Statistically at LendingClub, 80% of the company revenues come from the core business customers, personal loans. 50% of the loan originations come from return customers, which can be accessed via the cross-sell marketing offers on the user dashboard.
Therefore, it is imperative for these 5 million users to have an easy and pleasant experience while navigating the offers, which can lead to fewer customer support calls and more conversations.
Year
2023
Role
Lead Product Designer
Company
LendingClub
Timeline
4 months
Team
Product Manager
Marketing Manager
3 Software Engineers
Business Operations
Challenge
The existing cross-sell offers were misaligned with our updated design aesthetic, offering poor user experience, and failing to encompass our broadened suite of products, which now included both loans and deposits accounts. On the other hand, there was slow down in the user conversion through the particular cross-sell funnel.
How might we introduce additional services to LendingClub customers that enhance their overall banking experience while allowing them to perform other tasks easily?
Objectives
• Improve current offers’ usability, reduce intrusiveness
• Create a cohesive user experience that aligns with the new design system and brand identity
• Maintain or increase current business metrics performance, specifically conversion rate on the offers
original screenshots
Research
I began by understanding current users' needs and pain points of the cross-sell offers through interviews. I asked questions on what they do to apply for a new loan, if the offers were effective in getting them to click and apply, the easiness of completing other tasks on the site, and their impressions of the offers design in general.
Users were the biggest fans of the offers. Other than they "get the jobs done", 14/20 users thought they were bulky and intrusive, 9/20 found them lack of integration, and almost 90% of the users mentioned its cluttered appearance.
I also compared how major banks and startup fintech companies designed their marketing offers, summarizing pros/cons to benchmark my solutions against the current market trends.
Two-Phased Design Approach
One of the biggest challenges I encountered during this project was getting the stakeholders' buy-in. For Product and Business, the offers served as a reliable source of repeat loan originations. Changing the design too much at once might impact users' ability to recognize the offers, therefore affecting business metrics negatively.
By initially implementing superficial changes (reskinning) and validating these through A/B testing, the approach minimizes the risks associated with more significant alterations. It helps ensure that the new design resonates with users before more substantial resources are invested. It also helps gradually securing stakeholder buy-in by demonstrating the positive impacts of incremental changes, making it easier to justify more significant, subsequent design investments.
Idea Validation through A/B Testing
During each phase. We decided that for the different testing phases, a 10% increase in clicks qualifies for another round of iteration and redesign. The A/B testing was conducted on real users through Optimizely.
Design Explorations
From the initial success of the first A/B testing, I got the green light to explore more widely in my design, choice of components, and what exactly to display in the offers.
Final Designs
Results
The final design was shipped and received positive business impacts both in the conversion rate and total revenue generated.
5M
40%
6.2B
Conclusion
This was an incredibly rewarding also challenging project when trying to advocate for the best user experience while balancing the business needs. It was an impactful project and taught me a lot about working with cross-functional partners, which required open and transparent communication, leveraging user-centered data to influence and make design decisions, and mitigate risk through staged approach.
Previously crafting the future of banking and leading design ops at LendingClub, I'm currently open to new opportunities.
