristic Audit
Incumbent platform + 5 competitors
Pattern inventory, density baselines, IA comparison.
METHOD 05
Data Diary Study
4 RMs · 2-week structured diary
Friction logged in the moment, time-of-day patterns.
METHOD 06
Compliance Workshop
Co-design · 1-day intensive
Risk surface map, false-positive failure modes.
06 / SYNTHESIS
VOICE OF USER · PAIN POINTS
RESEARCH SYNTHESIS

The three friction points that defined the project.

Pre-meeting prep takes me two hours. I do 45 clients quarterly. I am a highly-paid formatting machine.
SENIOR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER
I get a 40-page statement every month. It goes straight to the shredder. Just tell me if I am okay.
HNWI CLIENT
Top 3 Strategic Pain Points
01
Prep Paralysis. 90+ hours per quarter spent on manual data aggregation across 5 silos.
CRITICAL
02
Reactive Drift. Concentration risks and IPS breaches are caught weeks too late by compliance.
CRITICAL
03
The Trust Gap. Jargon-heavy reporting leaves clients asking: "What am I actually paying for?"
HIGH
07 / PERSONAS
THE TRI-FOLD STAKEHOLDER
PERSONAS

Three roles. One shared pain: fragmentation.

SC
Jameson W
SR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER · 12Y
AGE
47
BOOK
45 clients
AUM
$380M
TECH
High / Wary

GOALS

  • Walk into every meeting fully prepared
  • Spot client problems before clients do
  • Grow her book through referrals

FRUSTRATIONS

  • Data scattered across 5+ systems
  • 2-hour pre-meeting ritual
  • Reactive drift detection

I want to spend time talking to my clients, not wrestling with spreadsheets.

SA
Sharon Aguste
HNWI CLIENT · PRE-RETIREMENT
AGE
58
SEGMENT
HNWI
ASSETS
$8.5M
STAGE
Pre-retire

GOALS

  • Know if he can retire on time
  • Fund daughter's wedding next year
  • Leave a legacy without family conflict

FRUSTRATIONS

  • Doesn't understand his statements
  • Fees feel opaque
  • Wants "am I on track?" not TWR

Don't tell me my alpha. Tell me if I can afford to retire at 60.

DW
Diane Whitfield
HEAD OF COMPLIANCE · 15Y
REPORTS
8 analysts
TENURE
15 years
SCOPE
Firm-wide
TECH
Medium

GOALS

  • Surface systemic risk before regulators do
  • Reduce false-positive alerts
  • Audit trail without burdening RMs

FRUSTRATIONS

  • Concentration risk hides at household level
  • KYC profiles go stale
  • Succession exposes data debt

Compliance shouldn't be an autopsy. It should be an early warning system.

08 / JOURNEY
BEFORE THE REDESIGN
CURRENT-STATE JOURNEY

Jame's two-hour prep ritual, step by step.

T −2:00
01 · TRIGGER
Calendar alert
"I need to start prepping now."
😐
2 hrs to prep · context-switch starts
T −1:45
02 · GATHER
Open 5 systems
"Where did I save last quarter's notes?"
😤
5+ tool context switches
T −1:00
03 · AGGREGATE
Export 3 CSVs
"Did I include the trust account?"
😟
Manual, error-prone consolidation
T −0:30
04 · WRITE
Draft narrative
"Did I get the benchmark right?"
😩
Repetitive writing fatigue
T −0:10
05 · FORMAT
PowerPoint hell
"This template is so old."
😐
Time spent on fonts, not insight
T 0:00
06 · MEETING
Enter unprepared
"Please don't ask about Apple."
😬
Knowledge gaps surface live
EMOTIONAL CURVE DIP AT AGGREGATION
09 / FLOW
PRE-MEETING PREP · 30s
PRIMARY TASK FLOW

Two hours, compressed into seven steps.

