The Challenge

CQG's main product has a long release cycle and legacy code base, making it difficult and expensive to build new features. Innovation and time to market had all but stopped. As a new crop of financial technology startups utilizing new technologies began to apply pressure externally, there was internal skepticism that the company could innovate to keep up. CQG needed to prove to itself and the market that it could shift gears and compete.

Result: CQG Next Gen Platform

I lead a small team of designers, stakeholders and developers that concepted, developed and launched a new SAAS, mobile product built to drive new revenue from new and existing customers. Initially, we focused on core scenarios. Lifestyle and workflow scenarios like enabling traders to get up and go to lunch and stay connected to the markets and their trades. 

As functionality was added, the product evolved to be a more visual, live market data, customizable infographic that could eventually replace older legacy products. The product was built in responsive HTML5 to run on any desktop or mobile device.

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We were inspired by dynamic UIs we see in the movies and infographics in other industries, not the static UIs we see from banks and other trading apps.Design team over the years for CQG Desktop/One: Product owner, Head of UX: Marcus Kwan Interaction and visual designers: Daniel Gonzalez, Oleg Nesterkin, Alexey Pestov, Pavel Kononov, Kate Pavlova, Remy Vancil Technical Architect: Stas Berkov Project manager: Stas Shidlovsky

We were inspired by dynamic UIs we see in the movies and infographics in other industries, not the static UIs we see from banks and other trading apps.

Design team over the years for CQG Desktop/One:
Product owner, Head of UX: Marcus Kwan
Interaction and visual designers: Daniel Gonzalez, Oleg Nesterkin, Alexey Pestov, Pavel Kononov, Kate Pavlova, Remy Vancil
Technical Architect: Stas Berkov
Project manager: Stas Shidlovsky

With development teams in Moscow, Zelenograd, and Samara, sharing the strategic vision for the product.

With development teams in Moscow, Zelenograd, and Samara, sharing the strategic vision for the product.

Consistent month-over-month growth in users and usage. Increased usage indicates the product became an indispensable tool.

Consistent month-over-month growth in users and usage. Increased usage indicates the product became an indispensable tool.

Growth in order placement and transactional revenue.

Growth in order placement and transactional revenue.

Product roadmap visualization.

Product roadmap visualization.

Example from CQG Control Library in Figma

Example from CQG Control Library in Figma

The platform is built from several foundational pattens based on first principles of user interactions that are reused throughout the platform for efficiency for customers as well as development.

The platform is built from several foundational pattens based on first principles of user interactions that are reused throughout the platform for efficiency for customers as well as development.