We see a global trend in the migration of investment assets from actively managed to passively managed portfolios. Index investments are an example of a passively managed portfolio. They are cheap, efficient, consist of many different shares and have a large risk spread.
Sparindex is part of the Sparinvest Group, founded in 1968. Up until now, they have marketed their products through the banks. But the Sparinvest Group expected the US index trend to hit Europe, which gave way for a new digital platform idea.
In the spring of 2017, Sparinvest was looking to make index investments more visible and available to everyone.
They wanted to create a space where visitors could explore and create virtual portfolios with their funds, and ultimately trade them on Sparinvest’s own platform.
Sparinvest needed a trusted advisor and technology partner to help them bring that idea to the market. Taking its user-centric approach, Trifork recommended a need for rapid clarification based on user validation, before scoping the solution. Sparinvest was not only going to offer something new to the market, it was also going to offer it to a new customer segment, through a brand-new digital channel. With this in mind, Sparinvest and Trifork agreed to kick off the new cooperation with a Trifork Accelerate workshop.
“We were basically running like a startup: Prototyping, testing on real users, and refining our prototypes based on their feedback, throughout the whole process. The Trifork Accelerate Workshop was very productive in helping us get started.”
During the five-day Accelerate design sprint, Sparindex and Trifork were able to prototype and test their ideas and concepts on real end users.
The interviews laid the foundation for a rapid proof of concept and ultimately, the robo based investment solution.
After the workshop, the prototype was approved, and Trifork was able to start the development of the digital platform for index investments.
Trifork worked closely with Sparinvest on user stories and continuously revisited and improved the results from the Accelerate workshop. With Trifork’s technical know-how and its UX and design expertise, Sparinvest was quickly able to bring a minimum viable solution to the market.
Sparindex officially launched their new digital platform in January 2018. More than 20,000 users are already on the platform and with passive investing continuously evolving, Sparindex expects the number of users to grow remarkably in the coming years.
The Trifork Accelerate workshop helped Sparinvest rapidly validate, execute and deliver on their new digital offering. Coupled with a close collaboration and partnership with Trifork’s development team, Sparinvest was able to face all challenges that arose during the process. Sparindex’s digital platform has now brought the company into a direct end user offering.
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