Cross-sell marketing offers are banners and tiles on homepage and account page that are personalized to LendingClub members to view and access new loan and banking deals. Statistically, 80% of the company revenues come from the core business customers, personal loans. Among which, 60% of the loan originations come from return customers.
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 conversions.
Year
2023
Role
Lead Product Designer
Company
LendingClub
Timeline
4 months
Team
Product Manager
Marketing Manager
Engineering Manager
Content Designer
Business Operations
Legal
Challenge
There was a decline in the new loan origination volume opened through the offers. On the other hand, the existing cross-sell offers were misaligned with our updated design aesthetic, offering poor user experience.
How might we help members find personalized loans deals more easily therefore improving the overall borrowing experience?
Objectives
• Create a cohesive user experience that aligns with the new design system and brand identity
• Reduce number of customer dissatisfaction with the marketing offers
• Increase click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate of the offers
original screenshots
Hypothesis #1
The offers are not currently available on the native app
Research found that LendingClub members are increasingly using the mobile app to service their loan. The missing design of the marketing offers on mobile app may impact traffic to the offers.
Hypothesis #2
Design of the offers are are cluttered and intrusive to users
From the first glance, the marketing offers have overwhelming amount of text and take up significant space on the homepage
Research
I began by understanding current users' needs and pain points of the cross-sell offers through interviews. I asked 20 LendingClub loan customers questions on what they do to apply for a new loan, if the offers were effective in getting them to click and apply, and their impressions of the offers design in general.
Users weren't 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.
