Increasing Financial Feature Engagement on Chase Compass
Chase Compass is a ground-up redesign of Chase Mobile - built to guide every user toward financial clarity through an AI-powered compass experience.
Objective: Increase Monthly Active Feature Engagement (MAFE) by 25% through Chase Compass to reduce churn, deepen retention, and grow Assets Under Management.
Business & Product Outcome Mapping
Understanding how increasing financial feature engagement connects to Chase's core business goals and unit economics.
The US Digital Banking Market
Chase is the #1 US bank by assets ($3.9T), yet faces structural pressure from neobanks (Chime, SoFi) and wealth apps (Robinhood, Betterment) that capture user mindshare on financial planning. Compass reframes Chase Mobile from a transactional utility to a financial navigation platform.
Profit per engaged user = $6.60/mo. A disengaged user (1-2 features) generates only $3.10/mo - less than cost. Every 1% lift in MAFE converts ~570K disengaged users to profitable.
Market Understanding & User Segmentation
Mapping the competitive landscape, identifying user behavioral clusters, and selecting the highest-opportunity target segment.
Market Share & Competitive Differentiation
US digital banking MAU share, 2024 estimates
Problem Hypotheses (Validated via Survey, n=52)
Majority of Chase Mobile users (55%+) use the app for 2 or fewer features (balance check + transfers only).
Less than 20% of users actively use financial planning features (budgeting, goals, Wealth Plan) monthly.
Users with low feature engagement are 3x more likely to churn or open a secondary account at a fintech competitor within 12 months.
User Research & Root Cause Identification
A mixed-methods research study with 52 participants to validate hypotheses and uncover the root cause of low feature engagement.
Frustrations
- - Overwhelming navigation
- - No sense of financial progress
- - Features feel "hidden"
- - Doesn't know app capabilities
Goals
- - Save for home in 3 years
- - Understand spending
- - Feel in control
- - Consolidate financial tools
Research Methodology (n=52, Urban, 22-35 yrs)
"I know Chase has budgeting tools somewhere but every time I try to find them I give up after 3 taps."
- 26 yr old, Financial Analyst
"I open the app to check my balance and leave. It never gives me a reason to explore."
- 28 yr old, Product Manager
"I use a separate app for budgeting because Chase's version feels buried and generic."
- 24 yr old, Software Engineer
User Insight 1: Navigation Overwhelm
Users are confronted with a complex, flat navigation structure housing 30+ features across 6 tabs. With no hierarchy or personalization, users default to muscle memory: balance, transfer, close.
No Personalized Entry Point: Every user sees the same static dashboard regardless of their life stage, goals, or past behavior.
User Insight 2: No Sense of Progress
Users have no visibility into their financial health trajectory. Without a tangible score, milestone, or goal representation, financial planning features feel abstract.
Absence of a Financial Identity Layer: Chase Mobile treats users as account numbers, not individuals with goals.
The absence of a personalized navigation layer and financial progress identity creates a blank experience that offers no reason to explore. Users with genuine financial intent leave to use third-party apps, fragmenting engagement.
Problem Framing & Impact Mapping
Translating user research insights into a precise problem statement and quantifying the business value of solving it.
What is the true problem?
Chase Mobile's generic, undifferentiated interface fails to give users a financial direction - leaving 47% of high-frequency users in a "transactional loop" that yields no financial progress, creates no loyalty, and generates below-cost economics.
Who faces it?
Urban adults aged 22-35 who are financially motivated but time-constrained - they want to grow their wealth and manage their money smartly, but find the current app too opaque.
Why solve this now?
Gen Z and Millennials collectively represent $25 trillion in wealth transfer over the next decade. Winning their financial engagement now creates irreplaceable lifetime value.
Jobs-to-be-Done
Impact Mapping: Quantifying the Opportunity
Solution Ideation & Prioritization
Two distinct solutions designed to address the root cause - evaluated against Value, Usability, Feasibility, Viability, and Scalability.
