Orbit is Germany's premier boutique law firm specializing in funds, offering comprehensive legal advice to fund managers and investors. Their consultancy spans corporate, regulatory, and tax law, as well as compliance and sustainability issues, serving notable clients like the European Investment Fund (EIF), Burda Principal Investments, Merantix, and Earlybird.

The Challenge

Leading product development for a compliance-heavy fintech law firm while balancing regulatory requirements with exceptional user experience.

‍
As Head of Digital Product and Design, I transformed a cumbersome paper-based process into an intuitive digital platform that served both investors and legal teams.

This 12-month initiative demanded deep understanding of financial regulations including GDPR, KYC, AML, and WCAG accessibility standards while managing an agile cross-functional team through the complete product lifecycle.

Company

Role

Head of Digital Product and Design

Duration

12 Months

Team Size

Multidisciplinary team of five

NOTE

To respect confidentiality agreements, detailed aspects of this project have been withheld. The essence and outcomes are shared within the scope permitted by the NDA.

The Problem Space

Paper Overload

Investors faced 53 pages of dense legal documentation with confusing terminology and unclear ownership of each step in the process.

High Error Rates

Manual form completion led to frequent mistakes, requiring multiple rounds of corrections and prolonging the onboarding timeline significantly.

Slow Processing

The entire onboarding cycle stretched 2 to 3 weeks, creating frustration for high-value investors expecting efficient service from their legal partners.tetur adipiscing elit.

Measurable Impact

The platform established automated workflows that dramatically improved internal processing speed while maintaining strict compliance standards. This foundation enabled future integrations with additional legal tech systems and positioned the firm for scalable growth.

70%

Cost Savings

Custom solution saved significant budget compared to existing legal tech tools while exceeding functionality requirements.

93%

Time Reduction

Transformed a multi-week process into a same-day experience through intelligent automation and thoughtful design.

22

Minutes to complete

The platform is personalized, ensuring the most efficient journey with dramatically improved accuracy and investor satisfaction scores.

Our web-based onboarding platform moved away from traditional PDF forms, ensuring data encryption and safety.

Research & Discovery Phase

Discovery Process

Conducted 12 in-depth interviews with investors, fund managers, and legal team members to understand pain points across all user groups. Comprehensive analysis of 53 pages of legal forms revealed opportunities for simplification while maintaining regulatory compliance.

Stakeholder Interviews

12 sessions with investors and internal teams.

Form Analysis

Detailed review of all existing legal documentation.

Process Mapping

Documented 18 unique onboarding scenarios.

Critical Insights

Each fund and investor required personalized flows tailored to their specific investment structure and regulatory requirements.
18 distinct onboarding scenarios created significant complexity that many existing tools couldn't handle effectively.
Investors struggled with unclear ownership of steps and lacked visibility into process progress.
Shifting regulatory landscape demanded flexible architecture for ongoing compliance updates.

Compliance Guardrails

Navigating complex regulatory requirements shaped every design and technical decision throughout the project lifecycle.

Data Privacy

Full GDPR compliance with encryption, consent management, and data retention policies protecting sensitive investor information.

Know Your Customer (KYC)

Verification processes built into the flow ensuring proper identity validation for all participants.

Anti-Money Laundering

AML protocols embedded throughout to detect and prevent financial crimes per regulatory standards.

WCAG Standards

Accessible design meeting AA level WCAG guidelines to ensure platform usability for all investors regardless of ability.

Audit Trail

Complete activity logging providing transparent record of all actions for regulatory audits and dispute resolution.

Digital Signature

ID-verified electronic signatures ensuring legally binding agreements with full authentication and non-repudiation.

Strategic Execution

Market Research

Evaluated existing legal tech tools charging tens of thousands of Euro annually without offering necessary third-party integrations or customization capabilities.

Tool Evaluation

Tested over 20 form builders but none met the complex regulatory requirements and conditional logic needs for our specific use case.

Solution Design

Designed platform with 20% custom components, achieving regulatory compliance while saving 70% of projected budget.

Prototype Testing

Built working prototype to validate complex conditional logic before full development phase, reducing technical risk significantly

System Architecture

This modular system was designed to meet the diverse needs of multiple user types: investors, lawyers, and platform admins. By separating responsibilities across three core layers, the architecture supports flexibility, compliance, and scalability across complex legal workflows.

Frontend Investor Portal

Guided progressive disclosure wizard interface for investors and their teams with intuitive navigation and progress tracking.

Lawyer Dashboard

Customization engine for legal team admins to configure fund-specific flows and provided oversight of submissions.

No-Code Core Engine

Engine platform with form builder library and direct logic configuration capabilities for advanced technical users.

Design Principles & Patterns

Guiding Principles

Completion First: Prioritized user completion over rigid data accuracy, allowing progress without blocking critical paths

Exploratory Navigation: Enabled flexible movement through forms with smart defaults rather than forcing linear progression

Contextual Transparency: Surface only what's necessary, but clearly explain why information is being collected , building trust through timely, relevant guidance.

UX Patterns Implemented

These modern, research-backed patterns are considered industry best practices and are highly effective in reducing friction, guiding users through complexity, and improving completion rates in long onboarding journeys.

Progressive Disclosure

Revealing complexity gradually as users advance through the onboarding journey to reduce cognitive load, make complex flows manageable, and improve usability.

Progress Visibility

Breaking long onboarding flows into smaller steps and giving users clarity about where they are to provide clear visibility into progress and remaining effort required.

Forgiving Data Entry Formats

Accepting various input styles when validating data to reduce user friction and error rates.

Delayed Registration

Users were able to get value and start entering their data right away rather than facing friction of account creation upfront.

Collaboration & Delivery

Weekly Ceremonies
Regular cross-functional team syncs, including product, design, and engineering, to ensure shared understanding of priorities, address blockers early, and keep momentum across sprints.

Figma Specs
Comprehensive design documentation created directly in Figma, including detailed component styling, states, behaviors, and usage guidelines to streamline developer handoff and maintain visual consistency.

Notion Board
A centralized Kanban board used to track all technical specifications, design tasks, and implementation status, offering transparent project visibility for all team members.

Automated Testing
Robust end-to-end test coverage using Cypress, ensuring design integrity, interaction quality, and consistent functionality throughout iterative releases.

Usability Testing
Conducted 23 moderated and unmoderated sessions using Lookback to gather user feedback, validate design decisions, and iterate continuously based on real-world behavior and insights.

Implemented Metrics

Established comprehensive measurement framework tracking key performance indicators throughout the user journey and internal processing workflows.

Completion Time

End-to-end duration from start to final submission

Intervention Rate

Frequency of support requests or clarifications needed

Satisfaction Score

Post-completion feedback via picker and short form survey

Reimagining Client-Firm Interactions

Coming from a startup background, I brought a product-driven mindset to this legal tech environment, helping shift the company beyond basic digitalization toward a more user-centered, scalable platform. Rather than replicating existing workflows, we reimagined how legal services could be delivered, making them more intuitive, efficient, and transparent for both investors and internal teams. This project demonstrated how design can drive meaningful operational change in highly traditional industries.

Orbit Investor Onboarding