Zorro Fi
How talking to real users reshaped a startup’s product direction
……………..
Industry
Fintech
My Role
UX Researcher
Skills Utilized
User Research
User Interviewing
Product Strategy
Stakeholder Communication
What is ZorroFi?
ZorroFi is an early-stage startup building an app to help women take control of their finances. The platform allows users to learn about investing, share insights with each other, and connect with financial advisors who understand their unique goals and challenges.
Challenge
The founders wanted to understand their potential users’ financial behaviors, knowledge gaps, and attitudes toward investing. They also needed to know what type of support, social features, and educational resources would be most valuable. Without direct insights, the team risked building features that didn’t align with real user needs or behaviors.
Key Problem: How can ZorroFi design an app that genuinely supports women in learning, sharing, and making confident financial decisions?
Solution
I designed and executed a qualitative research study to explore user motivations, behaviors, and preferences. My approach emphasized both depth and breadth of understanding:
Semi-structured interviews: Encouraged storytelling to uncover explicit and latent needs.
Pattern analysis: Synthesized insights across interviews to identify themes, behaviors, and unmet needs.
Actionable recommendations: Presented findings in a way that directly informed product strategy, feature prioritization, and content planning.
This approach showcased my ability to connect insights across domains, anticipate user challenges, and provide strategic guidance to founders.
Key Outcomes
Validated user needs
Identified 4 core user pain points and preferences that directly informed the app’s content, social features, and advisor connections.
Informed product strategy
Synthesized 5 interviews into actionable recommendations, shaping feature prioritization for the MVP.
Understanding users better
Created early personas and behavioral patterns that helped the founders understand target users’ confidence gaps, learning styles, and engagement preferences.
Reduced uncertainty about product direction
Delivered insights that reduced uncertainty for the founding team and guided early-stage product decisions.
01
Research Strategy
Planning the Research
Before interviews, I:
Defined research goals: Clarified what the founders wanted to learn and what assumptions needed testing.
Created provisional personas: Drafted early user profiles to guide recruitment and ensure representation of the target audience.
Developed interview scripts: Crafted semi-structured questions that explored financial habits, confidence, educational preferences, and social behaviors.
Set logistics and ethics: Scheduled interviews, decided on recording methods, and established confidentiality practices.
Research Takeaways
I conducted five in-depth interviews with women representing the target audience. Techniques included:
Contextual exploration: Discussed day-to-day financial decision-making, learning habits, and challenges.
Probing latent needs: Asked questions to uncover frustrations, fears, and aspirations not immediately expressed.
Iterative adjustment: Adapted questions mid-research to follow unexpected patterns in responses.
Outcome: Each interview provided rich, qualitative data that, when combined, painted a holistic picture of user needs, preferences, and behaviors.
02
Interviews
Conducting the research
I conducted five in-depth interviews with women representing the target audience. Techniques included:
Contextual exploration: Discussed day-to-day financial decision-making, learning habits, and challenges.
Probing latent needs: Asked questions to uncover frustrations, fears, and aspirations not immediately expressed.
Iterative adjustment: Adapted questions mid-research to follow unexpected patterns in responses.
Outcome: Each interview provided rich, qualitative data that, when combined, painted a holistic picture of user needs, preferences, and behaviors.
Brainstorming
Sidebar redesigns: collapsed vs tabbed vs progressive disclosure
03
Insights
Synthesis: Key Insights from User Interviews
The interviews yielded a lot of useful information.
Insight 1 - 1. Financial Confidence Exists on a Spectrum—but Motivation Is High
More text goes here.
Implications:
Yes, community is important!
Standardized CTAs, icons, and visual hierarchy for consistency across screens (Inconsistent Design & CTAs)
Improved spacing, headings, and card organization to make content easier to scan (Navigation & Layout / Readability)
“If I hadn’t talked to my friend, I would have just put it (a large sum of money) in a savings account." - Veronica
“If I hadn’t talked to my friend, I would have just put it (a large sum of money) in a savings account."
- Veronica
“If I hadn’t talked to my friend, I would have just put it (a large sum of money) in a savings account."
- Veronica
Insight 1 - the Value of Knowledge Sharing
More text goes here.
Implications:
Yes, community is important!
Standardized CTAs, icons, and visual hierarchy for consistency across screens (Inconsistent Design & CTAs)
Improved spacing, headings, and card organization to make content easier to scan (Navigation & Layout / Readability)
“If I hadn’t talked to my friend, I would have just put it (a large sum of money) in a savings account." - Veronica
“If I hadn’t talked to my friend, I would have just put it (a large sum of money) in a savings account."
