Fidelity had some legacy programs that needed a refresh. One of the old apps was crucial for Analysts, Portfolio Managers, Quant Researchers, and others to access internal notes and data published hourly. Easy access and retrieval were key for those Portfolio Managers to work their magic and keep Fidelity’s $5.4 trillion in assets ahead of the market.

Enter AlphaSearch, a high-profile project that is now the go-to tool for our investment professionals to find any internal research. It’s now an integral part of their decision-making process.

While Equity Portfolio Managers and Analysts were identified as the initial target users, a much more diverse set of users were later identified. This expanded list not only included PMs and Analysts from Fixed Income, High Income, and Quant, but also Equity Administrative Assistants totaling to over 500 users of the application.

When AlphaSearch was conceived to be the replacement to that aging program, there was a litany of requirements identified from the outset which included:

• Search for companies, issuers, funds, analyst assignments, benchmarks and more.
• Retrieve and view internal documentation such as Analyst notes in word & pdf formats
• Create a collection of documents for later viewing or printing (Research Packs).
• Create user defined watchlists of entities.
• Filter document results list
• Document keyword search
• Identify and develop additonal features that will drive usage.
• Reduce reliance on 3rd party applications (like Bloomberg) to reduce costs.

• Design Thinking
• User Testing/Research
• Visual Storytelling
• Information Architecture/HCD
• Competitive Analysis
• User Interface Design
• Prototyping Wire-frames/Mockups
• Website Coding (HTML & CSS)
• Journey Mapping

• Presenting & Facilitation
• Verbal & Visual Communication
• Theme Development
• Framework Research
• Teaching\Coaching
• Design System Creation
• Jira Story Creation
• Documentation
• Analytics

My initial strategy was two fold:

1. Learn as much as possible about the app, our users, and stakeholder needs
2. Really listen to the grievances that the Developers had with my predecessor so that we could start off on a good foot

Getting to know the users and the app was pretty straight forward- basically by getting my hands dirty by digging in on product, playing with what was there, meeting our users, reading tons of confluence pages, talking with the Stakeholders, and keeping an eye out for what we are missing or what we can improve.

Resolving residual concerns about UX interactions with the developers took a little more finesse: that involved a lot of listening, asking questions about why they felt that way, and reassuring them that we have the same goal of making AlphaSearch the best product possible for everyone involved. Bringing developer feedback in earlier, being more flexible with designs where possible, and having the technical understanding of what the devs were working with was really helpful for gaining that common ground and making them feel included. At the same time, being clear about my objectives by saying “this is what I’m worried about from the user’s point of view” really helped get the devs on same page. All of this went a long way into smoothing things over and get everyone united.

As the AlphaSearch project progressed, there was several design system changes, a ton of usability changes, and new features identified through more extensive research and feedback. All of which was added to improve the functionality of the app.

This was a huge project lasting well over 5 years. Reach out to hear the rest including:

• Balancing feedback from 10 different stakeholders across 5 different business units
• Creating and conducting feedback sessions during Covid
• Designing and managing the Figma library files through 3 different frameworks
• All the opportunities to taken to guide and teach
• AI integration

In the mean time, here are a few of the things that were involved in the creation and evolution of this monstrous project…

Overview Page: The initial designs for the overview page were well received at first. However, as users began interacting with the app, we received feedback that some were confused by the five research sections (FMR, Broker, Company, SEC, and Agency). Others found it annoying to click through these sections to access the desired research. Users wanted the FMR info displayed front and center, without the need for progressive disclosure. We also decided that the tabs at the top were redundant for a web app within Chrome (the default browser), which already has built-in tabbed browsing.

Improving Readability: When I joined the project, I noticed readability issues with the app and strongly advocated for updates to the initial color scheme of AlphaSearch. Specifically, the light teal against the white background didn’t meet the AA accessibility guidelines for a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1.

Enhancing User Experience: To address the previous issues outlined above, we improved the readability, adding tabbed sections for the Latest Research card, and removing the unused tabs above the black bar. All these changes collectively enhanced the user experience.

Renaming the “Alerts” Card: We renamed the “Alerts” card to “Highlights” to reduce the sense of urgency and better reflect its purpose of surfacing actionable data. This also helped avoid confusion with potential in-app alerts we were considering.

Equity Announcements Card: A stakeholder approached us with a request to display Equity announcements front and center on the app home page. Despite concerns about limited space and potential negative feedback from users, we added an announcements card to the page to accommodate the stakeholder.

Responsive Design Level Up: Between this and the previous iteration, I successfully convinced key stakeholders the value of responsive design past the desktop only layout. We expanded to include mobile, and tablet views, with ultra-wide support added later. This effort was crucial as it turns out that a lot of the users would split-screen the app on their monitors to multitask, consume notes on their tablets, or attend company meetings and earnings calls with AlphaSearch in hand!

Tabbed Layout for Latest Research Card: We initially switched to a tabbed layout for the latest research card to provide quick access to information. However, this change had some unintended side effects, especially with entries with numerous rating changes. Feedback revealed that many users missed additional info below the fold, overlooking other card summaries.

New Features Based on Pain Points: We addressed additional pain points by adding new features to the overview page, such as a current pricing card and a quick access option for assigned analysts’ RCP data.

Announcements Card Overhaul: The announcements card became overwhelming as various groups wanted to post everything there, making it the dominant card on the page. After receiving complaints from investment professionals, we convinced stakeholders to move it to the sidebar, freeing up space.

Company Info Bar Issue: The black bar containing company info at the top of the page became too cluttered and remained visible regardless of navigation within a search entity (like a fund or security). This took up valuable space on other pages without adding much value.

Whitespace Concerns: We also received feedback that there was too much whitespace on the page. Investment professionals wanted a denser layout, so we worked on making the page more compact and information-rich.

Revamped Overview Page: We took a new approach with our overview page, introducing a card/widget-based layout that provides more information per page without anything being below the fold. We significantly reduced whitespace and ensured the cards display well on tablets and mobile devices, making development easier.

New Features Based on User and Stakeholder Feedback:

• Tearsheet card (the graph)
• Proxy votes card
• Teams posts card
• RCP card enhancements
• Meetings card interaction enhancements
• Various other small improvements

While the idea was to make these cards customizable (deletable, movable, resizable, and expandable to full screen), technical and workload limitations led to some inconsistencies in implementation.

The new page layout also yielded some interesting feedback with somewhat polarizing responses. The younger users tended to love it while the older users tended to dislike the layout. In general, the consensus was that the page was better than the previous version despite some of the comments of “it’s too cluttered”.

We received valuable feedback from our users about the analyst contact info and ratings sections, which led to some great improvements.

Analyst Contact Info: Previously, finding the right analyst for a security like Tesla was tricky because analysts from various business units (Equity, Fixed Income, High Income, Quant, ESG, etc.) were often overlooked. To fix this, we moved all analyst contact info out of the “Assigned Analysts” pop-over within the Company Info card and into a dedicated card. This change not only made it easier to find the right contact but also allowed us to add extra details, like when an analyst is transitioning into a new role. This update has made it much clearer and quicker for users to get in touch with the appropriate analyst.

Ratings Card: The old ratings card was a bit dull and didn’t effectively convey the analysts’ opinions. Now, with added background colors and emphasized primary ratings, PMs can quickly grasp how a company is performing at a glance. Users can also easily compare the current rating with how the analyst ranks the company in their research coverage portfolio (RCP), helping them gauge conviction or spot any discrepancies. These enhancements have been very well received by our users and stakeholders.