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Anjanesh Sharma

EVALUATING THE COMMODITIES TRADING EXPERIENCE (MCX)

Project Overview

Role

Lead Researcher

Timeline

2 Months 

Methods
Mixed Methods Evaluative Research (NPS/CSAT Surveys, Moderated Usability Interviews)

Scope
N=145 quantitative survey participants; N=27 qualitative in-depth interviews (Active & Churned users)

Business Context

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) is a highly lucrative but complex trading segment. Users typically graduate to MCX after gaining experience in Equity or F&O, and interestingly, they rely on a single platform for all their commodity trades.

This means a poor user experience leads to a complete loss of wallet share for this segment.

 

Despite the segment's potential, our platform's Net Promoter Score (NPS) among MCX traders had dropped to -7. The product team needed to systematically evaluate the end-to-end MCX trading journey to pinpoint exactly where the user experience was breaking down and prioritize fixes to stop churn

Research Questions

To move from a vague "users are unhappy" metric to actionable product iterations, I framed the evaluation around these core questions:

  1. Satisfaction Drivers: Which specific platform touchpoints (e.g., order execution, charts, fund management) have the highest impact on the overall NPS?

  2. Usability Friction: What are the precise UI/UX barriers causing low satisfaction scores in core trading flows?

  3. Mental Model Alignment: Does the platform's information architecture and default settings align with the high-speed decision-making required by commodity traders?

  4. Churn Diagnostics: What are the definitive breaking points that cause an MCX trader to abandon the platform entirely?

Research Approach: Quant-to-Qual Evaluative Sprints

To understand both the scale of the issues and the reasons behind them, I designed a mixed-methods evaluative study.

 

  • Quantitative Evaluation (N=145): Deployed a targeted NPS and CSAT survey to users who had traded at least 2 days a week in the last 3 months. This identified the top drivers dragging down the score: Order Execution (61% CSAT), Charts (63% CSAT), and Summary Details (70% CSAT).

  • Qualitative Deep Dives (N=27): Conducted moderated interviews with 9 active users and 18 churned/lapsed users to observe workflows, identify misclicks, and understand the "why" behind the low quantitative scores.

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Evaluative Findings & Usability Gaps

The qualitative sessions revealed that the negative NPS wasn't just about technical bugs; it was driven by severe UX friction in high-stakes moments.

Finding 1: "Lag" was actually UI Friction in Order Execution

Users heavily criticized order execution for being "laggy," but usability observation revealed the issue was largely UI-induced friction that increased time-on-task.

 

  • The Friction: The default order quantity was set to "0" instead of "1," forcing manual entry for every single trade. Furthermore, users had to horizontally scroll (slide sideways) to view and select critical order types (like SL Mkt), which they found highly time-consuming during volatile market movements.

  • User Verbatim: "Currently there is a need to slide towards the right to select SL Limit which is a time-consuming activity."

MCX zerodha.png

Finding 2: Information Architecture Mismatch in Scrip Details

Commodity traders make split-second decisions based on the Average Traded Price (ATP) and the Option Chain. The platform's layout buried this vital data.

  • The Friction: The ATP was hidden behind a right-swipe action under the "Today's market" tab, functioning as an unnecessary extra step. Additionally, the Option Chain—a heavily requested feature—was completely missing, forcing users to leave the app and visit the external MCX India website.

  • User Verbatim: "Option chain is not available. I have to login to mcx website for choosing strike price everytime."

Finding 3: Broken Cross-Platform Workflows (Charts)

Traders rely on technical charts, but the evaluation uncovered critical workflow breaks between the app and web platforms.

  • The Friction: Chart settings did not sync across the Web and App interfaces. Furthermore, for users tracking multiple markets, the system improperly overlapped settings—applying F&O indicator settings to MCX charts when switching between them.

Finding 4: The "Two-Wallet" Fund Management Barrier

Having separate wallets for securities and commodities created a massive usability and financial barrier.

  • The Friction: Users experienced high friction trying to move available capital between segments, directly resulting in lost trading opportunities and platform churn.

  • User Verbatim: "Need to keep redoing the same process for both MCX and equities. As a retail trader, maintaining of fund gets difficult."

Strategic Recommendations & Impact

I synthesized these evaluative findings into prioritized, actionable steps for the Product and Engineering teams to directly target the -7 NPS.
 

Immediate UX Iterations (Quick Wins):

  • Optimize Order Entry: Change the default order quantity from 0 to 1 to reduce physical taps, and replace the horizontal scroll for order types with a persistent dropdown to improve visibility and speed.

  • Surface Critical Data: Move the Average Traded Price (ATP) to the upfront summary screen to eliminate the hidden swipe interaction.

Strategic Roadmap Shifts (Long-term Fixes):

  • Chart Architecture: Mandate cross-platform syncing for chart settings and isolate MCX chart preferences from F&O preferences to prevent overlapping indicators.

  • Financial Infrastructure: Recommended exploring a unified "Single Wallet" architecture to allow seamless capital deployment across both securities and commodities, directly addressing a primary churn driver.

Reflection

Evaluating a complex, high-stakes financial product requires looking past what users say (e.g., "the app is laggy") to uncover what they actually experience (e.g., hidden UI elements causing manual delays). By anchoring this evaluation in rigorous quantitative metrics (CSAT/NPS) and diagnosing the root causes qualitatively, I provided the product team with a highly prioritized roadmap to rebuild user trust and platform reliability.

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