01 · TRIGGER
Calendar event fires
RM gets a 30-min pre-meeting nudge.
→
02 · LAUNCH
Meeting Mode opens
Auto-routed to the right household.
→
03 · ASSEMBLE
AI builds snapshot · 5s
Performance + allocation + flags.
→
04 · DRAFT
Narrative in RM's voice
Tone matched to historical writing.
05 · REVIEW
RM scans, edits 1–2 lines
"Sounds like me" feedback loop.
→
06 · APPROVE
One click confirms
Locks the version for audit.
→
07 · PACKAGE
PDF + screen-share
Auto-formatted for the meeting.
→
08 · OUTCOME
RM enters prepared
End-to-end: ~30 seconds.
10 / AI STRATEGY
THE STRATEGIC BET
AI INTEGRATION

AI as a feature.
AI as a material.

Treating AI like a "ChatGPT button" failed. Threading it through the workflow — at the exact moment the RM needed synthesis — worked. For every pain point we asked one question: can AI eliminate the friction entirely?

FOUR PRINCIPLES FOR AI IN UX
01
Show confidence, not just answers.
02
Always editable.
03
Provenance, one click away.
04
No hallucinated specificity.
11 / AI AUGMENTATIONS
11 INTEGRATIONS
AI SOLUTIONS

Eleven pain points. Eleven AI augmentations.

A · 01
Unified household view
Entity-resolution AI auto-maps external accounts to households via name, address, tax ID.
ENTITY RESOLUTION
A · 02
Meeting Mode
GenAI drafts the quarterly summary in the RM's specific tone of voice.
NLG · TONE TRANSFER
A · 03
Predictive market impact
Overlays simulated "estimated current impact" based on live indices.
PROBABILISTIC OVERLAY
A · 04
Predictive drift detection
Volatility analysis flags 90% breach probability 7 days out.
FORECAST · 7D HORIZON
A · 05
Auto-applied benchmarks
System locks blended benchmark from the signed IPS.
PROVENANCE LOCK
A · 06
Voice-to-CRM
Mobile transcription + action-item extraction + auto-log.
ASR · NLP
A · 07
Dynamic Monte Carlo
Real-time goal projection recalc as the client moves sliders.
SIMULATION · LIVE
A · 08
Value Delivered Ledger
Auto-scans trade logs to quantify tax-loss harvesting savings.
FEE TRANSPARENCY
A · 09
Narrative statements
Generates 3-paragraph TL;DR tuned to client literacy level.
NLG · PLAIN ENGLISH
A · 10
Life-event scanning
Scans meeting notes for life-event keywords → prompts KYC refresh.
NLP · COMPLIANCE
A · 11
Ask AI · knowledge graph
LLM queries 10 years of meeting notes. Beats the succession problem.
RAG · LLM
RESULT
11 / 11
Pain points resolved
via threaded AI.
12 / HI-FI · BOOK OVERVIEW
THE 9AM LANDING PAGE
AI CO-PILOT · CAUGHT A RISK

From two hours to thirty seconds.

●strand.finance / book / overview
AS OF 09:02 ET
13 / HI-FI · MEETING MODE
7-DAY HORIZON
PHASE 1 SOLUTION · COMPLIANCE

Compliance shifts from autopsy to early warning.

01
Forecast horizon, visualized. Today is the blue line. The breach is the red line. The space between is the action window.
02
Probability, not certainty. The model says 92% — and shows the band, never a single number.
03
Inline action. "Rebalance" sits on the row. No modal. No three-step trap.
04
Impact: compliance escalations −54%.
●strand.finance / risk / drift-forecast
7D FORECAST
14 / HI-FI · DRIFT FORECAST
30s PREP
PHASE 1 SOLUTION · ACTION

The Co-Pilot already triaged your morning.

