Third Prize Winner of Fintech Challenge
@ UofM Ross School of Business
Jan 2024 - Feb 2024
UX Researcher
UX Designer
Marketing Research, User Research, UX Design, Visual Design
The finance industry is famous for extremely long working hours. This applies to private equity as well. Noticing the problem, our team conducted some initial research and discovered that many hours are wasted on administrative tasks.
Time worked per week
Time spent on administrative task
To find out where the real issue lies, we first conducted some desktop research to outline the workflow of an analyst. Then, to understand what tools analysts currently use and whether these tools are sufficient in addressing their needs, we examined competitors and analyzed their features.
Analysts face a complex workflow with no visibility on stages of investment.
Reliance on Google Drive and Excel leads to information overload and high communication needs.
Present deal modeling platforms typically specialize in one or two areas of financial analysis, database management, or workflow optimization. There lacks a centralized deal management tool that integrates all aspects of deal management.
To better understand users’ struggle, we interviewed 2 analysts, 2 associates, and a VP currently working in private equity and looked into their everyday workflow and identified pain points for each stage of deal management.
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Analysts and associates typically work on multiple deals at the same time. Constantly switching between them makes it challenging to effectively manage deal progress.
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Analysts and associates typically work on multiple deals at the same time. Constantly switching between them makes it challenging to effectively manage deal progress.
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Analysts and associates typically work on multiple deals at the same time. Constantly switching between them makes it challenging to effectively manage deal progress.
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Analysts and associates typically work on multiple deals at the same time. Constantly switching between them makes it challenging to effectively manage deal progress.
When people leave, they often don’t pass on their custom workflow in a way that’s easy for new team members to understand. No streamlined replicable process makes maintenance difficult.
Analysts juggle multiple projects, slow updates, and multiple back and forth over email hinders timely analysis.
While MDs and VPs will be purchasing the product, our platform primarily targets analysts and associates who handle the majority of deal processing tasks. MDs and VPs will have access to analysts’ and associates’ work to better track deal progression.
During our final presentation for the fintech challenge, two of the judges have professional experiences in Private Equity. They pointed out that there are similar deal management tools that experienced significant friction in the adoption process. To find out why people are resisting using these tools and what pain points are not addressed, we need to conduct more field research to observe how target users interact with these tools in their real working environments.