- Veronica
“If I hadn’t talked to my friend, I would have just put it (a large sum of money) in a savings account."
- Veronica
Insight 2 - You Don't Know What You Don't Know
More text goes here.
Implications:
Yes, community is important!
Standardized CTAs, icons, and visual hierarchy for consistency across screens (Inconsistent Design & CTAs)
Improved spacing, headings, and card organization to make content easier to scan (Navigation & Layout / Readability)
“I do feel like I’m missing an aspect in terms of investing outside of my company-provided 401k.” - Liz
“I think a lot of women just don’t even know what their options are.” - Veronica
“I just like, don't even know where to start? Yeah, probably just, that's the simple answer. Like I just don't even know. I don't want to invest in the wrong thing. And then lose money.” - Natalie, on why she hasn’t invested yet
Insight 3 - Financial Advisors - Wanted but need specifics
More text goes here.
Implications:
Yes, community is important!
Standardized CTAs, icons, and visual hierarchy for consistency across screens (Inconsistent Design & CTAs)
Improved spacing, headings, and card organization to make content easier to scan (Navigation & Layout / Readability)
“If it’s not very targeted or very clear, if it's like, if it's kept very general, then I don't see the value for me.” - Lovisa, on the value of a financial advisor
(Regarding financial advisors) “I would definitely want to know their background in terms of why they’re credible, like why I should be trusting them to advise me on my finances.” - Liz
“When I asked for help (financial), people gave me kind of like general things that are not very helpful in the day to day activities.” - Patricia
“I went with them because they had a local office and someone was able to come out and meet with me and go over everything…. I wanted it to feel a bit more intimate versus like, just talking to somebody over the phone.” - Veronica regarding choosing a financial advisor
“There is something that… when you're an expert in an activity. That you… you can’t see some of the things that the day to day people see. It's like when you're a doctor, you start to lose your empathy. So I think the financial advisors are good, but I want a person, a day to day person that has more experience than I have, and like overcome situations successfully.” - Patricia
Insight 2 - You Don't Know What You Don't Know
More text goes here.
Implications:
Yes, community is important!
Standardized CTAs, icons, and visual hierarchy for consistency across screens (Inconsistent Design & CTAs)
Improved spacing, headings, and card organization to make content easier to scan (Navigation & Layout / Readability)
“I do feel like I’m missing an aspect in terms of investing outside of my company-provided 401k.” - Liz
“I think a lot of women just don’t even know what their options are.” - Veronica
“I just like, don't even know where to start? Yeah, probably just, that's the simple answer. Like I just don't even know. I don't want to invest in the wrong thing. And then lose money.” - Natalie, on why she hasn’t invested yet
04
Reflection
What Worked Well
This was such an enjoyable project to work on. I really valued the chance to deeply evaluate the current experience and identify areas where the product could better support its users
Conducting a detailed UX audit revealed key usability, design, and functionality gaps, providing a clear roadmap for how Valence could evolve.
Breaking down cognitive load and streamlining CTAs helped identify actionable ways to improve engagement and clarity. It also reaffirmed how much power there is in strong UX fundamentals: consistent visuals, clear hierarchy, and purposeful structure. Clarifying Nadia’s AI coaching value made the experience feel more intuitive and trustworthy, strengthening the platform’s overall impact.
Learnings
Enterprise platforms are complex ecosystems. Balancing advanced features, AI-driven insights, and the needs of diverse professional users requires thoughtful prioritization.
Designing for busy professionals reinforced the importance of immediate value and intuitive first interactions; users need to instantly see how the product helps them. I also learned that certain functionality improvements, such as enhancing how Nadia provides insights, depend on cross-functional alignment to bring the design vision to life.
Possible Next Steps
If I were to continue this project, I’d focus on creating a more personalized and intuitive experience for users. One key direction would be refining the Home screen to better reflect individual goals, recent activity, and coaching progress, making the experience feel more tailored and immediately valuable.
I’d also explore surfacing Nadia, the AI coach, right at entry. By making Chat the first interaction rather than starting on the Home screen, users could experience more guidance and connection from the moment they log in, helping to build trust and engagement faster.
I’d also love the opportunity to conduct A/B testing with different Home screen layouts and entry flows. Observing how users respond to variations would offer deeper insights into what feels most intuitive and motivating.