●strand.finance / households / patel / meeting-mode
DRAFT v3 · 09:14 ET
15 / SCALE
RM COMMAND CENTER
CONSOLIDATED VIEW

From individual accounts to a firm-wide command center.

strand.finance / rm / dashboard
01 · AGGREGATE PERFORMANCE
Macro view of all managed assets vs benchmarks.
strand.finance / rm / performance
02 · DEEP DIVE ANALYTICS
Historical outperformance tracking and volatility profiling.
16 / FLOW · STEP 01
DETECT & ANALYZE
DETAILED USER FLOW

Step 01: Detect & Analyze

SYSTEM ACTION
Detecting Mandate Breaches
The system automatically flags any mandate breaches across the household book. AI provides an immediate impact analysis, surfacing the "Why" behind the drift before the RM even opens the client file.
17 / FLOW · STEP 02
ANALYZE STRATEGY
DETAILED USER FLOW

Step 02: Analyze Strategy

RM INTERVENTION
One-Click Rebalancing
The RM reviews the proposed trades. With a single click, they can execute a complex rebalancing strategy across multiple holdings and asset classes, all while maintaining strict compliance with the Investment Policy Statement (IPS).
18 / FLOW · STEP 03
Execute Strategy State
DETAILED USER FLOW

Step 03: Execute Strategy State

VERIFICATION
Hicks Law
By reducing the number of complex choices during the execution phase, we apply Hick is Law to minimize cognitive load. The AI pre-selects the optimal trade path, allowing the RM to make faster, higher-confidence decisions without being overwhelmed by data.
19 / FLOW · STEP 04
SUCCESS STATE
DETAILED USER FLOW · VALIDAITION

Step 04: Success State

VALIDATION
Visual Confirmation
The UI provides immediate visual feedback confirming the success of the trades. The RM sees a "clean" mandate view, ensuring that the household portfolio is now perfectly aligned with their financial goals.
20 / FLOW · STEP 05
CLIENT NOTIFICATION
DETAILED USER FLOW

Step 05: Client Notification

AI SYNTHESIS
Personalized Communication
The AI co-pilot automatically drafts a personalized email to the client, explaining the rebalancing action taken, the rationale behind it, and attaching the updated trade reports for transparency.
21 / TRANSFORMATION
SCREEN BY SCREEN
BEFORE / AFTER

The transformation, in one table.

● BEFORELEGACY PLATFORM · 2024
BOOK OVERVIEW
Table of 45 clients × 12 columns. RM scans, gives up, opens Excel.
PREP
2 hours across 5 systems. Manual CSV exports. Word + PowerPoint.
DRIFT
Reactive. Post-breach email from compliance, weeks late.
STATEMENTS
40-page PDF of jargon. Most clients shred them unopened.
MOBILE
Desktop PDFs squinted at on a phone.
SUCCESSION
"Ask the departing RM." Context evaporates on the last day.
● AFTERSTRAND · 2026
BOOK OVERVIEW
AI-triaged top 3 households with reasoning, confidence, and inline action.
PREP
30 seconds in Meeting Mode. Tone-matched narrative ready to ship.
DRIFT
Predictive widget. 7 days ahead. 92% confidence, inline rebalance.
STATEMENTS
3-paragraph NLG summary tuned to client literacy. Plain English toggle.
MOBILE
Native PWA with voice-to-CRM. 71% same-day note logging.
SUCCESSION
Ask AI bar. 10 years of notes queryable on day one.
22 / USABILITY
12 RMs · 3 FIRMS
USABILITY TESTING

SUS 87. Top tenth percentile.

TASK SUCCESS AVG TIME VERDICT
Find the top client to call today
100%
8s
PASS
Run a full pre-meeting prep
92%
45s
PASS
Triage a drift alert end-to-end
83%
90s
FIXED V4
Capture meeting notes on mobile
100%
35s
PASS
Answer "Apple exposure across household?"
92%
12s
PASS
WHAT FAILED · V3
Initial drift triage was confusing — testers expected one-click resolve, but we'd buried "Rebalance" in a 3-step modal. V4 brought the action inline on the alert card.
SYSTEM USABILITY SCALE
87/100
TOP 10th PERCENTILE
Industry average for B2B finance tooling is 68. The legacy platform scored 41.
PASS N=12 3 FIRMS
23 / THANK YOU
FIN
STRAND FINANCE

Lets build something
exciting together.

"The best way to predict the future is to design it."

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Parth K Parekh - UX Strategist, Designer & AI Consultant
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