Platform
iOS & Android
Category
FINTECH MOBILE APP
Timeline
~2-4 weeks
Evergreen is a one-stop-shop mobile app for personal finance, combining three experience pillars into a single ecosystem: personal finance management tools, a matchmaking platform to connect users with vetted financial advisors, and a social community dedicated to financial knowledge sharing.
The goal — three pillars, one trusted financial home
We ran 45-minute remote 1:1 interviews with 14 consumers and 8 financial advisors, preceded by a 120-respondent screener survey used for segmentation and recruitment.
Personal finance is fragmented: people juggle banking apps, budgeting tools, credit scores and scattered advice, while qualified advisors struggle to reach younger clients who assume advice is only for the wealthy. EverGreen had to bring it all together without overwhelming anyone.
To ensure every design decision was grounded in real user needs, we followed a structured Design Thinking process—from understanding user behaviors to validating solutions through iterative design.
01
Empathize
02
Define
03
Ideate
04
Usability Testing
01. EMPATHIZE WITH USERS
Discovery combined the business requirements document, 1:1 interviews with consumers and financial advisors, and a screener survey. Personas below are synthesized from these interviews and a competitive audit of budgeting, credit and advisor-matching apps.
Research goals
The research focused on why Millennials and Gen Z avoid financial advisors, what information they are willing to share and when, and which moments build or break trust. It also explored how advisors qualify and find clients today, and audited competitor budgeting, credit-score and advisor-matching apps to find the gap for a single, connected financial ecosystem.
What discovery drew on
The discovery phase drew on the BRD—which defined the three pillars, the matchmaking algorithm and the consumer and advisor roles—paired with interview insights and a competitive audit of leading budgeting, credit-score and advisor-directory apps to understand where today's tools leave users disconnected.
Empathy map
Interview notes clustered around distrust of advisors, fear of judgment about money, and a desire to see the full picture.
Says
"Are financial advisors only for rich people?" · "Where do I even start with investing or my student loans?" · "How do I know this advisor actually fits me?"
Thinks
"I want real advice, but I don't want to be sold products or judged for my debt." · "If connecting my bank feels unsafe or slow, I'll close the app."
Feels
Anxious and overwhelmed about money; skeptical of online finance influencers; motivated to build wealth and plan ahead but wary of sharing sensitive data.
Affinity Mapping
Clustering feedback from user interviews and empathy maps separated individual opinions from behavioral trends, pinpointing key drop-off points around data privacy, advisor trust, and onboarding effort.
02. DEFINE
We reframed the brief from "build a budgeting app" to "create a trusted financial home where tools, people and knowledge grow together."
PAIN
GAIN
Personas
Jack Boudreau, "The Self-Directed Starter"
"I don't want a salesperson. I want someone who's actually dealt with a cap table before."
Persona 1: Jack Boudreau, "The Self-Directed Starter"
01
/
03
03. IDEATE
01
Three-pillar ecosystem
Money tools, matchmaking and community built on one shared design system and a four-tab navigation—so the dashboard, advisor matches and social feed feel like a single, cohesive EverGreen experience.
02
Progressive data disclosure
Asking only for essentials during onboarding and unlocking deeper features—bank sync, credit data, perfect matches—as users choose to share more, so the app earns trust without feeling intrusive.
03
Trust-first matchmaking
Matching users with advisors through a profile, requirements and preferences model—verified credentials, clear fit reasons and user-controlled profile sharing turn a cold search into a trusted connection.
User flow
The Wireframes & Low-Fidelity Prototype
High-fidelity screens
04. VALIDATION
No formal usability testing was conducted in this MVP design phase. Validation relied on design reviews and critique with the founding team and advisor stakeholders, checking decisions against the BRD, compliance needs and interview insights. Onboarding completion, match requests and advisor response rates are the priority metrics for post-launch optimization.