Robinhood
Growing recurring investments
Problem: We were seeing under-adoption of recurring investments, Robinhood’s automated investing feature. In Nov. 2020, there were ~81,000 users with at least 1 recurring investment.
Solution: We ran 4 growth experiments and rolled out the most successful ones. At the start of Jan. 2021, there were ~136,000 users with at least 1 recurring investment. Although not all of that growth can be attributed to these experiments, each one contributed.
My role: Drafted and refined value props for recurring investments, provided feedback on PRDs and designs, wrote content for all screens, revised to meet Legal and Compliance requirements
What I learned: Growing a product doesn’t have to mean big, flashy promotions. It’s also small tweaks and incremental experiments that address real pain points for customers.
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Chart intro screen
Content goal: Demonstrate the benefits of keeping a long-term recurring investment.
Implementation: Header clearly states the product name (“recurring investments”) and ties it to the user’s future. The verb “test” in the subheader identifies this as a low-stakes exploratory space. Calling out that even a “few dollars a day” can still matter in the long run aligns with Robinhood’s brand principle of access for all.
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Value props intro screen
Content goal: Capture the 3 main value props that I identified—automation, long-term investing, and ease of use.
Implementation: Subheader summarizes how the product works. Bullet 1 captures the long-term value prop while reassuring the user that they’ll be in control. Bullet 2 highlights automation with a fun metaphor. Bullet 3 points to ease of use to lower the barrier to getting started.
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Find an investment
Content goal: Give users a launch pad for finding something they want to invest in—a main user pain point when deciding to start a recurring investment.
Implementation: Search bar ghost text prompts the user to search for “companies,” which I felt was more accessible alternative than a more encompassing term like “securities.” Subheaders (“Your stocks” and “Your lists”) reiterate the user’s existing connection with the investments displayed, because generally users are more comfortable investing in what they know.
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Recurring investments list
Content goal: Leverage an existing feature (Lists) to introduce recurring investments as a long-term investing product. Use social proof to help users discover a new investment.
Implementation: “Popular” nods toward how this list provides social proof. “for the long haul” introduces recurring investments as a way to buy and hold. “Based on the number…” more clearly outlines the logic behind how we’re choosing to display these investments.
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Investing tab card
Content goal: Bundle the main value props of recurring investments in a concise way to highlight the feature as a card on the Investing tab.
Implementation: Generated 7 different card variants. Took feedback from user research to narrow down to 3 to test in the experiment. Rolled out the winning card (shown above). The parallelism in “in your future on your schedule” creates rhythm, which is punctuated by “it takes less than a minute to get started.” Highlights 2 main value props (long-term investing + ease of use).