CompassGuide
An AI-powered financial navigation layer that gives every user a personalized Financial Health Score, a visual goal tracker, and proactive nudges to surface relevant features at the right moment.
If we implement an AI-driven personalization layer that greets users with their Financial Health Score, recommends a daily financial action, and surfaces relevant features based on behavior patterns,
Then we will increase feature engagement because users will have a clear, personalized financial direction every time they open the app.
SmartNav Redesign
A full bottom-navigation overhaul that reorganizes Chase Mobile's information architecture - reducing tab count from 6 to 4, grouping features into intuitive mega-categories.
If we redesign the navigation structure to reduce cognitive load,
Then we will improve feature discovery - however, this does not solve the personalization gap; users may find features but still lack a reason to use them.
Why CompassGuide wins: Solves both root causes simultaneously - personalized navigation AND a financial progress identity. High confidence grounded in 3 validated hypotheses and 12 qualitative interviews.
Why SmartNav falls short: Purely structural change - reduces friction but doesn't motivate action. A user who doesn't know why to use budgeting tools will ignore them regardless of how easy they are to find.
Prototyping & Solution Detailing
CompassGuide reimagines the Chase Compass home experience as a personalized financial dashboard anchored by three core components.
Algorithm inputs: credit score trend, savings rate, debt-to-income ratio, monthly cash flow, goal progress, feature engagement depth.
Display: Persistent score (300-900 scale) on the Compass home. Color-coded dial.
Update cadence: Refreshed weekly; real-time for transaction-driven changes.
Onboarding: 3-step goal wizard during first app launch post-update. Up to 3 concurrent goals.
Progress logic: Goals tied to real account activity - savings transferred, debt reduced, portfolio value.
Milestone moments: Celebratory animation at 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% milestones.
Contextual triggers: Payday detection, overspend in category, goal at risk, unused Chase feature with high relevance.
Frequency cap: Max 2 nudges/week; user-controllable.
Delivery: Non-intrusive banner on home screen; optional push notification.
System Design, Constraints & Second-Order Thinking
How CompassGuide's ML pipeline works, the architectural constraints it must respect, and the downstream effects.
1. Regulatory Compliance
All behavioral data requires explicit user consent. FHS must be accompanied by clear explanation of its non-binding nature (not a credit score).
2. Notification Fatigue
Nudge frequency caps (max 2/week) enforced server-side. Users must be able to fully disable nudges from Settings.
3. Model Fairness
FHS model must be audited quarterly for demographic parity. Explainability component required for regulatory review.
Second-Order Thinking
Score anxiety could harm confidence
A user with low FHS may feel discouraged. Mitigation: frame as "direction indicator" rather than absolute grade. Celebrate any positive change.
Over-reliance on app-driven decisions
Users may make significant moves based solely on nudges. Mitigation: nudges link to J.P. Morgan advisor option.
Privacy perception risk
Deep personalization may feel "creepy" to privacy-conscious users. Mitigation: transparent "How your Compass works" explainer. Opt-out available.
Metrics & Pitfall Mitigation
A multi-layer measurement framework to track product success, user satisfaction, and business outcomes.
Measuring Success
Possible Pitfalls & Opportunities
Risk 1:
FHS model may produce inaccurate scores for users with multi-institution finances.
Opportunity:
Implement confidence indicators. Prompt users to link external accounts via Plaid.
Risk 2:
Nudges may reduce autonomous exploration, creating dependency.
Opportunity:
Implement progressive nudge-fade model: frequency decreases as engagement increases.
Chase Compass gives 47% of disengaged users a financial north star - and unlocks $1.9B in annual incremental revenue.
CompassGuide solves a structural engagement failure in Chase Mobile by replacing a generic, static dashboard with a personalized financial navigation layer - anchored by the Financial Health Score, Goal Compass, and Smart Nudge Engine. By converting Transaction-Only users into Active Planners, Chase Compass establishes a durable loyalty moat.
Want to see the prototype?
Explore the live MVP of Chase Compass to experience the CompassGuide solution firsthand.
View Chase Compass MVP