Work at Alfa
Launched junior brokerage accounts to engage teenagers and parents and increase lifetime value among families. Launched an automated partner product marketplace across Alfa Investments and Alfa Mobile, with new products going live in under a week and online purchases without a manager. Created reusable product card templates with 30% purchase conversion, reducing launches from a quarter to a sprint. Introduced structured documentation using the Norman stool framework.
Created a dedicated marketplace and product card templates. Over a year, we integrated products from Alfa Capital (funds), A-Token (digital financial assets), Alfa Life Insurance and Alfa Pension Fund (long-term savings).
I conducted extensive benchmarking, interviews and dozens of quick usability tests. With the business product owner, I created a roadmap across teams and a target experience. Several smaller releases helped triple product profit.
Research and a workshop with designers outside Alfa informed a vision for junior investing and the first launch. Communications brought in our first customers aged 14+.
Alongside my main work, I joined a cross-functional working group. Over three months of design sprints and regular iterations, we tested a solution and prepared designs for development, securing funding for a dedicated engineering team.
Launching online partner product sales
Alfa-Bank worked with partners offering digital financial assets, life insurance, pension products and investment funds, but customers could not buy them in Alfa Mobile or Alfa Investments. We needed a scalable journey where partners could publish products, from entry points and product cards through to portfolio tasks.
- Timeline6 months
- TeamProduct manager, three frontend developers, backend developers, two QA engineers and me as product designer.
- UsersAlfa Mobile and Alfa Investments customers
- Design systemAlfa
- Platformsios, android, web
My role
Our team was asked to create a marketplace and reusable cards that could adapt to different asset types.
We built the marketplace and first card iteration in six months, then continued improving them.
The Long-Term Savings Programme became the focus of a relaunch.
We built the marketplace and first card iteration in six months, then continued improving them.
The Long-Term Savings Programme became the focus of a relaunch.
- 45%Product card to purchase conversion
- TTMNew product launches reduced from a quarter to a sprint
- 3xgrowth in long-term savings profit following incremental improvements
- 10xgrowth in marketplace MAU over a year
Buying partner products in Alfa Investments
Entry points
We added home screen widgets for high-yield products and an Investment Solutions tab in Markets.
Product card
Three card types for different products.
Application
Owned by a neighbouring team.
Portfolio and top-ups
We needed to encourage top-ups, but the portfolio screen pattern did not support extra functionality. We split the product card into purchased and unpurchased states, adding top-up guidance to the purchased state.
Entry points
Home screen widgets were the most effective entry point to asset cards. High-yield products were selected manually, but widget-to-purchase conversion was low.
Quantitative research informed a widget redesign. At the time of writing, it was being tested with a user group and results were pending.
Quantitative research informed a widget redesign. At the time of writing, it was being tested with a user group and results were pending.
Markets and onboarding
The second entry point was the partner assets tab in Markets. With partners, we created story-based explanations for each asset type. Measurement was in progress.
Product illustrations
Markets and product cards needed compact product illustrations.
Previously, new illustration sets took one to two months.
I now create them in one to two days.
Previously, new illustration sets took one to two months.
I now create them in one to two days.
Product cards
Alfa Investments includes primary and secondary markets, exchange-traded and OTC assets. We fitted new products into the existing logic to avoid introducing unnecessary patterns. Getting to a simple, coherent solution required extensive alignment. Purchase conversion from cards was around 45%.
What about metrics?
To borrow a line from a detective series,
purely hypothetically...
5% conversion from Investment Solutions to purchase
10x growth in marketplace DAU over a year
45% conversion from product card to purchase
purely hypothetically...
5% conversion from Investment Solutions to purchase
10x growth in marketplace DAU over a year
45% conversion from product card to purchase
Redesign A target experience for long-term savings
PDS is Russia's Long-Term Savings Programme. According to our business product owner, awareness had reached 80% of Russian residents. After an initial card was created by another team, the work moved to ours. It became one of my favourite projects.
- Timeline6 months
- TeamMy team, several neighbouring teams and two business product owners.
- UsersAlfa Mobile and Alfa Investments customers
- Design systemAlfa
- Platformsios, android, web
My role
The business product owner initially asked how PDS could fit our templates. Research showed that we also needed to understand how to explain it to different audience segments. I benchmarked competitors, conducted interviews and quick usability tests, and involved branches in validating hypotheses. I designed the target experience and worked with the business product owner on an iterative roadmap, which we presented to leadership. We integrated the product first, then released improvements step by step. Further details and metrics can be discussed at an interview.
Launching junior brokerage accounts
I initially joined Alfa to launch and develop family banking, particularly teen brokerage accounts. The task was to define a direction and ship the minimum functionality quickly.
- Timeline2 months
- TeamProduct manager, three frontend developers, backend developers, two QA engineers and me as product designer.
- UsersAlfa Mobile and Alfa Investments customers
- Design systemAlfa
- Platformsios, android, web
My role
I reviewed existing research, developed a strategy, divided it into iterations and estimated development effort with the team. The proposal was approved, but priorities later changed. After the minimum launch, further development was paused.
A future experience for Investments and Alfa-Bank
As lower interest rates made deposits and savings accounts less attractive, some customers moved savings to competitors. Our task was to retain those funds within Alfa. We had three months for discovery, hypothesis testing and development-ready designs.
- Timeline4 months
- TeamProduct manager, design lead, me, an emotional design specialist, editor and research team.
- Research methodsIn-depth interviews, concept testing and usability testing.
- OutcomeTested dozens of hypotheses and prepared designs for development.
- My roleI prepared presentations and defended decisions with senior leadership, built extensive research prototypes and developed ideas that performed well in testing.