Case study · Mainstreet Advisors
Turning complex fund data into clear, actionable insights for Portfolio Managers.
I designed and built a Power BI dashboard that gave six Portfolio Managers a single view of AUA, revenue, client health, and portfolio performance — replacing a fragmented, manual reporting process.
The outcome
The dashboard gave Portfolio Managers a single, reliable source of truth for portfolio performance and investor activity. It reduced the manual reporting burden and made key information available without waiting for an analyst to assemble it.
Before
After
Why it mattered
Mainstreet managed more than $1.2B in AUA across six Portfolio Managers. As portfolios and investor activity grew, reporting became increasingly dependent on spreadsheets, manual updates, and analyst support.
The problem wasn’t a lack of data. It was that the information PMs needed was scattered across different sources and difficult to access quickly.
The business needed a faster way for PMs to understand portfolio performance without adding more manual reporting work as the firm grew.
The workflow
Before
Follow-up questions send it back around
After
The dashboard moved reporting from a recurring manual task to an always-available business tool.
The solution
The dashboard brought portfolio performance, investor activity, revenue, and client information into a single Power BI experience.
The hierarchy was designed around the questions PMs needed to answer first — then progressively deeper information.
Headline numbers
AUA · performance · active investors
Movement
Trends · changes · comparisons
Portfolio positioning
Allocation · wallet share · portfolio performance
Revenue
Revenue tier · contribution · client economics
Client detail
Investor-level information and drill-downs
The dashboard
The first thing PMs see when the dashboard loads.
Shows movement rather than isolated numbers.
Makes portfolio positioning easier to compare.
Allows deeper investigation without leaving the dashboard.
At a glance
Portfolio health and headline metrics
Investigate
Drill-downs and filtering
Act
Information needed for meetings and reporting
My role
I owned the dashboard experience from understanding PM needs through information architecture, data preparation, dashboard design, iteration, and delivery.
I worked closely with Portfolio Managers, operations, analysts, and engineering to turn a fragmented reporting workflow into a usable internal product.
Research
Understand PM workflows and pain points
Define
Translate needs into metrics and information hierarchy
Data
Clean and structure source data in Power BI
Design
Create the dashboard experience and visual hierarchy
Validate
Review with PMs and refine based on feedback
Deliver
Build and personalize dashboards for each PM
The process
01Discover
Spoke with Portfolio Managers and analysts to understand:
02Structure
Mapped source data and defined:
03Build
Cleaned and normalized data from Excel and internal CRM sources. Built:
04Iterate
Requirements evolved throughout the project. Approximately 100 dashboard iterations were explored before approval. Feedback refined:
Behind the dashboard
The dashboard depended on multiple Excel workbooks and internal CRM data. Before the interface could be trusted, the underlying information had to be cleaned, normalized, and structured into a reliable Power BI model.
Key design decisions
Put the information PMs needed immediately at the top of the dashboard.
Standardized financial metrics so numbers could be scanned and compared quickly.
Built six dashboard views around each PM's portfolio rather than forcing everyone through a shared generic view.
Worked within Power BI, existing branding, existing workflows, source-data limitations, and executive approval cycles.
Impact
Before
3–4 hrs
per week, per PM
After
<10 sec
to the portfolio picture
The result wasn’t simply a better-looking report.
It changed when and how PMs accessed information — from requesting and assembling data to accessing it directly when they needed it.
Team
Owned the dashboard experience, information architecture, data visualization, user needs, and iterative design.
Supported technical implementation and data/integration requirements.
What I brought to the project
User understanding
Product thinking
Data thinking
UX / UI
Delivery
Design system
The MainStreet palette stays recognisable while adapting to an enterprise analytics environment: green carries the brand signal and positive movement, slate and deep teal carry structure, and the warm tones stay supporting.
The constraint that matters most is restraint — the dashboard should read as an established financial tool, not a consumer fintech app, and never trade data readability for brand expression.
KPI card structure
$1.2B
↑ 4.2%
The number is the strongest element; the label stays concise and the card stays undecorated.
Status chips
The spec leaves warning and danger as “red” without a token, so no hex is asserted here.
Spacing & radius
4 · 8 · 12 · 16 · 24 · 32 · 48 · 64 px
Radius 4 · 8 · 12 · 16 px — restrained corporate rounding.
Never
Purple, neon or startup-style colours; every brand colour at equal weight; overdecorated KPI cards; or a consumer-fintech reading of an enterprise tool.
Looking ahead
Surface portfolio trends and potential risks earlier.
Reduce recurring manual reporting even further.
Add deeper benchmarking, risk, and portfolio comparisons.
Final thoughts
Mainstreet needed a reporting system that could keep up with the business. The dashboard turned fragmented data into a clear, usable product that Portfolio Managers could access when they needed it.
Raahi