Designing an Education Centre to empower investors
I’m Ash, the Ops and Partnerships manager here at Pia. As the Ops manager I am exposed to many areas of the business and as a result I took on the responsibility, alongside Niamh, the Editor in Chief of the Pia team, to deliver the Education Centre.
OFF3R, the product we built before Pia, did the job it was set out to do — it compared investments across a range of asset classes in a very slick fashion. However, after 6 months of testing, it was clear that our users needed more from us. In order to understand what that was, we needed to go out and talk to them.
Feedback sessions — These sessions are so important as they allow us to step back from everything and gain an outside perspective.
After reaching out to both users and non-users, we hosted the first of a number of feedback sessions. We lured them in with a selection of M&S’s finest sandwiches and lukewarm IPAs (obviously). The group included both investors and non-investors, from their early 20’s to late 30’s. Whilst their experience varied, there was a clear consensus that there was a real need for digestible information about investing. They spoke a lot about how long, dull and complex content put a dampener on investing, only adding to the challenges they faced when trying to decide on the best option. With all of this in mind, we went back to the drawing board to see what to come up with, and so the Pia Investment Knowledge and Education Centre was born.
Initially, I worked with our non-exec director Gayle Schumacher. Gayle’s experience in finance, and her passion for empowering investors, helped us to shape the framework. She challenged me to think about investing in a more simplistic way and to stop using unnecessary investment jargon. These exercises highlighted how complex financial institutions were making such basic elements of investing, and we wanted to fix this.
We want the Pia Education & Knowledge Centre to:
- Empower users to understand all elements of investing (from the most basic to most complex;
- Make this information digestible by using everyday language;
- Engage the user by incorporating video clips, podcasts, and interactive graphs; and
- Provide an opportunity for the Pia community to contribute feedback to shape this centre on an ongoing basis.
The Structure
It made sense to view this project in a similar way to teaching somone a new language. We needed to establish the basics and work our way up to the more complex areas. However, not everyone needed, or wanted, to know about complex investing. With this in mind we decided to structure the education centre in to two parts;
- Basics of investing (this forms the first 3 levels of the education centre. The idea is to include enough information in these sections to allow a user to make an informed investment decision after completing all 3 levels.)
- Complex Investing (this forms the last 3 levels of the education centre. This will include more in depth information about investing that someone with a genuine interest would tap in to.)
The Content
After settling on a structure we sat down and looked at the content side of things. We had an idea of what to include but the order was a bit all over the place, mainly because it wasn’t our initial focus. I spent a few weeks away from the project to focus on other areas of the business, and when I came back to have another look at it, Niamh joined me. This couldn’t have come at a better time. With my clear head and Niamh’s unbiased view we started plugging away with renewed energy. After a few weeks of back and forth we came up with the following layout.
Level 1 starts the journey off by explaining the difference between saving and investing. After researching and chatting to people it was clear this needed to be explained in a more simplistic way. To ensure the journey was as natural as possible, we needed to think about everything from an entry level investor perspective. After completing the first module, what would they expect to follow next? And more importantly what did they need to know next?
After much deliberation it was clear level 2 would outline the different elements investors need to consider before investing. Deciding on level 3 content was a little more tricky. Did we need to include a ‘jargon buster’ here or would we outline the different ways of investing? It was vital that we got this right, because after completing these 3 levels, we want people to have the confidence to invest on their own. Therefore, we need to include the ways of investing.
Level 4, 5, 6 covers off the more detailed areas of investing. For example, level 4 discusses the factors that can impact returns and overall investment performance. Whereas, level 5 provides information about the different types of investments, and finally we wanted to use level 6 as an interactive section. This area will allow users to apply the knowledge they learned in levels 1–5, and see how different investments would have performed throughout the ages.
Over the coming months, alongside the team and the Pia Community, this education centre will continue to take shape, and hopefully evolve into something to achieve our goal of empowering investors, be it their first time, or their 50th time, this content will put something on the table for everyone.
If you’re interested in checking out an early view of this centre, and joining the Pia Community to help mould the future of this educational content, then head over to yourpia.com to register for early access.
