/ Assumptions.
Built-in functionality in the cash and consolidation loan process used to verify the financial situation of customers applying for credit products through electronic channels. This increases the amount of the above loans granted.
The main objective of the manual decision project was to increase the sales volume of cash loans and consolidation loans in electronic channels.
One of the opportunities to achieve this goal was to offer a loan to a group of customers who had previously not received a positive credit decision for the amount they applied for. Based on the obtained analytical data, the size of this group could reach even several hundred people per month.
The core problem addressed by this functionality was related to insufficient creditworthiness of bank customers who wanted to apply for a loan amount significantly higher than what their current creditworthiness, calculated by the bank’s automated systems, allowed.
The solution was also intended to minimize the issue of a complete lack of creditworthiness by creating a set of mechanisms and tools enabling additional analysis of the customer’s financial situation, which increased the chance of issuing a positive credit decision and taking out a loan by this group of bank customers.
The target group of the solution primarily consisted of people whose credit needs were higher than what resulted from their current financial situation.
/ LOAN VERIFICATION
The process of designing a functionality
/ Discovery Stage
The manual decision project for cash and consolidation loans traditionally started with introductory meetings with the business team, during which we discussed the idea and the main assumptions for the new solution within these products. During these meetings, we planned the subsequent steps that needed to be taken in relation to designing this solution.
Next, together with the business team, we conducted design workshops during which we defined business and design goals and identified all assumptions and requirements for this project. In developing this information, we were supported by the Business Model Canvas tool, thanks to which, during joint workshop sessions, we worked out a complete set of necessary data on which we could base our further activities.
In identifying the goals, needs, problems, and frustrations of our target group, we were supported by the Value Proposition Canvas tool, which helped us structure the available information about our customers. Then, based on existing descriptions of the bank’s customer segments, we developed our own descriptions in the form of detailed personas that included all the above information about our users. To quantitatively deepen our understanding of the size of customer groups facing specific problems, we extracted analytical data from our internal databases and compared them, for example customers with one negative decision, with multiple negative decisions, and those defined as “no go,” meaning completely lacking creditworthiness.
Subsequently, we conducted an in-house competitive analysis of direct competitors in search of similar solutions within cash and consolidation loan processes. The conclusions from this analysis were reviewed during a workshop, where we derived several interesting insights.
/ Define Stage
The next step consisted of design workshops with the Service Design Lead, during which we started designing our service within these credit products. We began the meeting by mapping the customer journey in the cash and consolidation loan process using the Service Blueprint tool. Breaking down the loan granting process into its core components allowed us to better understand what it consisted of and how it worked. Thanks to this tool, we described not only the visible layer in the form of customer interactions with the interface, but also the supporting systems enabling the execution of the lending service. After mapping the customer journey, we were able to properly embed our solution into the loan application process by creating a second blueprint already including the target solution.
Already at the stage of defining supporting systems for our solution, a need emerged to create an application for verifying customer creditworthiness and issuing credit decisions. The design process of this application is described in a separate case study.
After designing the service within the loan process, it was time to validate our concept with potential users. In this research, we wanted not only to gather opinions about our solution, but also to deepen the previously developed insights regarding customer needs, problems, and overall experiences of applicants for credit products in such situations, particularly in the case of negative decisions. For this purpose, we planned in-depth interviews with three groups of respondents who were customers of our bank and of competitors. Two research groups were based on customers from our internal database who had received a negative credit decision within the last year or had no creditworthiness at all. The third group was a control group consisting of customers who had received a positive credit decision within the last six months.
To conduct this research, I designed an initial prototype of the functionality within the cash loan application process that a customer with creditworthiness issues or applying for an amount significantly higher than their credit capacity would encounter. This allowed us to easily visualize the idea of the functionality for respondents and validate it in a straightforward way. For the purposes of in-depth interviews, I prepared possible process variants on a Miro board, which I then presented to participants while explaining what was happening at each step of the process.
I started the in-depth interviews by preparing research scenarios for each respondent group and defining recruitment requirements for these groups. Then, with the support of research agencies, we recruited respondents and scheduled meetings.
After that, I conducted a series of interviews, analyzed the available recordings and research notes, and finally prepared a summary and recommendations in the form of a report, which I presented to the product team and the UX guild.
Following the qualitative research, we held another design workshop during which we updated the information on our canvases and defined the final concept of the solution using the Service Blueprint. The use of this tool enabled us to plan the service in detail across multiple layers, starting from the customer’s interaction with the user interface, through supporting systems, to the necessary changes in existing applications supporting the sale of credit products.
/ Develop stage
At this stage, system analysts prepared functional descriptions of the solution and user stories, in the creation of which I actively participated. Preparing detailed user stories helped the entire product team better understand how the solution worked.
To better structure the loan application process with a manual decision, I prepared a series of user flows that served as the basis for the designed views of the solution.
