Creating an evergreen document:
User Personas

By request of senior management, the onboarding (of a new reconciliation) of our product was in need of major improvement and placed on high priority.

Sole researcher - duration 2 weeks

Tools used:

Dovetail

Figma

Figjam

Teams

The why.

Senior management had specific requests for the future of our new onboarding process and so, moonshot and roofshot objectives were placed on this project.

Objectives

Shared learning

Provide user personas affected by onboarding difficulties to drive shared learning and understanding of our end users for all stakeholders involved.

Evergreen document

The personas were to be stored in a living, evergreen document, ideally Figma or Figjam where anyone in our squad from Documentation to PMG can access the material at any time.

Personas

Target the following personas:
Primary: Reconciliations team lead / Manager (80% focus)
Secondary: IT Analyst (20% focus)
Extra: Junior reconciler

The how.

Analysing the current flow

Our squad had to scrutinise our onboarding's existing trajectory by charting it out and tagging each sector with remarks and responses.

Gathering perspectives

Collaborative dialogues occurred with various coworkers from diverse departments, giving their insights on the prevailing challenges concerning Onboarding, and suggesting possible enhancements.

Findings

Biases

— Confirmation bias —

Some stakeholders believed users preferred a complex interface due to feedback received from a select few tech-savvy users at a specific point in time.

— Expert bias —

Stakeholders assumed they have a comprehensive understanding of the user's needs without actually verifying with real user feedback.

— Legacy expectations —

Discussions were held with stakeholders involved in some of our newer products, as well as those involved with legacy products. These legacy stakeholders assumed user's preferred to stick with "what they are used to".

Outcome

Research

Engaged in dialogues with PMO and UX teams about our target demographic. Combined effort in Figjam, video conferences, and brainstorming contributed to the investigative phase of this project.

Reaching out

My previous tenure in finance provided invaluable exposure to past colleagues. This enabled me to directly contact them and understand their routine duties and challenges.

Looking back

In addition to contacting former co-workers, I leveraged my background as both a junior reconciler and a team lead to further enhance our understanding of daily tasks and pain points.

Consult and review

Upon defining the duties for each position and allocating them to fitting knowledge fields, I showcased my work to my team for a comprehensive evaluation and to accumulate extra perspectives from diverse angles.

Evergreen

As illustrated below, I crafted user personas using Figma, ensuring accessibility for every squad member from PMO to Documentation. These personas significantly influenced superior design choices throughout the revamping of the onboarding process.

Responsibilities 🧰
Oversight of day-to-day client service delivery and quality control.
Train and develop team members - succession planning and bench strength.
Interact with clients and third parties on service delivery items ensuring we are exceeding client expectations.
Foster a positive client relationship and appropriately manage client requests.
Conduct regular reviews of reconciliation reports, identifying trends, anomalies, and potential issues.
Ensure all aged items on cash and position reconciliations are resolved timely.
Manage recruitment, training and performance evaluations.
Daily Goals ⚽
Handle complex calls from clients.
Ensure that the reconciliation team meets daily productivity targets.
Resolve any outstanding reconciliation issues promptly to maintain accurate financial records.
Facilitate clear communication within the team and with other departments to address daily challenges effectively.
Issuing end of day financial reports to client.
Monitor file delivery stamps so that SLA’s are met.
Daily Tasks 🪄
Thoroughly review previous day's reconciliation reports and address any outstanding items.
Conduct a daily check-in with the reconciliation team to discuss priorities, challenges, and provide guidance.
Allocation of work to team members and ensure allocation is met.
Ensure broker data is received on a daily basis and at the correct time.
Continuously monitor transactions and account activities to identify discrepancies and anomalies.
Maintain detailed documentation of reconciliation processes and any adjustments made.
Work with Middle Office team to resolve trade/transaction issues.
Pain Points 📌
Handling allocation of work and re-allocation in case of absent team members.
Balancing the need for speed with the importance of accuracy in reconciliation processes.
Product bugs/glitches making work less efficient.
Slow load times, software limitations.
Too many clicks within account prep screen.
Handling a high volume of transactions and ensuring each is accurately reconciled.
Automation failures and ensuring these are both registered and fixed in a timely manner.
Weekly Goals 🏐
Issue weekly performance estimates to clients.
Schedule regular training sessions or workshops to enhance the skills of the reconciliation team.
Check for mistakes and ensure high level of accuracy of work is met.
Ensure team lead/supervisor members are keeping up standards throughout review process.
Participate in development and presentation of reconciliations training.
Long Term Goals 🏀
Manage audit process ensuring timely completion of audits including preparation of financial statements.
Stay ahead of regulatory changes and continuously enhance processes to ensure ongoing compliance.
Implement measures to enhance the security of sensitive financial data involved in reconciliation.
Further professional development in order to put self into a position to reach Director level.
Jorja Smith
Citi Bank
Reconciliations Manager
Dublin, Ireland
Age
Education
# of users
IT Literacy level
UX Opinion weight
Team size
Salary
Devices
35-45
MSc Business Finance
Approx. 100
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
15
65-75k
Monitors + desktop
Jorja Smith
Citi Bank
Reconciliations Manager
Dublin, Ireland
Age
Education
# of users
IT Literacy level
UX Opinion weight
Team size
Salary
Devices
35-45
MSc Business Finance
Approx. 100
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
15
65-75k
Monitors + desktop
Jorja is an experienced Reconciliations Manager, holding an MSc in Business Finance. She has worked seven years at Citco, and consistently demonstrates a commitment to precision and efficiency in financial processes.

