"Change in context brings changes in the content" - Prof. Anil Gupta
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Lentra
A project done for Lentra, a fin-tech startup based in India during my time working at YUJ, India as a UX Designer
Opportunity
Lentra came to us with the goal of redefining the personal loan space in India. They had a business vision of being the first movers to 'process and disburse personal loans within 120 seconds'. Their business structure works on customizing and deploying these digital journeys for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC's) and Banks.
Project Expectations
Redesign the systems and process to:
1. Make the system efficient by ensuring low decision-making time and faster onboarding
2. Create a user funnel and provide 120-second loans to 80% of the applicants
3. Design customizable wireframes to deploy the solution across a wide range of clients (NBFC's and Banks)
Design Process
1. Analyzing businesses goals through primary stakeholder interviews
2. Enviroscan to map competitors and their value propositions
3. Primary end-user research
4. Personas
5. Design direction
6. Wireframing
Research Insights
With an intent to dig deeper into their business, we interviewed the key stakeholders to redefine the design goals.
A. Business Model
1. Provide customized digital journeys to banks
2. Provide default digital journeys to NBFC's
After 1000 successful loans processes, they would optimize the journeys for their clients
B. Digital Assisted Journeys
Loan applications are currently processed by sales agent using a combination of physical and digital forms requiring multi-fold verifications and consents.
Users: Direct Sales Agents, Field Officers
C. Stakeholder Expectation
To become the 'Dominoes for Personal Loans'
Time for processes:
1. Application: 30 seconds
2. Processing: 30 seconds
3. Dirsbursment: 60 seconds
D. Kind of Users
1. New to Credit (NTC)
2. New to Banks (NTB)- favourites among banks
3. Existing to Banks (ETB)
Users are moving towards self-serve digital journeys in multiple fronts, Lentra self-serve is the future of banking.
Enviroscan/ Competetor Research
With an intent to understand the market, we looked at various popular personal loan providers and platforms.
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NBFC's and Aggregator Platforms
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Banks with digital assisted journeys
Insights:
1. Companies work as brokers to NBFC's or Banks
2. Online application to disbursement is a common practice in 60% of competitors
3. Customers can not get easy personal loans if they have another ongoing loan
4. Personal loan is renamed as a commodity loan in a lot of cases
User Research
With an intent to understand the users and align our design direction with user needs, we interviewed 10 customers of personal loans from various sources belonging to diverse demographics.
Key Insights:
1. A discovery funnel is needed for enticing new users as well as assisting them in making the right decisions
2. Transparency is key for a good overall loan experience to avoid surprises and get repeat customers
3. Collecting enough customer information in the first go can avoid to and fro. Hence, saving time
4. Trust is an important factor to make 60-second loans believable
5. People often have a contact/ a person they can trust in the bank. They tend to go to this bank first.
Design Pillars
1. Loan Awareness
a. Loan comparison table
3. Customer Delight in Experience
a. Digital documentation
b. Updated information across platforms
c. Information verification using a camera
d. Progress validation
e. Automated support system
f. Post disbursement support
2. Being Aspirational
a. Anchors/ incentives to take loans
b. Building interest in uninterested users
4. Building Policy Knowledge
a. Relateable consumption of information
b. Simplified loan terms
Task Flows: Sales Agents (click to zoom)

Proposed Customer Journey and Information Architecture (click to zoom)

Wireframes
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4 Step Personal Loans: Self Serve Journey
Interact with the Figma Prototype
Next Steps
1. The wireframes received positive feedback from the client
2. The wireframes were sent to visual designers for UI refinement
3. Lentra development team was handed off the wireframes to start the development process
4. I had to move to New York soon after and could not see the end application being launched
Reflections and Learnings
1. Understood the working of upcoming fin-tech companies
2. Discovered that there is major potential for growth and innovation in this industry
3. Learnt to make high fidelity wireframes to communicate better with clients
4. It is efficient to communicate design intent through the final solution, design sprints that bring out solutions faster are more practical for such projects and help in refining design through quick and faster feedback
Other Projects: UX Design
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