Next, I proceeded to design the final high-fidelity mockups for the cash and consolidation loan processes. I started with the mobile version, following the “mobile first” principle and based on the bank’s established design standards. I used components from three different design systems, as at that time each electronic channel had its own design standard. The solution itself required an appropriate design approach, as I had to embed our verification module as an extension of the existing process. Competitive analysis findings and benchmarks of good market solutions, both from direct competitors and adjacent industries, supported the design process. While creating the solution, I continuously faced limitations of the available design systems used to design this module. Developing the communication content, which was a key element of the solution, also required significant effort. People responsible for plain language were involved in content creation to ensure that the language used was understandable for an average bank customer. The written content covered not only in-process communication, but also SMS and email messages that the customer would receive.
The designed solutions for the manual decision were consulted with the product teams, during which we analyzed the proposals and selected the target variant that could be handed over for user testing. We then planned and conducted usability testing of the solution in both mobile and desktop versions to verify overall usability and gather feedback from potential users. Conducting usability tests after designing each customer-facing functionality was a standard practice in the bank aimed at minimizing the risk of implementing solutions that did not meet user needs.
The usability testing followed a standard process. I started by preparing the research scenario and defining the required participant profile. Then, we recruited participants with the help of an agency, scheduled sessions, and prepared research prototypes in Figma for both desktop and mobile process versions. I conducted the usability tests as a moderator, analyzed the recordings and notes afterward, and finally prepared a presentation report with insights and recommendations, which I presented to the product team.
After usability testing, I applied changes and recommendations to the final mockups and consulted them with the product team to obtain approval for the solution. Not all research findings were implemented. It turned out that the designed solution conflicted with another existing functionality in the process, which resulted in a misunderstanding of both solutions. However, making changes to the existing process was not possible due to a lack of resources and the high complexity of the conflicting functionality.
In short, the issue was an automatic financial situation analysis feature expressed through an additional set of messages embedded in the process, whose descriptions were very similar to the manual credit application analysis. As a result, the potential user encountered a situation where their application required a double financial analysis, which could discourage them from continuing the application.
Next, the designed solution in the form of mockups was consulted with the legal and compliance departments to verify its compliance with Polish law. This was a standard procedure for every customer-facing functionality. Any wording changes resulting from legal consultations were re-edited by the plain language specialists and applied to the final mockups.
/ Deliver stage
At this stage, I handed over the final design in the form of mockups for implementation by developers. My responsibility also included explaining how the designed functionalities should behave and operate, along with indicating the documentation of the used design systems.
After the implementation on test environments, I actively collaborated with testers to identify bugs and ensure that the solution was consistent with the designed mockups.
The next step was planning and defining product metrics for the solution to enable monitoring its impact on loan sales through analytics.
We started working on metrics by defining business goals and hypotheses, which helped us understand what we wanted to measure and why. Then, we described the entire loan sales funnel along with its touchpoints. Next, we defined product and business metrics for the solution, taking into account those already established for the base version of the process.
The prepared metric-related materials were discussed with the analytics team responsible for analytics in the bank. Thanks to well-prepared documentation, we were able to easily create events for our metrics and deploy them to production.
Based on the prepared materials and implemented events, analysts created a visual report in Power BI, where we could observe the solution’s impact on loan sales and actively track the number of applications processed through manual decisions for these credit products.
The final stage of the design process was a business and analytics workshop during which we discussed the required changes in the sales application used by customer advisors. This system allowed viewing credit applications at various stages and enabled advisors to access the current application status along with all customer-provided data. During this meeting, we defined all possible application statuses resulting from the implementation of manual decisions and described them in detail in user stories.
Based on these stories, I designed the required messages and application statuses in the mockups of the application, which was being developed by multiple designers simultaneously, as every designed functionality in a credit product had to be reflected in this system. After creating the views, I consulted them with analysts to confirm compliance with the assumptions. While designing mockups for this application, my choice of components was limited, as extending the existing system was only possible using predefined components.
Due to the high complexity of this application, some parts were designed in the form of live workshop sessions together with analysts, which allowed for a better understanding of the statuses that needed to be designed. The handover of the designed views to developers did not require my involvement, as I used ready-made components that were already implemented.
At the very end, I was involved in creating clickable prototypes of the solution for training purposes for new advisors, as well as preparing functional descriptions of products extended with this solution. Additionally, I prepared training videos with recordings of the cash and consolidation loan processes extended with the new functionality, used for onboarding new advisors in the bank.
/ Summary
The manual decision project within the cash and consolidation loan process was a significant challenge for me, as it engaged me on many fronts while creating a range of different solutions.
It primarily taught me multi-directional work, as at the same time I had to design solutions not only for retail customers, but also for credit analysts and customer advisors.
The involvement of a Service Designer at the early stages of the project allowed me to absorb service design principles and learn how to use dedicated tools. Mapping the customer journey of a loan applicant using the Service Blueprint was a particularly valuable experience, and the skills and knowledge gained in this area could later be applied in future projects.
As with other projects I delivered at Santander, I gained experience working with an interdisciplinary team, actively collaborating with business stakeholders, analysts, developers, and testers.
The solution development process allowed me to design user experiences in line with a Customer-Centered Design approach. I smoothly went through the entire design process according to the standards adopted by the bank.
As is often the case in a designer’s role, I had to compromise and allow the solution to be implemented despite a significant usability issue identified during research. This decision was mainly driven by business pressure, as stakeholders pushed for implementation due to significant project delays.
