Case 04 · Fintech · 2021–2022
XTB Investment Plans
I led the squad that designed XTB’s ETF Investment Plans for cautious beginners. We couldn’t recommend ETFs, so we ranked them by objective criteria instead.
- Role
- Head of UX at XTB Online Trading, 2021–2022: team lead, UX lead and sponsor management on Investment Plans
- Team
- 5-person squad: 2 UX researchers, 2 UX designers, 1 UI designer · compliance always involved
- squad: 2 research, 2 UX, 1 UI, plus compliance
- 5
- steps: choose ETFs, allocate, top up
- 3
- UX, UI and BI team I grew, 7 hires
- 7 → 14
01
Lower the barrier, but don’t advise
Polish investors are cautious. Risky assets scare them, and ETFs feel like a safe, simple first step. My squad’s brief was to give them confidence and prepare them for advanced trading. The catch came from Compliance: we couldn’t act as advisers or recommend ETFs.
The risk score as it shipped. The fund providers publish the number, and the idea worked in our usability tests.
02
The benchmark doubled as coaching
Trading212 targeted advanced investors, and eToro was unrealistic in Poland’s regulated market. I reviewed Trading212’s pies with a junior designer, because it’s too easy to just copy patterns. I asked guiding questions instead of giving answers. We liked the ready-made pies. Custom pies first and fuzzy UX writing, less so.
Trading212 today, not the screens we reviewed: Custom comes first, and the ready-made pies sit on the Model tab.
03
Our expert wasn’t a beginner
Our sponsor was also the subject-matter expert and closely involved. That put pressure on design decisions. I put research artefacts on the table: what was obvious to him wasn’t obvious to a beginner. After independent work and two joint workshops, we landed on three steps: choose ETFs, allocate, top up.
The same three steps in the live app.
04
Objective criteria instead of advice
We ranked ETFs by currency, Morningstar rating, industry sectors and similarity. People saw the selections as transparent and impartial, so the no-advice rule worked in our favour. Separately, Useberry tests showed confusion at the ETF choice. We added education layers and guided defaults that felt safe without looking like advice.
The filters as they shipped, including a Smart Filter that hides near-identical funds.
In usability tests, people liked getting a peek inside a fund. This is the detail screen in the live app.
05
My part ended in 2022
Investment Plans launched publicly in autumn 2023, after I’d left, so its results aren’t mine to claim. The team is. I grew it from 7 to 14 across UX, UI and BI. Of my seven hires, four came up through the internship programme and three were senior hires.
An education layer from the live app: how return and lowest value are calculated.
Looking back
Goal #1 was moving passive investors to active ones. Too narrow, because risk-averse investors stayed risk-averse. Next time I’d also set goals for user base and total deposits from the start, so a product for cautious savers gets judged on its own terms.