Company Context
You’re a Product Manager at Aurum Private Wealth, a hybrid fintech + registered investment advisor (RIA) platform used by 2,400 wealth advisors across the US and UK. Aurum’s software powers portfolio reporting, proposal generation, and secure client communications for firms serving ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients (>$30M net worth). Aurum makes money via a per-advisor SaaS license ($450/month) plus enterprise contracts with large private banks.
Aurum competes with Addepar, Black Diamond, and SS&C on reporting; with PitchBook and CapIQ on market data; and with DocSend / iManage on document workflows. Aurum’s differentiation is “institutional-grade reporting with consumer-grade UX,” but recent churn suggests the “UX” claim isn’t holding up for the most valuable segment.
User / Market Scenario
Aurum’s highest-ARPA customers are multi-family offices and private banks that serve UHNW households. These clients expect:
- Highly polished, bespoke materials (often white-labeled)
- Fast turnaround before meetings (sometimes same-day)
- Tight confidentiality and auditability (assistants, CIOs, tax counsel, and external managers may all touch the same deck)
- Complex holdings (public markets + alternatives + direct investments + trusts)
Key Personas
| Persona | Segment Size (within Aurum) | Primary Goal | Key Friction Today |
|---|
| Lead Advisor (Managing Director) | 35% | Win/retain relationships; tell a compelling story | Materials feel “template-y”; too much manual editing in PowerPoint/Word |
| Investment Associate | 45% | Produce proposals/quarterly reviews quickly and accurately | Data is scattered; formatting takes hours; version control issues |
| Client Service Associate / EA | 20% | Coordinate meeting logistics and ensure brand consistency | Hard to assemble “the right” packet; approvals are messy |
What research says (last 6 weeks)
Aurum ran 18 customer interviews and analyzed 9,200 document exports.
Qualitative findings
- Advisors say: “The numbers are right, but the story isn’t.”
- UHNW clients care less about benchmark charts and more about: tax impact, liquidity planning, risk concentration, and ‘why now’ narrative.
- Many teams export from Aurum and then spend 2–6 hours polishing in PowerPoint.
- Compliance teams want an audit trail of “who changed what,” especially for performance claims.
Quantitative findings
- 38% of proposals are exported more than once within 48 hours (suggesting rework).
- Proposal creation median time is 4.3 hours (goal from leadership: <2 hours).
- Teams serving UHNW accounts have 1.7x higher likelihood of churn within 12 months than mass-affluent-focused teams.
- Win-rate on new UHNW prospects is 22% when using Aurum-generated materials vs 28% when teams use custom decks (self-reported in CRM notes).
Problem / Opportunity
Aurum’s CEO believes that improving client-facing materials for UHNW can reduce churn and increase enterprise expansion. You are asked to define a product direction for a new capability called Aurum Studio: a workflow to create, customize, and securely share client-ready materials (proposals, quarterly reviews, IPS updates) with minimal manual work.
Leadership’s measurable goal: Increase UHNW proposal win-rate by +4 percentage points and reduce median prep time by 40% within two quarters of launch.
Your Task (Deliverables)
- Clarify the core job-to-be-done for UHNW client-facing materials and how it differs from mass affluent reporting.
- Define the target user segment(s) for the MVP (which persona and which firm type) and justify your choice.
- Propose 3–5 product requirements (must-haves) for Aurum Studio, including at least:
- One feature that improves narrative/storytelling
- One feature that improves workflow/collaboration
- One feature that improves trust/compliance
- Provide a prioritized MVP scope and explain your prioritization method (e.g., RICE, Kano, or similar).
- Define success metrics and how you would validate impact (instrumentation + experiment/rollout plan).
Constraints
- Timeline: MVP must ship in 10 weeks with a follow-on iteration in the next quarter.
- Team: 6 engineers (2 frontend, 2 backend, 1 data, 1 platform), 1 designer, 1 PM (you).
- Technical: Aurum’s reporting engine outputs PDFs and basic PPTX today; there is no real-time collaborative editor. Data refresh for alternatives is T+1 for many custodians.
- Regulatory/Compliance: Must support SEC/FINRA record retention, immutable audit logs for client-facing performance claims, and role-based access controls.
- Branding: Enterprise customers require strict brand control (fonts, colors, disclaimers) and often want white-labeling.
What “good” looks like
Your proposal should make clear trade-offs: e.g., bespoke flexibility vs standardization, speed vs accuracy, and advisor delight vs compliance risk. Assume you will present your plan to the CEO, Head of Compliance, and VP Engineering in a 30-minute review.
