Proactive Insight Messaging

Senior Lead Product Designer

Transformed Fargo from a reactive assistant into a proactive financial advisor by introducing a scalable insights system that surfaces timely, personalized financial guidance.

+77%

1st time users

25M → 247M

yearly interactions

550M+

projected interactions

Insight presentment expanded across multiple surfaces
in the app

The Problem

Fargo was designed as an AI-powered assistant, but in practice it behaved reactively - only responding when users asked questions.

This limited engagement and created a gap between the product vision (proactive financial guidance) and the actual experience.

My Role

Led end-to-end design of the insights system - from concept through launch.

• Defined the interaction model and delivery framework
• Partnered with PM to shape product direction and requirements
• Designed scalable patterns top support multiple insight types

The Shift

We introduced Insights - a system of proactive messages triggered by signals in a user’s financial activity.

The goal was to surface relevant, timely information without requiring users to initiate interaction.

Designing the System

Rather than designing individual alerts, we created a flexible system for delivering insights across contexts.
• Algorithm-triggered insights based on account activity
• Multiple entry points (proactive + user-invoked)
• Prioritized delivery based on relevance and urgency

Key Design Decisions

Exploring delivery models

Early explorations focused on a carousel-based approach to sequence insights and control priority. However, this model introduced friction:

• Limited scannability across multiple insights
• Higher interaction cost to browse content
• Less flexibility as the system scaled

Insight lifecycle

Designed clear states for new, viewed and expired insights to maintain relevance and avoid stale information.

Final approach: grid-based delivery

We shifted to a tile-based grid, allowing users to quickly scan and access multiple insights at once. This approach:

• Improved visibility across insights
• Reduced interaction cost
• Scaled more naturally as new insight types were introduced

Seamless exploration

Each insight expands into a deeper experience, allowing users to explore details or take action within the conversational flow.

Designed for scale

The system supported 12+ insight types, enabling the product to grow without redesigning core interactions.

Outcomes

What changed

Each insight expands into a deeper experience, allowing users to explore details or take action within the conversational flow.

  • Became a core driver for engagement and retention

  • Introduced a scalable system for proactive financial guidance

  • Enabled expansion of insights across multiple surfaces

Impact at scale

  • 27 million users engaged (+77%)

  • X10 growth in yearly interactions

  • 550 million + interactions projected for 2026