Financial modeling app - Idea to MVP in 2 mo. - Paradigm Labs

Paradigm Labs is an ambitious initiative to build a super-app for founders and investors. It was a lofty goal, and we only had 2 months to achieve it.

As you can imagine, we could not do everything from the start, so we had to prioritize. After much consideration, we decided that the MVP should only include the components needed for financial modeling (data integrations, KPIs) and an educational section, in addition to all the mandatory account management features.

First, break down complexity. Financial modeling is hard!

We started sorting through all the information we needed to present and organizing it in a clean, logical architecture. The hardest part was figuring out how to help novice users build a financial model on their own, which is usually done by an experienced finance professional. We created a step-by-step wizard that guided users through the process, explaining what they needed to do at each step. They could either input their data manually or import it from their tool via an integration.

Next, we had to figure out data visualization. Without understanding, data is just noisy. We prioritized the most important metrics a business owner would want to monitor and presented them in a clean yet dense dashboard.

Looking back, this MVP had one of the most complex workflows I've ever worked on. It was intimidating at first but it worked out in the end. It was a good reminder to trust the process and take it one step at a time.

When: 2024

Client: Paradigm Labs / 1863ventures

Capabilities: Product strategy, Information Architecture, UX design, UI design

Team: 1 designer, 1 no-code dev, 1 product manager