Summary of N26 projects
Role
Product Lifecycle Designer
Company
N26
Timeline
Abril 2024 - May 2025
New Feature: Managed Portfolios
Key Takeaways 🏆
The Ready-Made Funds feature successfully simplified investing for those N26 users that aren't comfortable making investment desicions, but don't want to miss out on growing their money.
By focusing on simplicity, convenience, and trust, we quickly launched an intuitive investing experience. Leveraging existing constructions we enabled rapid development. This case study explains how we achieved this through research, iteration, and effective resource allocation.
Problem
We have adopted building fast with AI. However, designers know this puts a spotlight on the speed <> quality dilema.
Knowing speed wasn't negotiable in an engineering led-company, my goal was to achieve the highest quality AI output possible. With Claude Code in the codebase, Figma through MCP, Claude design and other tools for prototyping on the side, we had good bases to build a good workflow.
However, our design system didn't have enough context for the LLMs to know how to behave around them.
The objetive
We want to empower customers to build healthy investment habits and grow their money in N26. We want to cut through the perceived complexity of investments, by offering a product that allows users to invest with minimal effort and no knowledge required.
Constraints & Considerations
Regulatory Compliance ✍️
The feature needed to align with financial regulations while maintaining simplicity.
Speed to Market 🏃♂️➡️
The product needed to launch as soon as possible, so we prioritized reusing existing structures and components to reduce development time.
Trust & Transparency 🤝
Users needed clear information to feel secure in their investments.
Research & Insights
Initial results
We conducted surveys and competitor analysis to understand our audience’s needs. A key research focus was identifying why eligible users were not investing in the app.
We found that 65% of users don’t invest anywhere because they dont know how or aren't interested.
Those who do, around 10%, prefer to keep all their investments in one place.
Amongst non-investors, those who were interested in starting, haven't already necause they are primarily concerned about risk, felt overwhelmed by decision-making, and were reluctant to spend time learning.
Key insights
Simplicity emerged as a top priority, with most users favoring an easy-to-use interface with minimal jargon.
Trust was also critical, as users needed clear explanations of investment risks and potential returns.
Additionally, many users found automation appealing, expressing interest in a "set-it-and-forget-it" investment approach.
These insights shaped our strategy to create a more user-friendly and trustworthy investment experience.
Value Preposition
Our new feature simplifies investing by offering a choice between flexibility and ease. For hands-on investors, equities provide a wide range of options with greater control. For those who prefer a hassle-free approach, managed funds offer a safe, professionally managed solution with minimal effort—no learning curve, no stress, just smart investing made simple.
Entry-point experiment
Since Ready-Made Funds was part of the existing Investments tab, three different entry points were designed to determine the most effective way to integrate the feature without disrupting the user flow.
⏰ We chose the solution that reused existing UI components from previous features. This approach minimized development time while ensuring a seamless experience within the app.
UI & Assets
To make investment choices easier and more intuitive, we focused on how to transmit semantically the different risk levels and overall visual aids to guide the users through the flow:
Color Coding for Risk Levels
Visual Differentiation
We ensured that these colors were present on decision-making screens and took the form of icons, labels, and subtle animations to reinforce each risk level.
Screen flow
Learnings & Next Steps
What Worked Well
Simplicity was key—users appreciated the clear, no-fuss experience.
Color-coded risk levels improved user understanding.
Leveraging existing components accelerated development.
Areas for Improvement
Expanding investment education within the app.
Allowing users to skip the onboarding altogether for experienced investors.
Introducing a demo mode for users hesitant to invest real money.
Conducting post-launch user testing and iterations based on feedback, as a beta test was not feasible before launch.
Case study #2
Growth experimentation loop for User Lifecycle
Currently we are using communications within and outside the app without a logic or pattern that would help us to be consistent with our communication channels which might ultimately lead to a confusing user experience.
Quick Intro
What is the problem we are trying to solve 🥱
Currently we do not have an holistic view of the comms that our customers are receiving which leads to an information overload and disengagement.
What are we trying to achieve 🏆
Creating a holistic Communication Design System that functions as a guideline on how to use comms.
Optimize current comms and make them ready and suitable for the integration with Braze.
Review use cases and document application.
Consistency
Problem: We are not consistent with our style or content when communicating across similar touch points in different user journeys.
Idea: Create more consistency and define route for same comms in different touch points.
Expand
Problem: We are lacking a variety of different comms components for different use cases that help effectively communicate different content.
Ideas: Audit all our communications, map and document all use cases.
Organize
Problem: Currently we use comms all over the app and there is no clear plan where which comms should go, which component should be use for what content.
Ideas: Guidelines and documentation.
The user lifecycle
The user lifecycle at N26 spans multiple stages, each with unique needs and challenges:
KYC
Key steps to assess customer risk and comply with the legal requirements of Anti-Money Laundering laws.
Early Engagement
Encouraging actions that deepen users' interaction with the app.
Friend Referral
Entice the customer to attract other users on their peak of product usage and excitement.
Security and Trust
Educate of common risks for the user and build trust on the product.
Product Adoption
Introducing key features that may otherwise go undiscovered.
Upgrade
Upsell customers on the lower tiers.
Retention
Keep users engaged with the product and keeping attentive of any inactivity.
Reactivation
Targeting users who show signs of inactivity or have not interacted with certain features.
The Right Message
Looking for the correct content, tone of voice and overall words to most effectively engage customers: This means having a very strong collaboration with the Lifecycle team, the UX Writer and the Content Writer.
The Right Time
Using a trigger-based approach, we identified specific moments in the user’s journey (e.g., completing KYC, setting up a virtual card) to send targeted messages encouraging progression.
The Right Channel
Content cards
Notification center
Push notifications
Modals and IAM
Slide-ups
E-Mails
Experiment: Content Cards
Content Cards are an effective tool for delivering key information to users. To increase their appeal, we are currently testing different styles, formats, and contextual placements of these cards. As our initial focus is on promotions, we will prioritize experimenting with various designs for these cards. A key metric we will track for promotional content cards is the growth in monthly active users (MAU).
Research Questions
Content Structure
What’s the most effective way to structure content so that users can easily grasp its relevance and key details, leading to greater engagement?
Visual Style
What visual style would best capture the user's attention for each specific use case and communication type?
CTA
Are users aware that tapping the card will take them somewhere?
Will they dismiss the card with an X button or with a dismiss CTA?
Format
Do users engage more with cards that have a vertical format, since they can view more content without scrolling?
Aspects we want to test
Labels by category
Labels copy
Hierarchy levels
Composed assets, or lifestyle imagery, or 3D assets, or illustrations
CTAs positioning
Horizontal format or vertical format
For the future
Once some of these questions are answered, we have to think about the placement of these cards.
Will they look the same in the Home tab than in other tabs?
Where should they be positioned around other information?
Should they live in their own module?
Horizontal modules take less real state but they are seen at one at the time in between scroll actions.
