Improving Analytics and Onboarding Experience on Zerodha Kite

Phase 01 · Problem framing

✳The problem they went after

Kite is India's largest stock trading platform by retail volume, built on low cost, simplicity and no advertising, with over 16 million customers and 15 percent of daily retail trading volume. It serves experienced investors well. First-time investors are the ones who struggle, finding the interface non-intuitive and needing several sessions before they feel comfortable.

✳What they actually did

The write-up separates what the product genuinely does well, easy portfolio management, real-time prices and smooth fund flows, from where it leaks. Advanced analytics such as charts and portfolio graphs live mainly on the web version rather than the mobile app, splitting the experience across two places. Groww is named as a competitor gaining ground largely on product design that shortens the learning curve. The analysis then closes with three hypotheses to validate rather than a verdict.

✳What you can take from it

Worth stealing

Strengths stated plainly before any criticism lands
Gaps written as hypotheses, not verdicts
Web versus mobile analytics split named as a core fracture
Groww's design advantage used as competitive evidence

Read this if

Anyone learning to turn product observations into hypotheses worth researching

The transferable bitA good model for ending a product critique in hypotheses instead of conclusions. Onboarding friction, mobile analytics pushing power users to the web console, and missing peer comparison data are each written as something that could be proved wrong, which is what makes them researchable. It also resists the easy story that a market leader has no problems.

✳The submission itself

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Phase 02 · Research and recommendations

Improving Portfolio Analytics and Usability in Zerodha Kite

✳The problem they went after

Kite serves over 1.6 crore clients on low fees and a relatively clean interface, but the cracks widen as users get more sophisticated. Peer and industry comparison data means leaving the app for external sites. Advanced analytics exist only on the web version, with a poor UI. And the overall design carries enough cognitive load to slow both feature adoption and discoverability.

✳What they actually did

The research combined three years of first-hand use with contextual analysis drawing on Hooked and Inspired, plus a read of Zerodha's mission and competitive positioning against Groww, Angel One and Upstox. The gaps cluster into three: difficulty getting related information about portfolio companies, limited in-app analytics, and unintuitive usability that penalises less digitally savvy users. Recommendations follow the same clusters, covering mobile analytics, easier access to peer comparison data, and lower cognitive load through clearer navigation and progressive disclosure.

✳What you can take from it

Worth stealing

Long-term personal use treated as a legitimate research input
Hooked and Inspired applied as contextual analysis frameworks
Benchmarked against Groww, Angel One and Upstox
Progressive disclosure proposed to cut cognitive load

Read this if

PMs at feature-rich products losing new users to simpler competitors

The transferable bitDesign, not features, is what explains Groww outpacing Zerodha on user acquisition despite Zerodha's deeper feature set. It is a useful reminder that feature parity is not the battleground for new users, and that progressive disclosure is the standard answer when a product is powerful but intimidating.