Jorja values automation tools, promoting a culture of continuous learning within the team, and looks to contribute to the growth of the company. As reconciliations manager she has governance and oversight of the reconciliations team

Jorja understands she needs to keep up with industry standards and is always looking for ways to improve the efficiency and standard of her work.
Bio 🧪
User’s End Goals 🥅
Reconciliations Manager
As a...
I want to...
So that...
Enhance automation in reconciliation processes.
Manual efforts are reduced, improving efficiency, less errors, and accelerating the overall reconciliation timeline.
Strengthen collaboration with other departments for seamless reconciliation workflows.
Review other team member’s reconciled accounts to ensure done correctly.
Work with Middle Office team to ensure any trade issues are resolved in a timely manner.
Establish training and development program for reconciliations team
Reconciliation processes are integrated into the broader organisational framework.
No mistakes are made and a high level of accuracy in their work is met.
Multiple parties/departments are in agreement with what needs to be done.
Team members achieve advanced skills, stay industry updated and for a highly skilled workforce.
Responsibilities 🧰
Monitor progression of accounts being prepared and reviewed.
Monitor daily tasks outside of account preparation.
Inform team of task completion and support tasks falling behind.
Inform client of daily account reconciliation completion.
Inform client of weekly and monthly milestones/tasks are met/complete.
Daily Goals ⚽
Complete daily reconciliations in timely matter, investigate new issues and provide client with end of day update.
Monitor data arrival, ageing breaks are under investigation and accounts are being prepared in an efficient manner.
Check for any mistakes made or incorrect data being fed in when reviewing daily cash recs.
Approve accounts post reviewing as well as approving mails to be sent to client.
Create tickets for any incorrect data fed in, incorrect transaction matching, keep track of ageing cash breaks.
Daily Tasks 🪄
Reconcile accounts assigned in order of priority.
Review other team member’s work.
Raise issues with accounts/mapping/trades as soon as possible.
Ensure external data is received on a daily basis and at the correct time.
“Tieback” client data to broker data (ensure balances and market values are matching).
Work with IT team to assist with improvement to account and transaction mapping.
Work with Middle Office team to resolve trade issues.
Pain Points 📌
Delayed external data, late file loads.
Mapping issues causing delays to account reconciliation.
Product bugs/glitches making work less efficient.
Slow load times.
Too many clicks within account prep screen.
Inefficiency of software sorting and filtering capabilities.
Lack of automation. Manually dropping reporting into system and downloading broker statements.
Weekly Goals 🏐
Complete weekly tasks and checks every Monday of the month, to be sent out to client.
Make sure these tasks are prepared and reviewed in a timely manner.
Check for mistakes and ensure high level of accuracy of work is met.
Approve work prepared by lower-level staff before moving task along the line of review.
Create investigations and/or queries related to any issues as soon as possible.
Long Term Goals 🏀
Aim for promotion
Work on improving software being used to reconcile.
Assist IT by giving recommendations and pointing out issues.
Work to improve on manual tasks by creating automations.
Scott Mescudi
Hedgeserv Ltd
Fund Accounting Supervisor
Dublin, Ireland
Age
Education
# of users
IT Literacy level
UX Opinion weight
Team size
Salary
Devices
25-35
Bachelor of Business
Approx. 250
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
12
40-50k
Monitors + desktop
Scott comes from a business degree background and has spent the last 5+ years working as a fund accountant for a fund administration company and most recently worked at the level of Supervisor.

