Risk Profiling

The problem

A recommendation is only as good as the understanding behind it. If a platform does not know who the investor is, how much loss they can absorb and how they feel about volatility, every suggestion that follows is a guess. At the same time, onboarding is where users drop off: long questionnaires feel like paperwork, and people rush through them.

How I approached it

I designed risk profiling and investor onboarding to assess risk capacity and financial goals before any product is recommended to individuals and families. The key decision was to separate risk capacity, what an investor can afford to lose, from risk appetite, what they are comfortable losing. The two often disagree, and treating them as a single number produces profiles that look precise but are not.

I kept the flow short and conversational, collecting time horizon and goals alongside risk so the answers feed directly into the recommendation logic. Requirements covered suitability and disclosure obligations, and the flow was built and refined with engineering, design and research.

The outcome

A smoother onboarding that gives the platform a more accurate picture of every investor and feeds personalized, risk-aware recommendations from the very first session.

What it taught me

The most important screen in a financial product is often the one that asks the questions. Get it right and everything after it feels personal.