User segmentation | Longitudinal research|User retention and growth
Company: IG Group| Markets: Singapore & Australia
Business problem
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IG Markets had launched an MVP investment product across shares, ETFs, and crypto — but as the team moved to build beyond the MVP, there was no foundational understanding of who the different types of investors were or how they differed in behaviour and needs.
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Product decisions were being made without evidence of how investors discover ideas, research them, build conviction, and decide to act — and whether those journeys differ by segment.
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Key product surfaces — the homepage, Discover page, and portfolio section — were due for redesign, but without understanding the end-to-end investor journey by segment.
Research Goal:
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Map the retail investor landscape across segments and markets — then go deep into how each segment actually discovers, researches, and acts on investment ideas — to inform what we build next and how we design it.
How might we identify the distinct investor segments using IG's platform, understand what drives their behaviour, and then map their real-world journeys — so that the platform experience supports how each segment actually invests?
Research Approach
Phase 1
Segmentation Survey
Large-scale survey across Singapore and Australia to map the different investor segments, how they differ and where the opportunities lie.
Designed to go beyond stated preferences to uncover emotional and behavioural drivers.
Phase 2
Diary Study
Two-week diary study via Indeemo with 12 participants across Australia and Singapore to capture investing activities as they happen in real time.
Got buy-in from stakeholders to run company's first ever diary study.
Chosen because earlier findings revealed that investment journeys are non-linear and play out over weeks — requiring a method that captures behaviour as it happens.
Phase 3
In-depth Interviews
Follow-up interviews with diary study participants to validate and deepen findings.
Mapped 4 different journey types across the segments and built a two-step decision framework: conviction building v/s timing execution.
Outcome & Impact
Outcome
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Moved the team from assumptions to data-based segments with quantified needs, behaviours, and priorities — giving product, design, and marketing a shared language for who we're building for.
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Reframed the Discover page strategy from a content destination to an intelligence layer that supports ongoing discovery throughout the journey.
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Produced four journey maps with segment-specific design implications that directly informed the Homepage, Discover page, and Portfolio redesign priorities.
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The two-stage decision model (conviction-building vs. timing execution) gave designers a framework for when to show what information, by segment.
Impact
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Research insights are shaping the platform redesign across three major surfaces — Homepage, Discover, and Portfolio pages — with recommendations that directly feed into the roadmap.
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The segmentation framework is being used by product and marketing to differentiate targeting, messaging, and feature prioritisation across the two markets.