BlackRock Voting Choice
An industry-first SaaS solution for retail investors to participate in ESG voting decisions inline with their ethical values and policy governance preferences.
BlackRock Voting Choice
Introducing Voting Choice, a unique service for retail investors. This offering allows shareholders to easily participate in ESG voting decisions, aligning with their values.
My role
I worked as a sole UX Design Lead with Concentrix (UK), BlackRock, and their subsidiary agency in Israel for over six months. My responsibilities included:
- Designing the Voting Choice application.
- Focusing on both the user experience and the user interface design.
- Researching for different locales variations and adapting customer journeys accordingly.
The problem
Retail investors find it hard to vote on their shares, either dealing with cumbersome paper-based methods or having no say when holding shares through funds. Data shows investors want to vote on ethical grounds but find the process too complex.
Data indicated that investors are increasingly concerned about ethical investing but find voting too difficult and cumbersome
85% of shareholders would like to vote on the direction of the companies they’re invested in, and would do that if the process was made easier and less time consuming.
BlackRock Voting Choice simplifies and enhances proxy voting, allowing every investor to participate in shareholder voting with ease.
Investors choose from a slate of third-party policies and their vote is automatically applied across all relevant invested equities’ meetings
This solution gives retail clients the ability to vote in accordance with an off-the-shelf voting policy from third-party proxy advisers, choosing the policy that best aligns with their views and preferences.
Voting Choice provides a platform for retail investors to express their ethical preference in the form of pooled voting. It’s all about choice.
The Solution
Voting Choice is the world’s first fully digital proxy voting solution. It connects issuers, intermediaries, and investors in real-time, via a secure, cloud-native platform.
How we got there
Discovery phase – from stakeholder interviews to storyboard
As part of the project kick-off, I facilitated several stakeholder interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and capture initial ideas on how to solve it.
Drawing from these insights and the available customer research, I created a presentation deck to deliver to the client, accompanied by a storyboard I designed to summarise the challenge (comic strip pictured above).
Defined an MVP via MoSCoW
I collaborated closely with the Product Owner to break down the experience into epics, features, and stories. We then prioritised these elements using the MoSCoW method.
Design phase – Concepts co-creation
I facilitated rapid prototyping workshops with both BlackRock stakeholders and Proximity, from which I created early concept wireframes.
Wireflows, Prototypes and User Testing
I developed comprehensive flow diagrams that captured both typical scenarios and edge cases. These were shared with the client and engineering team to assess feasibility and alignment early on.
Building on this foundation, I created detailed wireflows and prototypes for each prioritised customer journey, and then tested these with target users to enable rapid validation. I led usability testing sessions and iteratively refined the designs based on user feedback and stakeholder input, continuing this cycle until final client approval was secured.
In the press:
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR
BlackRock Opens Proxy Voting Platform to Millions of Retail Investors
FINANCIAL TIMES
BlackRock Expands Voting Choice to Millions of U.S. Retail Shareholder Accounts
Want to know more?
The BlackRock Voting Choice project is protected by NDA, so for now this is all I can share on my portfolio. I’d be happy to discuss about the project in greater depth in person.
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