Scott has worked on the same product his whole time in the company and has been through one major overhaul of UI on one aspect of the product. As supervisor Scott still reports to his manager but oversees a number of reconciliation users as well as reconciling accounts himself.

Scott works from home with company desktop and two monitors. Preference towards this rather than laptop as he finds it easier to work with.
Bio 🧪
User’s End Goals 🥅
Fund accounting supervisor
As a...
I want to...
So that...
Reconcile all accounts assigned to them to meet daily deliverables and deadlines.
Daily records of any trade issues are tracked and recorded on daily basis for review of client.
Conduct investigations into any breaking items on a daily basis.
Review other team member’s reconciled accounts to ensure done correctly.
Work with Middle Office team to ensure any trade issues are resolved in a timely manner.
Prepare NAV “packs” on a weekly and monthly basis for client.
Breaking items are resolved as soon as possible and a thread is kept on the resolution of these.
No mistakes are made and a high level of accuracy in their work is met.
Multiple parties/departments are in agreement with what needs to be done.
A NAV valuation is available for the client to review on a regular basis.
Responsibilities 🧰
Provide Tier II IT Support to on site & remote users.
Provide technical expertise and assistance to other IT and Business groups.
Provide fast resolution to service and incident requests submitted to support centre ticketing system.
Open support cases with software and hardware vendors when required.
Assist user community with the installation and configuration of IT equipment.
Assist with training for new and existing users regarding current and new technologies.
Identify and appropriately use defined escalation processes for requests that require further technical investigation.
Daily Goals ⚽
Work to complete list of cases/tickets, or at least reduce the amount significantly each day.
Make sure issues are solved in order of priority and a build up of requests does not occur.
Collaborate with team each day to complete requests and do so efficiently.
Document any information related to service and incident requests for future reference.
Provide training to lower level staff/new starters and delegate tasks accordingly.
Provide onboarding for new users within other departments.
Daily Tasks 🪄
Access ticket support system to analyse the amount of requests that need immediate attention.
Respond to queries in order of priority to give an update as to where we are with the issue.
Daily meeting with team to discuss various project planning and activities for the near future.
Replace and repair any hardware devices where necessary.
Work with end-users to discuss and improve current system. Build a log of tasks to implement into new builds of the user’s software.
Pain Points 📌
Friction between what the user claims to want and what is feasible to produce in a reasonable timeframe.
Large backlog of issues that can become overwhelming when understaffed.
Full day can be taken up by replacing equipment in various locations, leaving less time for user issues.
Can be met with list of unstructured requests. Lack of hard evidence to back up changes proposed.
Understaffed team to deal with amount of work required.
Weekly Goals 🏐
Conduct weekly asset management and inventory of spare parts.
Work with procurement staff to purchase hardware and software.
Long Term Goals 🏀
Aim for promotion
Work on improving software being used to reconcile.
Collaborate with users and look for recommendations made by them.
On occasion, travel to remote sites for IT projects and field installations as required.
Andrew Byrne
Citco
IT Support
Engineer
Sofia, Bulgaria
Age
Education
# of users
IT Literacy level
UX Opinion weight
Team size
Salary
Devices
30-35
Bachelor of Technology
Approx. 60
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️
8
25-35k
Monitors + desktop
Andrew works a hybrid system where he spends 3 days in office and the other 2 working from home. He has spent the last 2 years working as an IT Support Engineer.

Andrew graduated with a bachelors degree in technology that holds less weight in western Europe so is building his experience in Bulgaria alongside this with the aim to move in a couple of years.

