Morgan Stanley Product Design Case: Multi‑Asset Trade Workflow for Wealth Management

This case mirrors Morgan Stanley’s real, data‑dense enterprise design challenges and interview style. You’ll be asked to redesign a Financial Advisor (FA) multi‑asset order ticket and trade monitoring experience used across Wealth Management, with awareness of touchpoints to Institutional Securities and Prime Brokerage. Expect to whiteboard end‑to‑end flows (discover → decide → execute → monitor → resolve), propose IA for a high‑information UI (e.g., order ticket, trade blotter, risk and suitability checks, alerts, notes/audit trail), and show how your solution scales to complex users and volatile markets. Focus areas the interviewer will probe: 1) User understanding: personas (FA, CSA, Compliance reviewer), tasks during market open, and pain points with legacy/internal tools; 2) Risk and compliance by design: pre‑trade guardrails (suitability, concentration, restricted lists), auditability, permissioning, error‑prevention micro‑interactions, and an explain‑why pattern for blocked actions; 3) Data and performance: handling real‑time market data and latency constraints, progressive disclosure for dense tables, keyboard‑driven efficiency, dark/high‑contrast modes, and offline/degenerate states during outages; 4) Systems thinking: integration with existing OMS/CRM, research, and portfolio tools; change management for thousands of FAs; analytics and success metrics (e.g., order error rate, cancel/replace latency, time‑to‑execute, adoption); 5) Global/regulatory context: designing for multiple regions/time zones and differing regulatory expectations; 6) Collaboration: how you work with PMs, engineers, quants, and Compliance; trade‑offs between power‑user flexibility and firm‑level risk appetite. Deliverables in‑session typically include a problem framing, prioritized scenarios (simple equity order vs. complex option/multi‑leg), low‑fi wireframes of the ticket/blotter/alert system, an accessibility plan (WCAG 2.1 AA, screen‑reader/shortcut mapping), and a rollout plan (A/B or pilot with a field group). The tone is practical and risk‑aware: interviewers value structured thinking, defensible trade‑offs, and clear rationale aligned to Morgan Stanley’s client‑first culture.