Prioritizing User Needs: Vanguard Mobile App

Summary: This well-known global-investment company serves a user population with diverse needs. Its design team turned to user research to prioritize effort during a major redesign project.

When Vanguard set out to massively overhaul its mobile app for personal investors, it faced a problem that is common for many digital product teams: the app had several diverse user groups with many different needs . The Vanguard mobile-UX team had to prioritize its work to maximize user satisfaction while balancing conflicting needs and resource constraints.

In an interview with NN/g, Teil Wise (UX and design manager) shared the team’s strategic approach to prioritization.

Background: Vanguard Group and the Vanguard Mobile App

Founded in 1975, the Vanguard Group is a global investment-management company. Vanguard is famous for its index funds, as well as its advocacy for a “ buy-and-hold,” passive-investment strategy . This philosophy argues that people aren’t very successful when they try to time the market (i.e., when they attempt to buy low and sell high), so it’s best to buy investments and hold onto them for a long time.