Andrew prefers to work from home but is restricted to just two days where he works with two monitors and laptop.
Bio 🧪
User’s End Goals 🥅
Fund accounting supervisor
As a...
I want to...
So that...
Reconcile all accounts assigned to them to meet daily deliverables and deadlines.
Daily records of any trade issues are tracked and recorded on daily basis for review of client.
Conduct investigations into any breaking items on a daily basis.
Review other team member’s reconciled accounts to ensure done correctly.
Work with Middle Office team to ensure any trade issues are resolved in a timely manner.
Prepare NAV “packs” on a weekly and monthly basis for client.
Breaking items are resolved as soon as possible and a thread is kept on the resolution of these.
No mistakes are made and a high level of accuracy in their work is met.
Multiple parties/departments are in agreement with what needs to be done.
A NAV valuation is available for the client to review on a regular basis.
Responsibilities 🧰
Take part in weekly training sessions to get up to speed with preparation of all accounts across multiple funds.
Familiarise myself with software/product being used to reconcile accounts and book transactions.
Take it upon myself to organise calls with higher level team members to train me in.
Work off allocation provided to me and prepare cash and positions in timely manner to meet deadlines.
Take ownership of breaks held on own allocated accounts and learn how to investigate and query these breaks.
Daily Goals ⚽
As per allocation, complete daily reconciliations in timely manner.
Improve preparation skills and knowledge of more accounts.
Double check for any possible mistakes.
Ask for feedback from high level staff once review stage is complete.
Learn new terminology each day.
Enrol in training courses to improve my knowledge of funds and trading functionalities.
Daily Tasks 🪄
Prepare and submit allocated accounts.
Work on new accounts with assistance from higher level staff and build procedures on how to prepare these solo.
Book daily transfers between accounts and book non-trading transactions (interest etc.)
Attend training courses provided by HSBC.
Pain Points 📌
Can find it difficult to be consistent with work produced as a non-native English speaker.
Coming across software bugs not yet aware of, but others are and have found workarounds for them. (Being stuck)
Limitations when resizing window. Not able to see everything when working off laptop.
Constant manual downloading of broker statements on a daily basis.
A lot of different applications in software can be confusing at times. Difficult to remember where certain functions are.
Weekly Goals 🏐
Familiarise myself with new accounts to prepare.
Familiarise myself with transactional trade booking and non-transactional trade booking.
Work towards being able to prepare weekly estimate tasks for client.
Attend weekly calls with team to discuss and issues.
Long Term Goals 🏀
Have the ability to prepare all accounts with no assistance from higher level staff.
Be able to offer my assistance to new starters on how to prepare accounts and book trades and transactions.
Work towards putting myself in a position to be promoted.
Eliza Rose
HSBC
Junior Fund Accountant
Krakow, Poland
Age
Education
# of users
IT Literacy level
UX Opinion weight
Team size
Salary
Devices
20-30
Economics Masters
Approx. 80
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
12
20-25k
Monitors + desktop
Bio 🧪
User’s End Goals 🥅
Junior fund accountant
As a...
I want to...
So that...
Learn, develop and assist in every way possible
I can progress in my career.
Reconcile accounts within the fund on a daily basis
Reach out to people within my department as well as outside of my department
The client can access daily assessments of how the fund is performing.
I can collaborate with others to find solutions.
Eliza has recently graduated from university and joined the newly opened HSBC branch located in Krakow, Poland.

So far, things have been a little overwhelming as a lot of her degree does not translate to her daily work at HSBC.

She is however, looking forward to learning a lot and collaborating with others.

Reflections / Learnings

Time management

This task was placed on priority. I dealt with time pressures and juggled strict schedules to plan calls with stakeholders in order to gather perspectives.

Desperate for improvement

One thing I noticed when beginning to reach out to former colleagues was that they were more than happy to help. There was almost a sense of "I need to get this off my chest" with regards to pain points.

"Know thy user"

The personas challenged internal perspective of the typical user which was outdated and skewed.

Challenges

Of course, not everything runs as smoothly as most projects are perceived to online. I dealt with busy stakeholders who never had time for calls through Figjam collaboration in their own time.

Neil
McConvey

neilmcconvey8@gmail.com